Air conditioning
is a highly complex subject, and it is difficult for a layman to decode all its
terminologies. For a person looking to buy an air conditioner, knowing the technical
specifications of an air conditioning unit is necessary that is that affects
him or her for long in every aspect of air conditioning like cooling
performance, energy consumption, durability, and others.
Among various
technical terms associated with air conditioning, BTU is the most commonly used
term these days. What does it mean? What is its role in selecting an air
conditioner? If you have such questions in mind, this post is meant for you. Here
you will get to know about the term ‘BTU’ and how it would help you in choosing
the right AC for your home or office.
What is BTU?
BTU stands for British
thermal unit which shows the amount of energy that is consumed by an air
conditioner to eliminate the heat from the enclosed area in an hour. Though it
may seem out of this world to you as of now, it plays a crucial role when you
to buy an air conditioner. Given your room size and the outdoor environment,
you can choose an air conditioner with a specific BTU.
If you don’t pay
attention to the BTU of the air conditioner you are likely to get disappointed
later as your air conditioner won’t be able to cool down your room properly. In
the further part of this post, we will delve deeper into this topic.
Why BTU
matters so much?
BTU is commonly
used by people to calculate the amount of heat that is required to change the
temperature of one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. A wide range of
home appliances, such as air conditioners, heat pumps, furnaces, and cooking
appliances, are based on this measurement unit.
BTU is also
considered a unit of measurement of how efficient an air conditioner is. By
using a combination of fans and coils, air conditioners transfer heated
interior air to the outdoor environment and replace it with cooler air. Put
simply, BTU gives people an estimated amount of energy required to operate an
air conditioner.
In most cases,
BTU is represented as a figure in the thousands. For example, you find air
conditioner ranging from 10,000 BTU to 24,000 BTU, and more.
Changing
British Thermal Units Into Kilowatts
To convert BTU
into Kilowatt, you need to multiply the BTUs by the number of kilowatt-hours in
one BTU. It showcases the amount of energy an air conditioner needs to run. It
is very easy for a person to determine how much energy an air conditioner would
require measuring its kilowatt-hour consumption. One BTU can have 0.000293
kilowatt hours.
For example, 10,000
BTU air conditioner, the BTU to kilowatts conversion would be:
10,000 BTU x
0.000293 = 2.93 kW
One kilowatt is
equal to 1,000 watts. To convert BTU into watts, just the number of kilowatts
by 1,000. Given this example, 10,000 BTU would refer to 2,930 watts.
You can go a few extra miles and use this formula to determine your energy costs. You can start by determining the number of kilowatts an air conditioner consumes every day. For if you buy a 24000 BTU Inverter split AC you can refer to the following calculation.
2.93 kW x 5
hours = 14.65 kWh (kilowatt hours) per day
14.65kWh x 30
days = 439.5 kWh a month
Now, multiply
these kilowatt hours by your local electricity price per unit. For example, if
it is 3 Rs. Per unit, you the total energy costs would be:
439.5 kWh x Rs.
3 = 1318.5 Rs. a month
The
Conclusion
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