Units of energy


As energy is defined via work, the SI unit of energy is the same as the unit of work - the joule, named in honor of James Prescott Joule and his experiments on the mechanical equivalent of heat. In slightly more fundamental terms, is equal to 1 newton metre and, in terms of SI base units
An energy unit that is used in atomic physics, particle physics and high energy physics is the electronvolt. One eV is equivalent to 1 E-19 J|.
In spectroscopy the unit cm−1 = is used to represent energy since energy is inversely proportional to wavelength from the equation.
In discussions of energy production and consumption, the units barrel of oil equivalent and ton of oil equivalent are often used. Cubic mile of oil is sometimes used as a unit of energy in discussions of global scale energy

British imperial / US customary units

The British imperial units and U.S. customary units for both energy and work include the foot-pound force, the British thermal unit which has various values in the region of 1055 J, the horsepower-hour, and the gasoline gallon equivalent.

Electricity

An energy unit used for electrical power, particularly for utility bills, is the kilowatt-hour ; one kilowatt-hour is equivalent to. Electricity usage is often given in units of kilowatt-hours per year or other time period. This is actually a measurement of average power consumption, meaning the average rate at which energy is transferred. One kilowatt-hour per year is about 0.11 watts.

Natural gas

Natural gas is often sold in units of energy content or by volume. Common units for selling by energy content are joules or therms. One therm is equal to about. Common units for selling by volume are cubic metre or cubic feet. Natural gas in the US is sold in therms or 100 cubic feet. In Australia, natural gas is sold in cubic metres. One cubic metre contains about 38 megajoules. In the most of the world, natural gas is sold in gigajoules.

Food industry

The calorie is defined as the amount of thermal energy necessary to raise the temperature of one gram of water by 1 Celsius degree, from a temperature of, at a pressure of. For thermochemistry a calorie of is used, but other calories have also been defined, such as the International Steam Table calorie of. In many regions, food energy is measured in large calories or kilocalories equalling, sometimes written capitalized as. In the European Union, food energy labeling in joule is mandatory, often with calories as supplementary information.

Atom physics and chemistry

In physics and chemistry, it is still common to measure energy on the atomic scale in the non-SI, but convenient, units electronvolts. The Hartree is commonly used in calculations. Historically Rydberg units have been used.

Spectroscopy

In spectroscopy and related fields it is common to measure energy levels in units of reciprocal centimetres. These units are strictly speaking not energy units but units proportional to energies, with being the proportionality constant.

Explosions

A gram of TNT releases upon explosion. To define the tonne of TNT, this was standardized to giving a value of for the tonne of TNT.