10 kW to W — 10 kilowatts in watts

10kW10,000W

Exact 10 × 1,000 = 10,000

10 kilowatts in other units

Watts10,000W
Megawatts0.01MW
Mechanical horsepower13.410221hp
Metric horsepower13.596216PS
BTU per hour34,121.42BTU/h
Foot-pounds per second7,375.62ft·lbf/s

kW to W at a glance

KilowattsWatts
1 kW1,000 W
2 kW2,000 W
3 kW3,000 W
5 kW5,000 W
10 kW10,000 W
20 kW20,000 W
25 kW25,000 W
50 kW50,000 W
100 kW100,000 W
250 kW250,000 W
500 kW500,000 W
1,000 kW1,000,000 W

How to convert kilowatts to watts

Multiply by 1,000 — one kilowatt is 1,000 watts. That factor is exact: it comes from the definition of the units rather than from a measurement, so it will not change and does not need rounding.

Working 10 × 1,000 = 10,000

In words: ten thousand watts.

What these units are

The kilowatt and the watt are covered in the power unit guide, along with every other unit on this page.

Questions

How many watts are in a kilowatt?

One kilowatt is 1,000 watts. This figure is exact — it comes from the definition of the unit, not a measurement.

What is 10 kilowatts in watts?

10 kilowatts is 10,000 watts. The working is 10 × 1,000 = 10,000.

Why does the same car have two different horsepower figures?

Because there are two horsepowers. Metric horsepower, written PS or CV, is 735.49875 W; mechanical horsepower, written hp or bhp, is about 745.7 W. A car sold as 150 PS in Germany is 148 hp in Britain, and nothing about the engine has changed.

Where does 746 watts come from?

From James Watt, who needed to sell steam engines to people who owned horses. He measured a mill horse turning a wheel and settled on 550 foot-pounds per second — a figure most real horses cannot sustain, which made the comparison flattering to his engines.

How do I read an air conditioner's BTU rating?

BTU ratings are BTU per hour, a rate of heat movement, even when the "per hour" is dropped. A 12,000 BTU/h unit shifts about 3.5 kW of heat. That is not what it draws from the wall — a decent unit moves several times more heat than the electricity it consumes.

What is the difference between power and energy?

Power is a rate, energy is an amount. A kilowatt is how fast something uses energy; a kilowatt-hour is how much it used. A 2 kW heater running for three hours has a power of 2 kW throughout and has consumed 6 kWh. Bills are in energy; ratings are in power.

Other power conversions

More conversions