Unit Conversions

Dimensions

• Length

• Flow

• Volume

• Pressure

• Power

Length

• Foot, meter, mile, kilometer, light year– 1 meter = 3.28 feet– So 1 foot is about one third of a meter– 1 mile = 1.6 kilometers

• 1 light year = 5.87849981 × 10^12 miles

• 5,878,499,810,000 miles

Volume

• Gallons, liters, cubic feet

• 1 gallon = 3.78 liters

• 1 cubic ft = 7.48 gallons = 28.3 liters

• Think about it!

Flow

• Gallons per minute (GPM)

• Cubic feet per Second (cfs)

• Liters / second (l/s)

• 1 cfs = 448.8 GPM = 28.3 l/s

• 1 GPM = .0022 cfs = .063 l/s

• If a 5 gallon bucket fills in 6.5 seconds how many gallons per minute is this?

Pressure

• Pounds per square inch or psi, Feet of head

• 1 psi = 2.31 ft

• So if head of 140 ft, then 140/2.31 = 60.6 psi

• How many feet of head can a pipe rated for 100 psi handle?

Temperature

• °F = 9/5 * °C + 32

• °C = (°F – 32) * 5/9

• K = 2273.15 + °C

• How many °F is 0 °C?

Others

• 600 kWh = 1 barrel of oil

Power

• Watts, Kilowatts

• 1 kilowatt = 1000 watts

• The Jacob Wind Turbine on Beech Mountain produces 20,000 watts, how many Kilowatts is this?

• The HV 1200 produces 1200 watts, how many KW is this?

Power

• If the HV1200 makes max power, How much energy can be stored, used to heat water, or used in some way over 1 week’s time?

• What percentage of the average household’s energy use is this amount of energy created by the microhydro system?

Converting Values

• Either apply known conversion• Or do it unit by unit with factoring.• Examples: On Chalk Board