BTU = British Thermal Unit. A BTU is the amount of energy required to raise one pound of water one degree fahrenheit. Below are some BTU equivalents of various fuels for comparison:
1 gallon of #2 oil = 140,000 BTU
1 barrel of crude oil = 42 US gallons, 5.80 million BTU
1 gallon of LP gas=91,500 BTU
1 gallon of Kerosene=135,000 BTU
1 cubic foot LP gas = 2,550 BTU
1 cubic foot natural gas = 1,000 BTU
1 KWH electricity= 3,413 BTU
1 therm. natural gas = 100,000 BTU
1,000 BTU = 1 lb of steam
1 ton of coal = 28,000,000 BTU
1 cord of firewood *20,000,000 BTU
1 pound of firewood *8,000 BTU
*Firewood BTU based on air dried wood logs and is a subjective average of common US wood species.
Physical units reflect measures of distances, areas, volumes, heights, weights, mass, force, impulse and energy. Different types of energy are measured by different physical units: barrels or gallons for petroleum; cubic feet for natural gas; tons for coal; kilowatt-hours for electricity. To compare different fuels, we need to convert the measurements to the same units. Some popular units for comparing energy include: Btu, barrels of oil equivalents, metric tons of oil equivalents, metric tons of coal equivalents. In the United States, the British Thermal Unit (Btu), a measure of heat energy, is the most commonly used unit for comparing fuels. Since energy used in different countries comes from different places, the Btu content of fuels varies slightly from country to country. The Btu content provided below and used in the energy calculator reflect the average energy contents for fuels consumed in the United States.
EXAMPLES OF CONVERTING TO BTU
You have a natural gas furnace in your home that used 81,300 cubic feet of natural gas for heating last winter. Your neighbor, with the identical house, has an oil furnace that used 584 gallons of heating oil last winter. To determine which home used more energy for heating, you can convert the natural gas and heating oil consumption figures into Btu, as follows:
Natural Gas: 81,300 cubic feet
(your house) x 1,031 Btu
cubic foot = 83,820,300 Btu
Heating Oil: 584 gallons
(neighbor's house)
x 139,000 Btu gallon = 81,176,000 Btu
In the example above, you used more energy to heat your house!
*Article by Karen Duke, Victorian Fireplace Shop
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