what is a BTU?

Answer 1

The British thermal unit (BTU or Btu) is a unit of energy used in the United States. It is also still occasionally encountered in the UK, in the context of older heating and cooling systems. In most other areas, it has been replaced by the SI unit of energy, the joule (J).

A Btu is defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound avoirdupois of water by one degree Fahrenheit. 143 Btu is required to melt a pound of ice. As is the case with the calorie, several different definitions of the Btu exist, which are based on different water temperatures and therefore vary by about 0.5%:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BTU
Check this link to know all about it.

Good luck.

Answer 2

The British thermal unit (BTU or Btu) is a unit of energy used in the United States. It is also still occasionally encountered in the UK, in the context of older heating and cooling systems. In most other areas, it has been replaced by the SI unit of energy, the joule (J).

A Btu is defined as the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound avoirdupois of water by one degree Fahrenheit. 143 Btu is required to melt a pound of ice.


In the United States, the BTU is often used to describe the heat value of fuels, and the BTU per hour (often confusingly abbreviated to BTU) measures the heating and cooling power of a system (such as a barbecue grill).

One BTU is approximately:

1054–1060 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 MM Btu (1 million Btu, sometimes written "mm BTU") = 1.054615 GJ. Conversely, 1 gigajoule is equivalent to 26.8 m3 of natural gas at defined temperature and pressure.

The BTU per hour (BTU/h) is the unit of power most commonly associated with the BTU.

1 watt is approximately 3.4 BTU/h [1]
1000 BTU/h is approximately 293 W
1 horsepower is approximately 2540 BTU/h
12,000 BTU/h is referred to as a ton in most North American air conditioning applications.
A unit called the quad (short for quadrillion) is defined as 1015 BTU, which is about 1.055×1018 joules, and the therm is defined in the United States and European Union as 100,000 BTU –but the U.S. uses the BTU59 °F whilst the EU uses the BTUIT.

The BTU should not be confused with the Board of Trade Unit (B.O.T.U.), which is a much larger quantity of energy.

Answer 3

British Thermal Unit

Answer 4

BTU (British Thermal Unit) - A unit of heat equal to the amount of heat required to raise one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit at one atmosphere pressure; equivalent to 251.997 calories.

B.T.U. - A unit of energy equal to the work done by a power of 1000 watts operating for one hour.

Answer 5

British Thermal Unit. Its a measure of heat.

Answer 6

British thermal Unit (Measurement of Heat)

Answer 7

Its a measurement of heat . British Thermal Unit.

Answer 8

It stands for British Thermal Unit.....it's a measurement for energy

Answer 9

Tim Taylor from Home Improvement explained it to his sons like this when describing the heater. "B", because it's big, "T" for heat because heat ends with "T", and "U" for unit. It's a Big Heat Unit. Of course this is way wrong, but I found it funny.

Answer 10

Butt Tearing University.