Which of the following is the CORRECT calculation to determine equipment heat load resulting from its power (W) consumption?

Question

Options

• AW x 1.414
• BW x 1.732
• CW x 2.235
• DW x 3.412

• A
  7% (3)
• B
  4% (2)
• C
  11% (5)
• D
  78% (35)

Explanation

Option D is correct because 1 watt of electrical power dissipates 3.412 BTU/hr of heat - this is a fixed unit conversion factor. When equipment consumes power, essentially all of it eventually becomes heat in the surrounding space, so multiplying watts by 3.412 gives you the heat load in BTU/hr, the standard unit used in HVAC and cooling capacity calculations.

Why the distractors are wrong:

• A (× 1.414) - 1.414 is √2, which appears in AC power calculations (the ratio of peak to RMS voltage), not a heat conversion.
• B (× 1.732) - 1.732 is √3, used in three-phase power calculations, not a watts-to-heat conversion.
• C (× 2.235) - Not a standard electrical or thermal conversion factor; it may be designed to tempt guesses between the other values.

Memory tip: Think "3.412 BTU per watt" - you can anchor this by remembering that a single watt is a small unit of power, so it takes roughly 3½ of them (in BTU/hr terms) to register as meaningful heat. Alternatively, memorize the inverse: 1 BTU/hr ≈ 0.293 W, and verify that 1 ÷ 0.293 ≈ 3.412.

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