Solar power is measured in watts, usually denoted in kilowatts, megawatts, or gigawatts as output increases. Don’t get this confused with wattage hours, which measure energy. A kilowatt entails 1,000 watts while a megawatt entails 1 million watts, as follows.

• 1 kilowatt (kW)= 1,000 watts
• 1 megawatt (MW)= 1,000 kW
• 1 gig watt (GW)= 1,000MW

To help put these numbers into perspective, here are the average electrical requirements of some of the most common household appliances. These numbers represent running wattage requirements, as opposed to starting wattage requirements.

• Toaster: 1,050 watts
• CFL: 5 to 30 watts
• Refrigerator: 700 watts
• Coffee Maker: 1,750 watts
• Electric Clothes Dryer: 5,750 watts
• Color TV: 300 watts

The Solar Guide offers an Energy Use Calculator, in which you can enter the number of appliances that run simultaneously in your home to determine your average wattage requirement.

The average home uses thousands of watts, so most solar power systems will have a capacity that falls in the kilowatt range. Only large commercial or industrial customers require more than 1 MW of power. Large buildings typically consume several megawatts, and solar power plants can generate dozens of MW, though future plants are en route to get this number closer to 100.

Links:

• Average Wattage Requirement Guide
• Energy Use Calculator
• California Energy Data
• The Unites Commonly Applied to Renewable Energy Are Wrong

Posted on March 11th in Going Solar by Renee.