What is wattage?
The wattage indicates how much power is needed per unit of time to operate LED lighting, for example. This differs per device. The wattage is always indicated on the product. The wattage is indicated by the letter "W". The unit is named after the Scottish engineer James Watt. The wattage can be calculated using a simple formula. The formula is as follows: the number Volt x the number Ampère = the wattage. It shows how much energy your LED lighting consumes.
Watt vs Lumen
In the past, the number of watts was much more important compared to today. The number of watts used to indicate the brightness of lighting. Nowadays, there is another indication for this. That is the number of Lumen. The number of lumens of a lamp indicates how much light it actually radiates. This does not mean that a higher Lumen will actually provide more visibility in the desired location. This is indicated by the number of lux. Watt and Lumen are therefore not comparable in this respect, as there are now bright bulbs with low wattage.
Units of Watt
Since wattage can vary considerably, there are different names for different units. For example, 1000 watts is 1 kilowatt. The units of watts are given in the table below.
| Units of watt | ||
| Factor | Name | Symbol |
| 10−6 | microwatt | μW |
| 10−3 | Milliwatt | mW |
| 1 | watt | W |
| 103 | kilowatt | kW |
| 106 | megawatt | MW |
| 109 | gigawatt | GW |
| 1012 | terawatt | TW |
| 1015 | petawatt | PW |
Wattage in kWh
You have probably come across the abbreviation kWh on your energy bill. It stands for kilowatt hour. One kWh is 1,000 Watts for one hour. The "k" stands for kilo, which means one thousand. The "W" stands for Watt. The "h" stands for hour. Suppose you have a LED work light of 48 Watts, which burns for one hour. This is therefore 48 watt-hours, which corresponds to 0.048 kWh.
