What do we pay the electric company for?

Question

What do we pay the electric company for—power or energy? In what units?

Answer 1

Colsten,

the electric company doesn't usually care much how fast you draw energy (the power), just how much energy you use in all (usually in kW hr). Sometimes you have different rates for energy usage at different times of day, at different times of the year, or because your house uses it for certain privileged activities.

An exception to this might be if you decided to bypass your electric meter and draw huge currents, potentially melting your local distribution wires. In that case, you would pay for damages (and/or for getting temporary housing, since you might have set your house on fire also).

of course, you could also interpret the question as requiring the answer for units as "dollars" (units you pay IN, rather than units you pay FOR)!