watts=btu's ??

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westelectric

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westchester county, NY
How do you convert watts to btu's? I am purchasing 1500watt toe kick heaters and would like to know how many btu's they are. Not sure if the heater would have this info on it or if the supply house would know. Anyway I'd like to know the formula. Thanks
 
westelectric said:
How do you convert watts to btu's?
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You don’t. They are not the same type of unit of measure. It would be like converting “miles per hour” to “inches.” You can, however, convert “watts” to “BTU per hour,” by multiplying watts times 3.41. Thus, 1500 watts is equivalent to 5120 BTU per hour.

Please note, however, that the terms are really used in slightly different contexts. When we say “watts,” we refer to the electrical power delivered to the unit. When an HVAC person says “BTUs per hour,” they are talking about the heat delivered into the room by the unit. There is an efficiency factor to take into account, in the transfer of energy from electrical to heat. For example, with an 80% efficiency factor, a heater that draws 1500 watts from the electrical system might deliver no more than about 4000 BTU’s per hour of heat into the room.
 
westelectric said:
How do you convert watts to btu's? I am purchasing 1500watt toe kick heaters and would like to know how many btu's they are. Not sure if the heater would have this info on it or if the supply house would know. Anyway I'd like to know the formula. Thanks
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They are not directly comparable units so there is no conversion formula.
A Watt is a unit of power.
A BTU is a unit of energy.

Don't know if this helps...
One Watt for one second is one Joule of energy.
One BTU is about 1000 Joules.
 
charlie b said:
That site is wrong, in converting watts to BTU. Their numbers are OK, but the unit of measure should have been "BTU per hour."
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I'll defer to the vastness that is the internet:
In North America, the term "BTU" is used to describe the heat value (energy content) of fuels, and also to describe the power of heating and cooling systems, such as furnaces, stoves, barbecue grills, and air conditioners. When used as a unit of power, BTU 'per hour' (BTU/h, that is, BTU divided by hour) is understood, though this is often confusingly abbreviated to just "BTU".
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_thermal_unit

:)
 
celtic said:
I'll defer to the vastness that is the internet:
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Sorry. But anyone who cites a wikipedia page to me loses all recently acquired Brownie Points. :roll: Find a source that has some hope of being consistently authoritative, and I'll pay attention. :cool:
 
charlie b said:
OK, that's better. You can have your brownies back. :D
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Thank you Sir...
brownie.jpg

may I have another

:grin:
 
weressl said:
In this case WP had been correct.
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Yes, but Wp is not always correct, so how can one know when WP is correct or fabricated?


-= Only The Shadow knows =-
:cool:
​
 
celtic said:
On google of course :)
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Actually, Google has its own calculator and unit converter. You can just type "1000 Watts to BTU/Hr" into the Google search box and get the answer 1000 watts = 3412.14163 BTU / hr.
 
Yes, but:

Yes, but:

Trade jargon is often imprecise. For example, we often say "power" when we mean "energy". However, when converting units we should be exact and not leave anything to chance regardless of what Wiki says.
 
charlie b said:
... There is an efficiency factor to take into account, in the transfer of energy from electrical to heat. For example, with an 80% efficiency factor, a heater that draws 1500 watts from the electrical system might deliver no more than about 4000 BTU’s per hour of heat into the room.
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charlie -
Tell me you were jesting and waiting for someone to call you on this.

My current understanding of physics says there is a 1 to 1 coorespondence - it's sort of hard to get waste heat to be other than 100% wasted :confused: Where else is the energy going to go?

edited to fix wording

cf
 
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Cold Fusion said:
charlie -
Tell me you were jesting and waiting for someone to call you on this.

My current understanding of physics says there is a 1 to 1 coorespondence - it's sort of hard to get waste heat to be other than 100% wasted :confused: Where else is the energy going to go?

edited to fix wording

cf
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I was going to ask the same thing - where did the other 20% go if it didn't get converted into heat?
 
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