Kilowatts to Kilocalories Per Hour (kW to kcal/h)
1 kilowatt equals 860.4206501 kilocalories per hour (rounded).
How to convert kilowatts to kilocalories per hour
To convert kilowatts to kilocalories per hour, multiply the number of kilowatts by 860.4206501. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply kilocalories per hour by 0.001162222222 (rounded).
kilocalories per hour = kilowatts × 860.4206501
Example: 10 kilowatts = 8,604.206501 kilocalories per hour.
Several different horsepower units exist. This site lists mechanical (745.7 W), metric (735.5 W) and electrical (746 W) horsepower separately.
About these units
Kilowatt (kW)
1,000 watts. Used for the power of motors, cars and household appliances.
A kilowatt is simply the watt with the SI prefix kilo, meaning a thousand, attached. The watt was adopted into the SI in 1960 and is small next to machinery, since an incandescent night light uses about 4 W, so the thousand-watt multiple suits engines, electric motors, tools and heaters. For readers used to older units, one kilowatt is roughly 1.34 horsepower.
Small electric heaters with a single element can use about 1 kW, and a domestic electric kettle or microwave oven draws a similar amount. The average household in the United States uses about 1 kW of electric power over time. On a clear midday near the equator, a square meter of Earth's surface receives about 1 kW of sunlight. Do not confuse the kilowatt with the kilowatt-hour on an electricity bill: the first is a rate, the second is the energy used by running one kilowatt for an hour, which equals 3,600,000 watt-seconds.
1 kilowatt = 1,000 watts (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Kilowatt; Wikipedia: Orders of magnitude (power); BIPM: SI prefixes
Kilocalorie Per Hour (kcal/h)
About 1.162 watts, using the thermochemical kilocalorie (the International Table kilocalorie gives 1.163 W).
Heat output and body metabolism were long reckoned in kilocalories, so dividing by hours gave a convenient power unit for stoves, radiators and people. The kilocalorie descends from the calorie that Nicolas Clement introduced in lectures between 1819 and 1824, and the capitalized Calorie for the large unit was proposed by Marcellin Berthelot in 1879 and adopted for nutrition by Wilbur Atwater in 1887.
Which calorie is meant changes the answer. With the thermochemical kilocalorie of 4,184 joules the unit is 4,184 divided by 3,600, about 1.1622 watts, which is the figure used here. With the International Table kilocalorie of 4,186.8 joules it is exactly 1.163 watts, the same number that appears in the definition of the IT calorie as 1.163 milliwatt-hours. Either way, 60 kilocalories per hour is roughly 70 watts.
1 kilocalorie per hour = 1.162222222 watts (approximately).
Sources: Wikipedia: Calorie; NIST SP 811, Appendix B.8
Related conversions
- Kilocalories per hour to kilowatts (reverse)
- Kilowatts to watts
- Kilowatts to horsepower
- Kilowatts to megawatts
- Kilowatts to gigawatts
- Kilowatts to metric horsepower
- Kilowatts to BTU per hour
- Kilowatts to milliwatts
- Kilowatts to electrical horsepower
- Kilowatts to foot-pounds per second
- Kilowatts to tons of refrigeration
- Kilowatts to calories per second
- Kilowatts to ergs per second
- Watts to kilocalories per hour
- Horsepower to kilocalories per hour
See all power units.