Have you ever wondered how many BTUs is a 1500 watt heater and is it enough to warm your room? Here I will explain not only how many BTUs of heat provides a space heater of 1500 watt, but also a detailed explanation of what a BTU actually is, how to calculate how much BTUs your room needs, how many BTUs provides your space heater based on its watts, how much power the heater needs to have in order to warm up your room and more.

So, How Many BTUs is a 1500 Watt Heater?

What is actually BTU?

The BTU is a short of “British Thermal Unit” and it is not an international standard unit of measurement. It is used to measure the amount of heat; in fact, 1 BTU is the amount of heat that needs to be spent on 1 pound of water to raise its temperature by one degree Fahrenheit.

The BTU unit is still in use in North America. You will often find this unit in cooling and heating appliances such as space heaters, air conditioners, cooking appliances, heating fuels, gas stoves, propane-powered barbecues and solar hot water panels.

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Calculating BTUs Based on Wattage

If you own a space heater or plan to buy one, it is generally known that the power of the heater is expressed in watts, more precisely how much power the heater consumes to produce a certain amount of heat. According to the maximum power consumption of the heater, we will be able to simply determine how much BTUs of heat it will produce.

Usually, 1 watt is equal to approximately 3.41 BTU per hour. So, we will do this by multiplying the maximum number of watts by 3.41 and the result will be the number of BTUs your heater can deliver. For example, let’s see if your heater has a power consumption of 1500 watts, then what will be the maximum amount of heat that it will deliver into the room. So we multiply 1500 watts by 3.41 and the end result is 5115 BTUs of heating power. This means your 1,500 Watt power heater will produce 5115 BTUs per hour.

Now that you already know how to calculate watts in BTUs, let’s now look at how many BTUs are needed to heat your home or more specifically how many BTUs are needed for just one room.

How Many Watts and BTUs Are Needed to Heat Your Home?

To heat one square foot in your home, the heater needs to consume 10 watts of energy. Now to determine how many BTUs of heat are needed per square foot, we only need to multiply 10 watts by 3.41 and the result will be that 34.1 BTUs of heat for only one square foot in your home.

Now that we know how to determine how many BTUs are needed per square foot, you only need to calculate how many square feet your room is.

Measure the length and width of your room and then multiply them. Now, multiply the result with 34.1 (that is 10 watts multiplied by 3.41) and you will get how many BTUs of heat are needed by the heater for that room.

For example, if the room has 150 square feet, multiply those 150 square feet by 10 watts and you will get 1500 watts. This means you will need a heater with a maximum power of 1500 watts for those 150 square feet. Now, if you multiply those 1500 watts with 3.41 you will get 5115 BTUs which is actually the amount of heat that the heater will need to produce to heat that room of 150 square feet.

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Factors That Affect How Many BTUs Needed to Heat a Room

There are also certain factors that influence the effectiveness of a heater to heat a room for which it is intended.

It will depend on the climate in the place where you live when it is cold, especially in winter, and how your home is built. If your house has well-insulated doors, windows, walls and if the ceilings are not too high and the outside temperature is not too low then you will not need a 1500 Watt heater to heat a 150 square foot room. You can use a heater with a lower heating power of 1000 or 1200 watts.

But if the outside temperature is low and there is too much wind, and if the complete insulation of your house is not good, then for a room of 150 square feet you may need a heater with a power greater than 1500 watts.

Conclusion

As you can see, it is not so difficult to calculate how many BTUs is a 1500 watt heater and vice versa. Now you can even easily determine how much power the heater should have for your entire home or just for one particular room.