What can you do with a megawatt-hour?

Energy output is commonly talked about in terms of megawatt-hours. We have previously talked about what a megawatt-hour is, but today we want to dive into the practical part: what can you do with one?

What can you do with a megawatt-hour of electricity?

In short, one megawatt hour can…

• Power the average American home for 1.2 months
• Drive an electric vehicle 3,600 miles
• Power two 60-watt lightbulbs non-stop for a year
• Smelt 137 pounds of aluminum
• Toast 89,000 slices of bread
• Run an average home pool pump for 5 months
• Run two modern refrigerators for a year

What can you do with a kilowatt hour of electricity?

Here is the same list for those of you that prefer measuring things in kilowatt hours. For a single kWh of electricity, you can…

• Power the average American home for 50 minutes
• Drive an electric car for 3.6 miles
• Power two 60-watt lightbulbs non-stop for 8.3 hours
• Smelt 2.2 ounces of aluminum
• Toast 89 slices of bread
• Run an average home pool pump for 2.8 hours
• Run a modern refrigerator for 20 hours

So, the next logical question is: how do you create a MWh of electricity? Check out our accompanying article, How much fossil fuel and renewables are needed to generate a megawatt hour of electricity?

Sources

You can see all the sources and the math behind them here. But here are some of the most interesting:

• Wikipedia on the Tesla Model 3 and the Nissan Leaf
• US Energy Information Administration: How much electricity does an American home use?
• The EnergyStar product finder with electricity usage for every device in your life