Power converter
Convert watts, horsepower, BTU per hour, and related power units.
What this calculator covers
Use this converter when you need to compare rates of energy transfer across electrical, mechanical, and HVAC-style power units.
The walkthrough normalizes everything to watts first so the chosen horsepower or BTU-per-hour convention stays explicit instead of being implied.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between mechanical horsepower and metric horsepower?
- Mechanical (US) horsepower is approximately 745.7 watts and is the standard in most US automotive and industrial contexts. Metric horsepower is approximately 735.5 watts and is commonly used in European vehicle ratings. The difference is small but matters when precision is required.
- How do I convert kilowatts to horsepower?
- Divide the kilowatt value by the watts-per-unit factor for the target horsepower type, divided by 1000. For mechanical horsepower, 1 kW ≈ 1.341 hp. The converter handles this automatically when you select the appropriate units.
- What is BTU per hour used for?
- BTU/h is common in HVAC and heating equipment ratings in the United States. It measures thermal power — the rate at which heat energy is transferred. One BTU/h is approximately 0.293 watts, so HVAC equipment ratings often run into the tens of thousands of BTUs.
- Why are all conversions routed through watts?
- Watts is the SI base unit for power and provides a single shared reference point. Every unit is defined by its watts-equivalent factor, so any conversion between two non-watt units is just two multiplications rather than a dedicated formula for every pair.
Tool
Run the calculation
Result
RESULT · CONVERTED POWER
â„–135
Primary result
7.456999 kW
10 hp (US) converts to 7.456999 kW using watts as the shared base unit.
- Input
- 10 hp (US) (Horsepower (mechanical/US))
- watts value
- 7,456.998716 W
- Converted value
- 7.456999 kW (Kilowatts)
- Exact factor
- 0.745699871582 kW per hp (US)
Step-by-step solution
- 1.Start with 10 hp (US) in Horsepower (mechanical/US).
- 2.Normalize it to watts: 10 x 745.69987158227 = 7,456.998716 W.
- 3.Convert the watts value into Kilowatts: 7,456.998716 / 1,000 = 7.456999 kW.
Walkthrough
Visual walkthrough
power conversions normalize the source value into one shared base unit before expressing that same quantity in the target unit.
01
Read the source power
The calculator starts from 10 hp (US) in Horsepower (mechanical/US).
10 hp (US)
02
Normalize to watts
10 x 745.69987158227 = 7,456.998716 W
Using watts as the common base keeps every supported power on one exact path.
03
Express the result in Kilowatts
7,456.998716 / 1,000 = 7.456999 kW
Re-expressing the base-unit value yields the requested Kilowatts result.
7.456999 kW