Converting Metric to Emperial R and U values

If you are a green builder in Brooklyn you are often looking to Europe for green building techniques and technologies. And often it is Germany. They are miles ahead of the US in terms of energy efficiency and green building.

The German Green Party has been a strong political party for years. Compare that with the practically non-existent green party in the US. You probably didn’t even know there was one.

This means that Germany has many green techniques already built into the legislature and they are good examples of what direction we should take here in Brooklyn.

Because of this we at Eco Brooklyn are often referring to how they do things. Their Passiv Haus system is a great benchmark for how to build a good green home. For example we are using that benchmark on the Brooklyn Green Show House.

This does mean you have to get into the Metric system since they measure their energy with that metric. Here we use the oddball Imperial system. Yes that is Imperial as in the English Empire. Some things die hard.

So, in case you were dying to do some advanced energy calculations to compare how your brownstone compares to German energy standards here are the formulas.

Have fun!!!

Converting SIU to Imperial Units:

For Thermal Conductivity:

Watts/m*degK x 6.9348 = Btu*inch/hr*ft^2*degF

( *Note: W/m^2*degK reduced from W*m/m^2*degK in above )

for Thermal Conductance:

W/m^2*degK x 0.1761 = Btu/hr*ft^2*degF

for Thermal Resistivity:

m*degK/W x 0.1442 = ft^2*hr*degF/Btu*inch

( Note: the SIU is reduced from m^2*degK/W*m)

for Thermal Resistance:

m^2*degK/W x 5.6786 = ft^2*hr*degF/Btu