Liter-atmospheres to Kilowatt-hours (L⋅atm to kWh)

1 liter-atmosphere equals 0.00002814583333 kilowatt-hours (rounded).

1 liter-atmosphere = 0.00002814583333 kilowatt-hours

How to convert liter-atmospheres to kilowatt-hours

To convert liter-atmospheres to kilowatt-hours, multiply the number of liter-atmospheres by 0.00002814583333. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply kilowatt-hours by 35,529.2376 (rounded).

kilowatt-hours = liter-atmospheres × 0.00002814583333

Example: 10 liter-atmospheres = 0.0002814583333 kilowatt-hours.

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

About these units

Liter-atmosphere (L⋅atm)

ScientificTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

Exactly 101.325 joules, the work of expanding a gas by one liter against one standard atmosphere.

Pressure times volume has the dimensions of energy, which is why gas chemists found it convenient to multiply a pressure in atmospheres by a volume in litres. One litre-atmosphere is 1 atm acting over 1 L, and the figure used here is 101.325 J. The arithmetic is simple: the standard atmosphere is 101,325 Pa, and a litre is 0.001 cubic metre, so the product is 101.325 pascal-cubic-metres, which is joules.

The atmosphere in this definition goes back to the barometer, being first set by a 760 mm column of mercury at 0 degrees Celsius. The tenth General Conference on Weights and Measures in 1954 fixed it as exactly 1,013,250 dynes per square centimetre, with no dependence on any substance. In 1982 IUPAC moved its reference pressure for substance data to 100 kPa. Expressed in thermochemical calories, one litre-atmosphere is about 24.2 cal.

1 liter-atmosphere = 101.325 joules (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Conversion of units of energy; Wikipedia: Atmosphere (unit); Wikipedia: Calorie

Kilowatt-hour (kWh)

Metric (SI)Current unit

3.6 million joules, the energy used by a 1,000-watt appliance in an hour. The billing unit for household electricity.

Before it was a line on every power bill, the kilowatt-hour had a British nickname: the Board of Trade unit, abbreviated B.T.U. after the government body that regulated the electricity industry until 1942, when the Ministry of Power took over. In India it is still often called simply a unit, and a million of them, written MU, is a gigawatt-hour.

A kilowatt-hour is the energy of a 1 kW device running for an hour, which is 3.6 MJ, or about 3,412 British thermal units. A 100 W television watched for 10 hours uses one, and boiling a liter of water in an electric kettle takes about 0.1. In 2020 the average US household used 893 kWh a month, an average continuous draw of about 1.22 kW.

Utilities multiply the kilowatt-hours consumed by a price per kWh, and larger customers may also pay for peak demand. One common error is writing kW/h, which would mean kilowatts per hour, a rate of change of power, not energy.

1 kilowatt-hour = 3,600,000 joules (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Kilowatt-hour; Wikipedia: British thermal unit; Wikipedia: Watt-hour

Related conversions

See all energy units.