Convert kilowatt to horsepower (metric)

What is a kilowatt?

Watts were introduced in general practice at the end of the XIC century and replaced the horsepower that was utilized for the same purpose. Nowadays, this metric is the basic for the evaluation of mechanical, electrical and thermal power and corresponds to the work of 1 Joule performed during one second.

As modern devices are often large and quite productive, they have a very large amount of power, for which 8-digit and sometimes 10-digit numbers are needed. To make the designations and calculations more convenient, different derived quantities were introduced, for instance, kilowatts (kW).

One kilowatt corresponds to 1000 watts. Numerous devices are labelled with Kilowatts as a more common option. In order to transform the given number into usual watts, one needs just to multiply by 1000.

Hectowatts and terawatts are also utilized to denote large quantities. For the smaller options, microWatt, nanoWatt, picoWatt are used.

What is a horsepower (metric)?

James Watt was the first to introduce the concept of horsepower in 1789. His goal was to prove the fact that it is better to utilize steam engines rather than horses for various tasks. He concluded that one horse spends a huge amount of energy to pull some heavy objects. Thus, the scientist determined that a load weighing 75 kg could be pulled by one horse at a speed of 1 m/sec. That was exactly a metric horsepower.

The conversion of such Horsepowers into watts gives nearly 735. Talking about the power of modern cars, it is most often measured in kilowatts, so 1 horsepower corresponds to 0.74 kW.

The physicist tried to convince the mine management to replace horsepower with steam engines. Therefore, he measured the work performed by horses per working day and then compared it with his invention. It turned out that the second option was much more profitable and could replace several horses at once. Still, a metric horsepower is still common for power evaluation.