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The Btu should not be confused with the Board of Trade Unit (BTU), an obsolete UK synonym for kilowatt hour (1 kW⋅h or 3,412 Btu). 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.
The BTU was originally defined so that the average specific heat capacity of water would be 1 BTU/lb⋅°F. [19] Note the value's similarity to that of the calorie - 4187 J/kg⋅°C ≈ 4184 J/kg⋅°C (~.07%) - as they are essentially measuring the same energy, using water as a basis reference, scaled to their systems' respective lbs and °F ...
In those contexts, the unit of heat capacity is 1 BTU/°R ≈ 1900 J/K. [5] The BTU was in fact defined so that the average heat capacity of one pound of water would be 1 BTU/°F. In this regard, with respect to mass, note conversion of 1 Btu/lb⋅°R ≈ 4,187 J/kg⋅K [6] and the calorie (below).
However, water has a very high volumetric heat capacity, at 4.18 MJ⋅K −1 ⋅m −3, and ammonia is also fairly high: 3.3 MJ⋅K −1 ⋅m −3. For gases at room temperature, the range of volumetric heat capacities per atom (not per molecule) only varies between different gases by a small factor less than two, because every ideal gas has ...
Data in the table above is given for water–steam equilibria at various temperatures over the entire temperature range at which liquid water can exist. Pressure of the equilibrium is given in the second column in kPa. The third column is the heat content of each gram of the liquid phase relative to water at 0 °C.
It is commonly applied to the calculation of heat transfer in heat exchangers, but can be applied equally well to other problems. For the case of a heat exchanger, U {\displaystyle U} can be used to determine the total heat transfer between the two streams in the heat exchanger by the following relationship:
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Another unit common in non-metric regions or sectors is the ton of refrigeration, which describes the amount of water at freezing temperature that can be frozen in 24 hours, equivalent to 3.5 kW or 12,000 BTU/h. [1] [2] [3]