Kilogram-force Meters to British Thermal Units (kgf⋅m to BTU)

1 kilogram-force meter equals 0.009294910763 British thermal units (rounded).

1 kilogram-force meter = 0.009294910763 British thermal units

How to convert kilogram-force meters to British thermal units

To convert kilogram-force meters to British thermal units, multiply the number of kilogram-force meters by 0.009294910763. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply British thermal units by 107.5857559 (rounded).

British thermal units = kilogram-force meters × 0.009294910763

Example: 10 kilogram-force meters = 0.09294910763 British thermal units.

The 'calorie' on food labels is really a kilocalorie. The thermochemical calorie (4.184 J) is used here unless marked IT.

About these units

Kilogram-force Meter (kgf⋅m)

CGS & old metricHistorical unit (no longer in standard use)

Exactly 9.80665 joules, the work of lifting one kilogram by one meter on Earth. Common in older engineering and for torque in Asia.

Kilogram-force meter is the work done when a force of one kilogram-force acts through one meter, a unit of the old gravitational metric system of engineers. Since a kilogram-force is 9.80665 newtons, it equals 9.80665 joules, using the conventional standard gravity adopted in 1901.

Engineers favored it because weights in kilograms could be multiplied directly by heights in meters to give lifting work. The same combination is also used for torque, where NIST lists it against the newton meter with the same factor of 9.80665, and it is sometimes written as kilopond meter.

The kilogram-force was never part of the International System of Units, and the newton replaced it after 1948. Even so, older motor and tool specifications, especially from Asian and European sources, still quote torque in kgf m, and dividing by about ten gives a rough figure in newton meters.

1 kilogram-force meter = 9.80665 joules (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Kilogram-force; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8 conversion factors; Wikipedia: Centimetre-gram-second system of units

British Thermal Unit (BTU)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

The International Table BTU, exactly 1,055.05585262 joules. The energy to heat one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit; used for heating, cooling and gas appliances in the US.

Few energy units come in as many versions as the British thermal unit. It was defined as the heat needed to raise one pound of liquid water by one degree Fahrenheit, but because water's heat capacity shifts slightly with temperature, definitions differ by up to 0.5 percent: about 1,054.35 J for the thermochemical Btu, 1,054.80 J at 59 degrees Fahrenheit (used for American natural gas pricing), 1,054.68 J at 60 degrees (mainly Canadian), and 1,059.67 J at 39 degrees. A 1942 note suggests the term apparently arose in the United States and was later adopted in Britain.

The version on this site is the International Table Btu, about 1,055.06 J, which comes from the international steam table conferences that tied heat units to the joule. Joule's own 1850 experiments gave 772.692 foot-pounds of work per Btu, the number that first linked heat to mechanical effort.

Today the Btu survives in natural gas pricing (MMBtu means a million Btu), US building energy reporting, and equipment ratings in Btu per hour. One ton of air-conditioning is 12,000 Btu/h, or 3.52 kW. A single wooden kitchen match burning releases about one Btu.

1 British thermal unit = 1,055.055853 joules (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: British thermal unit; Wikipedia: James Prescott Joule

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