What is BTU in a air conditioner?
In North America, the term “BTU” is used to describe the heat value (energy content) of fuels, and also to describe the power of heating and cooling systems, such as furnaces, stoves, barbecue grills, and air conditioners. When used as a unit of power, BTU per hour (BTU/h) is understood, though this is often confusingly abbreviated to just “BTU”. In the UK and other parts of the world it is written BTU. The unit MBTU was defined as one thousand BTU presumably from the Roman numeral system where “M” stands for one thousand (1,000). Conversions One BTU is approximately: * 1,054—1,060 joules * 252—253 cal (calories, small) * 0.252—0.253 kcal (kilocalories) * 778—782 ft·lbf (foot-pounds-force) Other conversions: * In natural gas, by convention 1 MMBtu (1 million BTU, sometimes written “mmBTU”) = 1.054615 GJ. Conversely, 1 gigajoule is equivalent to 26.8 m³ of natural gas at defined temperature and pressure.
