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Power Converter

Convert power ratings between kilowatts, horsepower, BTU per hour and eleven other units.

Values
Converted
Runs locally in your browser

About the Power Converter

Power is the rate at which energy moves, one joule per second being one watt. Car makers quote it in horsepower or PS, air conditioners in BTU per hour or tons of refrigeration, and electricity meters in kilowatts. This converter puts all of those on the same scale so a specification sheet can be read without hunting for a second reference.

Horsepower is where the care is needed, because three definitions are in common use. Mechanical horsepower, the figure behind American and British engine ratings, is 745.6998715822702 watts. Metric horsepower, written PS or CV and used across most of Europe, is slightly smaller at 735.49875 watts, which is why the same engine looks stronger in a German brochure. Electric horsepower is rounded to a flat 746 watts on motor nameplates. All three are separate entries here.

Cooling equipment brings its own habits. One ton of refrigeration is 12000 BTU per hour, roughly 3.517 kilowatts, and comes from the rate of cooling that melts a short ton of ice in a day. A 24000 BTU/h split unit is therefore a two ton machine drawing about 7 kilowatts of cooling capacity. Multiply a power figure by a duration and you get energy, which the Energy Converter handles.

How to use

  1. Enter the power ratings you want to convert, one per line.
  2. Choose the unit on the nameplate or brochure.
  3. Choose the unit you want to compare against.
  4. Read the converted values and the exact factor printed underneath.

Common questions

How many horsepower is 100 kW?
About 134.1 mechanical horsepower, or 136 metric PS. The two definitions differ by around 1.4 percent.
What is the difference between hp and PS?
Mechanical horsepower is 745.7 watts and metric horsepower is 735.5 watts, so a PS figure is always slightly higher for the same engine.
How many watts is a one ton air conditioner?
About 3517 watts of cooling, equal to 12000 BTU per hour.
Is a kilowatt the same as a kilowatt hour?
No. A kilowatt is a rate and a kilowatt hour is the energy delivered by that rate over one hour.