If my heater is 2kw will i be using 2kw electric no matter how hot it is

[pinkfluffo]

Ive just bought an oil-free heater from argos it says its 2kw. Does that mean 2kw electric will be used no matter how high i have it? Or is that the maximum it is? So if i have it turned up only half way does that mean i will only be using 1kw? And what temperature would half way be? Am a little confused at how it works. Our lounge temperature is comfortable at about 23 degrees and the heater has a thermostat so i will set it to that i just dont understand the wattage thing and electric consumption. I also have an electric shower which is 8kw does that mean i would have to have it at the highest possible heat to be using 8kw?
Does anyone understand what im getting at? Thanks.

[ChuckFickens]

when the heater is on it will be always be using 2kw of power.... but if it has a thermostat then once the room is upto temperature the heater wont be on all the time.

Electricity use is measured in kilowatts hour (kWh) so for a simple example if the heater only needs to actually be on for 30min of every hour to maintain room temp then although when it's on it's using 2kW it's overall use is only 1kWh

Does that make sense... it's getting late :)

it's kinda the same for the shower too

[pinkfluffo]

Yeh that does make sense altho im quite bummed i use 8kw when i get in the shower altho im not in there for a whole hour but maybe half hour each time so thats 4kw sheesh i thought i would be saving electricity having colder showers but i may aswell have them burning hot i guess. Thanks.

[ChuckFickens]

Not quite!

to raise the water temp in your shower (or front room) you are going to have to put more electrical energy into the heater somehow, that could be done either by increasing the amount of energy the heater uses or by running it for a larger percentage of time.

Either way more electricity is used and the more it costs you and the environment

[buildersmate]

The measure 'kilowatts' is the power of the device. The energy used up is the power times the amount of time you have used it for. So an 8kW shower used for 15 minutes uses the same amount of electricity (and hence costs the same) as a 4kW one used for 30 minutes. But the amount of hot water coming out of the smaller capacity shower is much less (a half).

[pinkfluffo]

I still think its strange that i could take a shower )electric shower) burning hot or have a heater on full blast and it would use the same electricity as if i had the shower on cold or the heater turned down low. I have electric hot plates on my hob aswell and always turn the heat down a noth when im nearly finished cooking, is this pointless too?