Energy for Sustainable Society

AUnit Conversion Factors

A.1 Metric Prefixes

Kilo: 10³, Mega: 10⁶, Giga: 10⁹, Tera: 10¹², Peta: 10¹⁵, Exa: 10¹⁸

Units commonly used in energy statistics and calculations.

Dimension	Standard metric units (SI)	Imperial (IS) and non‐metric units	Common conversion factors
Length
meter (m)	inch (in.)	1 in. = 0.0254 m 1 m = 39.370 in.
feet (ft)	1 ft = 0.3048 m 1 m = 3.280 ft
yard (yd)	1 yd = 0.9144 m 1 m = 1.094 yd
mile (mi)	1 mi = 1609.344 m 1 km = 0.621 mi
Volume
cubic meter (m3)	1 m3 = 1000 l
liter (l)
liter (l)	fluid ounce (fl oz)	1 l = 33.814 fl oz 1 fl oz = 0.0296 l
imperial gallon (gal)	1 l = 0.2199 gal 1 gal = 4.546 l
US gallon (gal)	1 l = 0.2642 gal 1 gal = 3.785 l
barrel (bbl)	1 bbl = 42 gal (US) 1 bbl = 158.97 l
cubic yard (cu yd)	1 m3 = 1.308 cu yd 1 cu yd = 0.765 m3
cubic foot (cu ft)	1 m3 = 35.315 cu ft 1 cu ft = 0.0283 m3
Mass
kilogram (kg)	1 t = 1000 kg
metric ton (t)
pound (lb)	1 kg = 2.205 lb 1 lb = 0.454 kg
short ton (S/T)	1 S/T = 2000 lb 1 S/T = 907.185 kg
long ton (L/T)	1 L/T = 2240 lb 1 L/T = 1016.047 kg
Speed/velocity
meter per second (m s−1)	1 m s−1 = 3.6 km h−1 1 km h−1 = 0.2778 m s−1
kilometer per hour (km h−1)
mile per hour (mph)	1 m s−1 = 2.237 mph 1 mph = 0.447 m s−1
knot (kn)	1 m s−1 = 1.944 kn 1 kn = 0.514 m s−1
Energy/work
Joule (J)	1 J = 1 W s 1 N m = 1 J
Watt second (W s)
Newton meter (N m)
kilowatt hour	kWh = 3600 kJ
British ...