Power Converters

Power is the rate at which energy is transferred or work is done — energy per unit time. The SI unit is the watt (W), equal to one joule per second. Power spans an enormous range: a human at rest radiates about 80 W; a household kettle draws 2,000 W (2 kW); a wind turbine generates 2–5 MW; a large nuclear power station outputs around 1 GW; and the total global human power consumption is roughly 18 TW. Electrical power uses watts and kilowatts; automotive engineers use horsepower; HVAC engineers rate equipment in BTU/hour or tons of refrigeration; and thermodynamicists use caloric power units. Despite this variety, all are expressions of joules per second.

SI Units

SI Derived Units

British Thermal Unit Based Units

BTU (IT)/second (BTU(IT)/s)

BTU (IT)/minute (BTU(IT)/min)

BTU (IT)/hour (BTU(IT)/h)

Caloric Energy Units

Calories (th)/second (cal(th)/s)

Calories (th)/minute (cal(th)/min)

Calories (th)/hour (cal(th)/h)

Kilocalories (th)/minute (kcal/min)

Kilocalories (th)/hour (kcal/h)

Mechanical Power Units

Foot pounds-force/second (ft·lbf/s)

Foot pounds-force/minute (ft·lbf/min)

Kilogram-force meters/minute (kgf·m/min)

Kilogram-force meters/hour (kgf·m/h)

Horsepower Variants Units

Horsepower (British) (hp)

Horsepower (Electric) (hp)

Horsepower (International) (hp)

Special Units

Ton of refrigeration (TR)

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