British thermal unit

Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox unit The British thermal unit (Btu) is a measure of heat, which is a form of energy. It was originally defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. It is also part of the United States customary units.<ref>In a short note, Woledge notes that the actual technical term "British thermal unit" apparently originated in the United States, and was subsequently adopted in Great Britain. See Template:Cite journal</ref> The SI unit for energy is the joule (J); one Btu equals about 1,055 J (varying within the range of 1,054–1,060 J depending on the specific definition of Btu; see below).

While units of heat are often supplanted by energy units in scientific work, they are still used in some fields. For example, in the United States the price of natural gas is quoted in dollars per the amount of natural gas that would give 1 million Btu (1 "MMBtu") of heat energy if burned.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=HenryHub/>

Definitions

A Btu was originally defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of liquid water by one degree Fahrenheit at a constant pressure of one atmospheric unit.<ref name=Smith>Template:Cite book</ref> There are several different definitions of the Btu that differ slightly. This reflects the fact that the temperature change of a mass of water due to the addition of a specific amount of heat (calculated in energy units, usually joules) depends slightly upon the water's initial temperature. As seen in the table below, definitions of the Btu based on different water temperatures vary by up to 0.5%.

Variant	Energy (J)	Notes
Thermochemical	≈1,054.35Template:Efn	Originally, the thermochemical Btu was defined as the heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water from its freezing point to its boiling point, divided by 180 (the temperature change being 180 °F). The basis for its modern definition in terms of SI units is the conceptually similar thermochemical calorie, originally defined as the heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of water from freezing to boiling divided by 100 (the temperature change being 100 °C). The thermochemical calorie is exactly 4.184 J by definition of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).<ref name= Smith/> The thermochemical Btu is calculated by converting from grams to pounds and from Celsius to Fahrenheit.<ref name=convert>The pound is 453.59237 grams by definition; see {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }} One degree Fahrenheit is exactly Template:Sfrac of a degree Celsius by definition.</ref>
Template:Convert	citation	CitationClass=web }} NIST Special Publication 811.</ref>	Used for American natural gas pricing.<ref name=HenryHub>The Btu used in American natural gas pricing is "the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 avoirdupois pound of pure water from Template:Convert at a constant pressure of 14.73 pounds per square inch." See {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Template:Convert	≈1,054.68<ref name=Sørensen> Template:Cite book</ref>	Mainly Canadian.Template:Citation needed
Template:Convert	≈1,059.67<ref name=Sørensen />	Uses the calorie value of water at its maximum density (Template:Convert).Template:Citation needed
IT	≈1,055.06Template:Efn	An early effort to define heat units directly in terms of energy units, and hence to remove the direct association with the properties of water, was made by the International Steam Table Conferences. These conferences originally adopted the simplified definition that 860 "IT" calories corresponded to exactly 1 international watt-hour (not the same as a modern watt-hour). This definition ultimately became the statement that 1 IT calorie is exactly 4.1868 J.<ref name=Smith/><ref name=Koch> Template:Cite book Published under the auspices of the {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} (VDI). </ref> The Btu is then calculated from the calorie as is done for the thermochemical definitions of the Btu and the calorie, as in International standard ISO 31-4 Quantities and units—Part 4: Heat and British Standard BS 350:Part 1:1974 Conversion factors and tables.<ref name=convert/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Prefixes

Units of kBtu are used in building energy use tracking and heating system sizing. Energy Use Index (EUI) represents kBtu per square foot of conditioned floor area. "k" stands for 1,000.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The unit MBtu is used in natural gas and other industries to indicate 1,000 Btu.<ref name="EIA"/><ref name="Price">Template:Cite book</ref> However, there is an ambiguity in that the metric system (SI) uses the prefix "M" to indicate 'Mega-', one million (1,000,000). Even so, "MMBtu" is often used to indicate one million Btu particularly in the oil and gas industry.<ref name="APS">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Energy analysts accustomed to the metric "k" ('kilo-') for 1,000 are more likely to use MBtu to represent one million, especially in documents where M represents one million in other energy or cost units, such as MW, MWh and $.<ref>Cook, Warren C (2018): https://betterbuildingssolutioncenter.energy.gov/sites/default/files/attachments/Home%20Energy%20Score%20Report%20Example.pdf

https://www.oregon.gov/energy/Data-and-Reports/Documents/BER-Chapter-1-Energy-Numbers.pdf</ref>

The unit 'therm' is used to represent 100,000 Btu.<ref name="EIA">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> A decatherm is 10 therms or one million Btu. The unit quad is commonly used to represent one quadrillion (10¹⁵) Btu.<ref name="APS"/>

Conversions

One Btu is approximately:

• Template:Cvt (kilojoules)
• Template:Cvt (watt hours)
• Template:Cvt (calories)
• Template:Cvt (kilocalories)
• 25,031 to 25,160 ft⋅pdl (foot-poundal)
• Template:Cvt (foot-pounds-force)
• 5.40395 (lbf/in²)⋅ft³

A Btu can be approximated as the heat produced by burning a single wooden kitchen match or as the amount of energy it takes to lift a Template:Convert weight Template:Convert.<ref name="RistinenKraushaar2006">Template:Cite book</ref>

For natural gas

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• In natural gas pricing, the Canadian definition is that Template:Val ≡ Template:Val.<ref name=Alberta>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• The energy content (high or low heating value) of a volume of natural gas varies with the composition of the natural gas, which means there is no universal conversion factor for energy to volume. Template:Convert of average natural gas yields ≈ 1,030 Btu (between 1,010 Btu and 1,070 Btu, depending on quality, when burned)
• As a coarse approximation, Template:Convert of natural gas yields ≈ Template:Val ≈ Template:Val.
• For natural gas price conversion Template:Val ≈ 36.9 million Btu and Template:Val ≈ Template:Val

Btu/h

The SI unit of power for heating and cooling systems is the watt. Btu per hour (Btu/h) is sometimes used in North America and the United Kingdom - the latter for air conditioning mainly, though "Btu/h" is sometimes abbreviated to just "Btu".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> MBH—thousands of Btu per hour—is also common.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

• 1 W is approximately Template:Convert<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 1,000 Btu/h is approximately Template:Convert
• 1 hp is approximately Template:Convert

Associated units

• 1 ton of cooling, a common unit in North American refrigeration and air conditioning applications, is Template:Convert. It is the rate of heat transfer needed to freeze Template:Convert of water into ice in 24 hours.
• In the United States and Canada, the R-value that describes the performance of thermal insulation is typically quoted in square foot degree Fahrenheit hours per British thermal unit (ft²⋅°F⋅h/Btu). For one square foot of the insulation, one Btu per hour of heat flows across the insulator for each degree of temperature difference across it.
• 1 therm is defined in the United States as 100,000 Btu using the Template:Not a typo definition. In the EU it was listed in 1979 with the BTU_IT definition and planned to be discarded as a legal unit of trade by 1994.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> United Kingdom regulations were amended to replace therms with joules with effect from 1 January 2000.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Template:As of the therm was still used in natural gas pricing in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• 1 quad (short for quadrillion Btu) is 10¹⁵ Btu, which is about 1 exajoule (Template:Val). Quads are used in the United States for representing the annual energy consumption of large economies: for example, the U.S. economy used 99.75 quads in 2005.<ref>Template:Cite book.</ref> One quad/year is about 33.43 gigawatts.

The Btu should not be confused with the Board of Trade Unit (BTU), an obsolete UK synonym for kilowatt hour (Template:Convert).

The Btu is often used to express the conversion-efficiency of heat into electrical energy in power plants. Figures are quoted in terms of the quantity of heat in Btu required to generate 1 kW⋅h of electrical energy. A typical coal-fired power plant works at Template:Convert, an efficiency of 32–33%.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} Working Document of the NPC Global Oil & Gas Study.</ref>

The centigrade heat unit (CHU) is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of Template:Convert of water by one Celsius degree. It is equal to 1.8 Btu or 1,899 joules.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1974, this unit was "still sometimes used" in the United Kingdom as an alternative to Btu.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Another legacy unit for energy in the metric system is the calorie, which is defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one gram of water by one degree Celsius.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

See also

• Conversion of units
• Latent heat
• Metrication
• Ton of refrigeration

External links

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