Why The prefix kilo- always means one thousand, so a kilovolt is 1000 volts, just as a kilometer is 1000 meters and a kilohertz is 1000 hertz. To convert kilovolts to volts you multiply by 1000; to go the other way, divide by 1000.
Watch out One one-thousandth of a volt is a millivolt (milli-), and one million volts would be a megavolt (mega-). Watch for the letter case too: lowercase k is kilo, uppercase M is mega.
k = 1000 (kilometer = 1000 m). Small prefixes are milli/micro; big ones are kilo/mega/giga.