…Africa unwrapped

1.Watts (W): are the yardstick for measuring power.

A one hundred watt light bulb, for example, is rated to consume one hundred watts of power when turned on. If such a light bulb were on for four hours it would consume a total of 400 watt-hours (Wh) of energy. Watts, therefore measure instantaneous power while watt hours measure the total amount of energy consumed over a period of time.
2. a kilowatt (kW): is one thousand watts while A megawatt (MW) is one million watts
3: So how much power do i consume in my house? 
– look at watt ratings on each device that uses electricity in your house ie I have 5 100w bulbs on for 4 hrs daily = 5×100×4×30(days of month) = 60,000 watthours per month or 60 kilowatt hours(kwh) × tarrif charge / hr from your power provider.
while same number of bulbs + same hours used but using 40watt bulbs will be equivalent to 5×40×4×30=24000watts consumed (24 kwh – ie kilo watt hrs). Therefore more brighter or higher rated bulbs means higher consumption in your power bill.
4. Are their devices that consume more power than bulbs at home?
– Yes, heating devices are the biggest users
Elec oven.     from 3000watts
Iron box.          ”      1200watts
Hot plate cooker. ”  1200watts
Water heater.        ”  479watts
Tv.                            ”  213watts

*multiply each by average hours you use in a day to get its consumption % in monthly bills.
eg TV turned on by children at 4pm to. 10pm = 212×6×30 = 38.1kwh/month minimum .

– while ironing for 1hr daily = 1200×1×30 = 36kwh/ month minimum. However your 5 100watt(“bright bulbs”) on for 5 hrs every evening will be 70kwh (almost equivalent to ironing+tv)!!!

Those with ‘spotlights’ for security face some of the highest bills, and this is why

– most spot lights are rated 300-1500watts. Therefore each  300watt spotlight on all night 6pm-6am ie 12hrs will consume 300×12×30 = 108kwh/month/spotlight.

So how do ‘smartphones’ affect my elec bills?
4 (four) people in a home with smartphones charging 2× daily = 4 × 5.45watt hours(1440mAh) × 2 × 30 = 1306kwhrs/month.

*it has been noted that homes with smartphones tend to spend much less time on computers,  tv entertainment and computer games thereby significantly reducing electric bills that would have accumulated from their 6-12 hour use of these gadgets entertaining themselves!

When gaming & internet are turned off on smartphones their charge tends to last 5-7days which would mean a decrease in charged bill by at least a factor of 10 ie for the family of four from 1306 kwh/month to 130.6kwh’s/month

Text & Images
©Muoki Kioko 2009-2015
email: muokikioko@gmail.com
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