Subscribe to The Fermi Project. Answer a weekly question. Get a surprise delivered when you answer correctly.

#9 How many electric power does one Indian family use?

Solution

Let's work from the top - let's use our electricity bill to estimate the total electric energy we use in a month.

A typical monthly electric bill is about Rs 3000.

Or, we use about Rs 3000 / Rs 5 = 600 kilowatt hour each month.

There are 24 hours in a day with 30 days per month -

Or, 700 hours per month

Or, electric power used in a month will be 600 kW / 700 = 0.85 kW.

This means an average Indian household uses an average of 0.85 kW of electric power.