Overview
Consumption of electric energy is measured by W·h (Watt x Hour):^).
- 1 W·h = 3600 joule = 859.8 calorie
- one 100 watt light bulb consumes 876,000 W·h (876 kW·h) of energy in one year.
Electric/Electronics devices consume electric energy to generate desired output(i.e. light, heat, kinetic etc.), while its operation some part of energy are consumed in unintended output. see Electrical efficiency
In 2008, world total of electricity production and consumption was 20261TWh. This number corresponds to a "consumed" power of around 2.3 TW on average. The total energy needed for producing this power is roughly a factor 2 to 3 higher because the efficiency of power plants is roughly 30-50%, see Electricity generation. The generated power is thus in the order of 5 TW. This is approximately a third of the total energy consumption of 15 TW, see World energy consumption.
16816TWh(83%) of electric energy was consumed by final users. The difference of 3464TWh(17%)was consumed in the process of generating power and consumed as transmission loss.
Read more about this topic: Electric Energy Consumption