kWh, MWh, GWh

Your electricity bill always shows consumption in kWh (kilowatt-hours). Rough comparisons:

Apartment (single person, district heating): 1 500–2 500 kWh/yr

Terraced house (family, district heating): 3 000–5 000 kWh/yr

Detached house (district heating): 5 000–8 000 kWh/yr

Detached house (electric heating): 15 000–25 000 kWh/yr

EV driver: add 2 000–4 000 kWh/yr depending on mileage.

Larger units: MWh is used in business bills and regional consumption reports (e.g. Finland's daily winter total ~200 GWh). GWh is used in regional and national production figures (Finland's annual production ~85 TWh, i.e. 85 000 GWh).

How to convert between units?

The conversion chain is a simple 1 000 multiplication: 1 kWh = 0.001 MWh = 0.000001 GWh = 0.000000001 TWh.

Example: Finland's electricity consumption in 2024 was about 82 TWh. That is 82,000,000,000 kWh — i.e. 82 billion kilowatt-hours. Divided by 5.6 million residents, average consumption is 14,643 kWh per person per year (including industry and services, not only households).

kWh vs kW — what's the difference?

kW (kilowatt) = power, how much electricity a device uses at an instant. kWh (kilowatt-hour) = energy, how much is used over time.

E.g. a 1 500 W tumble dryer uses in an hour: 1 500 W × 1 h = 1 500 Wh = 1.5 kWh. If the spot price at that moment is 8 c/kWh, one dryer hour costs 1.5 × 8 / 100 = 0.12 €.

Your bill is always kWh-based — power (kW) appears only in the fuse rating (e.g. 3 × 25 A ≈ 17 kW) and larger appliances.

Appliance consumption examples

Typical draws (always on):

Fridge: 150–300 kWh/yr

Tumble dryer per load: 1–2 kWh

Washing machine per load: 0.5–1 kWh

Dishwasher per load: 0.7–1.5 kWh

10-minute shower: ~2 kWh (electric water heating)

Sauna 1 h: 5–10 kWh

EV per 100 km: 15–25 kWh

TV 4 h: 0.3–0.8 kWh

Use the consumption calculator to estimate your usage more precisely.