Power Converter

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   What’s great about our Power Converter

   Fast, accurate conversion of power ratings that you can see and drag

   • Free
   • Converts watts, kilowatts and horsepower instantly
   • Synced sliders and type-in boxes
   • No sign-up
   • No ads
   • Works offline once loaded
   • No daily limit
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   Choose which units to show

   Use the unit names at the top to show or hide each card. Drag a name or a card’s title to rearrange them; your order is remembered in this browser, and Restore puts the original order back.

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   Drag a slider or type a value

   Move any slider, or type a number into its “Type Value” box, and every visible unit updates instantly. The sliders are logarithmic, so each step along a slider multiplies the value, and one slider covers very small to very large amounts.

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   Widen the range

   Turn on “Wider Range” to widen every slider’s range to cover more extreme values.

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What is Power?

Power is how fast energy is used or produced: energy per unit of time. Light bulbs and heaters are rated in watts, large plants in kilowatts and megawatts, and engines in horsepower. This converter shows the same power in each unit.

About Watts (W)

The watt is the SI unit of power, equal to one joule of energy per second. It is how light bulbs, appliances and engines are rated.

• 1 W = 1 J/s, and 1,000 W = 1 kW
• A phone charger uses roughly 5 to 20 W
• Named after the Scottish engineer James Watt

About Kilowatts (kW)

A kilowatt is 1,000 watts, used for larger appliances, electric motors and home energy systems.

• 1 kW is about 1.341 hp
• A kilowatt used for one hour is a kilowatt-hour (kWh), the unit on electricity bills
• A kettle is typically 2 to 3 kW

About Horsepower (hp)

Mechanical horsepower, used in the US and UK, equals about 745.7 watts. James Watt introduced the unit to compare steam engines with draught horses.

• 1 hp is about 0.7457 kW
• Metric horsepower (PS) is slightly smaller, at 735.5 W
• Car and motorcycle engines are rated in horsepower