Is a mega watt a mega watt hour?

Answer:
No. You can thnk of a megawatt hour as the number of megawatts that have been used in one hour.

A megawatt is a measure of power. A megawatt is 1,000,000 watts or 106 watts. A Watt is the same as a Joule/second.

A megawatt hour is a measure of energy. One megawatt hour is (106 watts)*(3600 seconds) or 3.6 * 109 watt seconds. Since a watt is a joule/second a megawatt hour is also 3.6 * 109 joules with the joule being the SI unit for energy.

Comment


You cannot 'use' watts or megawatts. A watt is simply the rate at which you 'use' energy. So, the first sentence of the above answer should read: "You can think of a megawatt hour as the amount of energy used in one hour at the rate of one megawatt'.
First answer by Pablisimo. Last edit by Awaygood. Contributor trust: 66 [recommend contributor recommended]. Question popularity: 1 [recommend question].