Amp hours to Watt hours

If you’re planning to install a solar system as a home power backup, it is helpful to understand the basics of electricity and generating power. This means familiarizing yourself with terms such as volts, watts, watt-hours, and amps. 

When it comes to understanding the intricacies of solar power systems and solar batteries, the relationship between watt-hours and amp-hours often raises questions. In this article, we will go into the concept of watt-hours to amp-hours conversion, and we will also shed light on their significance and how they relate to one another.

Defining watt-hours and amp-hours

Understanding Watt-hours

Remember that watts are used to measure power, and a watt-hour (Wh) is a measure of electrical energy used to compute the power consumption of one watt for an hour. When setting up a solar system, calculating how many watts your household uses in a day allows you to determine the types of solar batteries that you will need, as well as the number of solar panels that you require.

If you have an LED TV that has a rating of 50W, it means that it will consume 50Wh if you operate it for an hour. If you have two TVs with the same rating and you turn them on for an hour, these two devices will use a total of 100Wh.

Here is the equation to compute for watt-hour: 

Wh = Watts x Hours

If you want to compute how much power your 120W refrigerator uses in a day, you can calculate by multiplying 120W by 24 hours which equals 2,880W. 

In terms of battery, watt-hours represent the energy capacity of a battery over time. You can calculate watt-hours by using this formula: Wh=VxAh.

Nature’s Generator Powerhouse Lithium Power Pod, for example, is a 48-volt solar battery with a capacity of 100 amp-hours, following the equation above, this tells you that the Power Pod can deliver a total energy of 4,800 watt-hours (48V x 100Ah = 4,800Wh).

Understanding Amp-hours

Ampere hours, often abbreviated as amp-hours or Ah, measure the electrical current that flows through a conductor over a one-hour period. Calculating for amp-hours will help you determine the number of amperes that an appliance draws if you use it for an hour.

Take note that amp or ampere is the rate of the current moving through a circuit. It is important to identify the amps to calculate the amp hours. 

For example, if you purchase a solar generator with a 100Ah solar battery, it means that it can expel 100 amps of energy over a period of one hour. This also means that using the same battery for 30 minutes, the battery can supply 200A over that 30-minute period. In short, Ah tells you how much power a solar battery can expend for a certain time period. 

What is the difference between amp-hour and watt-hour? 

To put it simply, watt-hours is a measurement of energy or power over time, while amp-hours is a measurement of charge or power over a time period.

Converting amp-hours to watt-hours (Ah to Wh) 

To convert amp-hours to watt-hours, you need to determine the voltage of the solar battery since the equation for watt-hours (as mentioned earlier) is multiplying volts to amp-hours. (Wh=VxAh).

To determine how many amp-hours a solar system can conduct, you can refer to this formula:  Amp-hours (Ah)= Watt-hours (Wh)/Volts (V).

For example, if you know that your solar battery has a capacity of 4800Wh and a voltage of 48 volts, you can convert it into amp-hours: 4800Wh/48V=100Ah.

Using amp-hours and watt-hours to set up your solar system

Understanding the relationship between watt-hours and amp-hours is important when choosing solar batteries for your specific requirements. For instance, if you want to determine the solar battery capacity needed for your tiny house, you should consider the average power consumption of your appliances in watt-hours. To estimate your required amp-hour capacity, you need to divide the total watt-hours of your commonly used devices by the battery's voltage.

In addition, being aware of how much energy your devices draw is vital for optimizing battery usage and ensuring compatibility. Most electronic devices have labels on them that specify their power consumption in watts, allowing you to estimate the runtime by dividing your solar battery's watt-hours by the device's power draw.

Ready to Switch to Solar Power?

Deciding to harness the power of the sun and use solar energy, either as a steady source of power for your whole house or as backup, is one of the wisest choices you can make. Choosing to go solar and utilizing renewable energy is a great way to start living a greener lifestyle.

As you may already know, there are a number of advantages of investing in solar energy, including lower energy costs, independence from the country’s aging electric grid, contribution to curbing climate change, increased home value (by 4.1%), and taking advantage of the solar tax incentive (for installing solar photovoltaic systems for your your home), which was recently increased to 30%. 

With all the benefits of using solar energy, it’s already a no-brainer why you should use it. However, it’s a different story if you are a beginner and you really want to know how your system can generate the required power for your home. And we hope that our simple guide gave you a better understanding of amp-hours and watt-hours and their significance in using your solar system.

Solar System for Your Home

If you want to make your life easier and build a solar system that will deliver your energy needs, look no further. You can browse our solar generators where there are systems available to serve as your home power backup or as the main power source for your whole house. 

The great thing about Nature’s Generator systems is that they are designed to be expandable, meaning you can add Power Pods, solar panels, and wind turbines to fit your needs. Our customers enjoy free lifetime support, so should you decide to upgrade your Powerhouse Eco-system at any time, you can always reach out for knowledgeable advice. 

If you want to know more about Nature’s Generator, our friendly support team will guide you and help you find the best upgrade for your solar system.