Megawatt-Hours to Megacalories Converter

What Is a Megawatt-Hour?

A megawatt-hour is a measure of electrical energy equal to one megawatt, or 1,000,000 watts, of power over a one hour period. Megawatt-hours are a measure of electrical work performed over a period of time, and are often used as a way of measuring energy usage by electric companies.

Megawatt-hours are usually abbreviated as MWh, although the formally adopted expression is MW·h. The abbreviation MW h is also sometimes used. For example, 1 megawatt-hour can be written as 1 MWh, 1 MW·h, or 1 MW h.

In formal expressions, the centered dot (·) or space is used to separate units used to indicate multiplication in an expression and to avoid conflicting prefixes being misinterpreted as a unit symbol.^[1]

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What Is a Megacalorie?

One megacalorie is equal to 1,000,000 calories, which is the heat needed to raise the temperature of one gram of water from 14.5 to 15.5 degrees Celsius. One megacalorie is equal to 4.184 megajoules.

Megacalories can be abbreviated as Mcal; for example, 1 megacalorie can be written as 1 Mcal.

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