Question

using your kitchen faucet, how many btus are you using in one minute, based on your gpm flow rate, to heat water from 50'f to 130'f?

Answer 1

To calculate the BTUs used to heat water from 50°F to 130°F at a certain flow rate, multiply the flow rate in pounds per minute by the temperature increase of 80°F. An example calculation for a 1 GPM faucet results in 667.2 BTUs per minute.

Step-by-step explanation:

To calculate the amount of British Thermal Units (BTUs) used to heat water in your kitchen faucet from 50°F to 130°F, we need to apply the formula for energy transfer in heating water. This formula depends on the flow rate of your faucet (given in gallons per minute or GPM) and the specific heat capacity of water. The specific heat of water is approximately 1 Btu/lb°F, meaning it takes 1 Btu to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water by 1°F.

To do the calculation:

1. Determine the flow rate of your faucet in pounds per minute. Since water weighs approximately 8.34 lbs/gallon, you would multiply the GPM by 8.34 to get the flow rate in pounds/minute.
2. Multiply the flow rate by the temperature increase, which is 130°F - 50°F = 80°F.
3. The resulting number will be the BTUs per minute used to heat the water.

Here is an example calculation:

If the faucet has a flow rate of 1 GPM, the water flow rate is 1 GPM × 8.34 lbs/gallon = 8.34 pounds/minute. The energy required to heat this amount of water by 80°F is 8.34 lbs/minute × 80°F = 667.2 BTUs per minute.