Latent heat is the energy required to change the state of matter. It depends on what you're using, and also what you are changing state from and to, so that Latent heat of melting is different usually from latent heat of evaporation. Units are Joules per kilogram. Note that there is no temperature dependence so in an ideal experiment all the energy is going into changing the state and not changing the temperature at all. SO you might start with water at 100 degrees Celsius and finish with gas at 100 degrees -- that process took energy.
Examples: if the latent heart of vaporisation of water is 2260 kiloJoules per kilogram then you need 2260*5 = 11300 kiloJoules to completely evaporate 5 kilograms of water.