Hi
Im a little embarrassed to ask but
I was trying to find out the power rating in the owners manual of my Vectra, and just out of interest for comparison the Haynes manual for my previous Astra G.
However all the figures are quoted in KW (Kilowatts??) in both guides and I cant find anything anywhere that tells me the BHP
With fear of sounding stupid, what actually is the definition of KW and how does it compare to BHP ? is there a conversion possible, and why are we now not measuring power in the traditional BHP?
Many Thanks
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kW is the actual power, measured in thousands of watts.
BHP was a marketing term that originated with steam engines, showing pit owners and the like how many horses they could replace.
I believe that 140 bhp is about 103 kW, or 103,000 watts.
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Thanks for the info
In the owners manual for the Vectra my 1.8 4 Pot is quoted at 103Kw, so this would be equivlent to 140bhp
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsepower
well worth a read - if only to demonstrate the early use of marketing speak to sell the 'latest' technology.
It also puts into perspective the work rate for a fit human being.
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Most modern cars (especially German) actually use PS (Pferdestärke) instead of bhp - the German equivalent. But they are not exactly the same. So a VAG car might be say 150PS (about 147bhp). But officially they need to use kilowatt now.
Sorry to complicate things even further.
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Okay,
1 KW i.e. 1 Kilowatt = 1000 watts.
Theres 748 watts in a horsepower.
Just divide the kilowatts by 0.748 and hey presto, you have horses!
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Thanks everyone thats anwsered my Question
So
Astra 1.6 8v 62Kw (62 divide 0.748) = 82.8 (83) Bhp
Vectra 1.8 16v 103kw (103 divide 0.748) = 137.7 (138) Bhp
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The abbreviation for kilowatt is kW.
746W = 1 BHP.
735W = 1 PS.
659.
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For electricity
Watt = Volt * Ampere
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Only when the voltage and current are in phase. Otherwise, the watts in the circuit is given by voltage x current x cos(relative phase angle).
Luckily, with an engine the across and through variables (speed and torque) are always "in phase" - unless you have very severe mechanical problems...
659.
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