Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🏎️ Engine power unit 🔥 Boiler power unit
BHP

BHP

1 9.5
A measure of power used for steam boilers in the past
  • symbol
  • Archaic
: caballos de fuerza
  • Engineers used BHP to compare the power of different steam boilers.

Examples

  • Can you calculate the BHP for this boiler?

  • The old factory's steam generator was rated at 100 BHP.

  • The technical manual listed the maximum BHP for safe operation.

  • The steam engine produced 150 BHP.

  • The old factory's steam generator was rated at 100 BHP.

  • Engineers used BHP to compare the power of different steam boilers.

  • The technical manual listed the maximum BHP for safe operation.

Synonyms

horsepower
vsBHP
  • Specialized
54 3.7

A unit that measures engine power, equal to 746 watts

is an older unit used specifically for measuring steam boiler output
HP
vsBHP
  • Specialized
12 3.4

A unit for measuring engine or motor power equal to 746 watts

is older and specific to steam boilers rather than general engines
H.P.
vsBHP
  • Specialized
1 3.9

A measure of engine power used to show how strong a motor is

is a historical boiler measure not the modern engine unit

Surface Forms

BHP main

Morphology

BHP = boiler + horsepower (opaque) = B + H + P

The letters 'B', 'H', 'P' are an initialism; learners cannot derive the meaning from the letters alone and must know the expansion 'boiler horsepower'.

Etymology

BHP stands for boiler horsepower, and it uses the simple idea of horsepower — comparing machine power to the work of a horse. So BHP was a way to say how much power a steam boiler had, like how many 'horses' it could replace.