Horse Power

[gobbledegeek]

Maybe I should have asked this in the Motoring section but what is the difference between 'horse power' and 'brake horse power'?

[mibn2cweus]

Brake horsepower is the full horsepower developed by an engine as measured at the output shaft of the engine itself as apposed to the net power available from a fully outfitted engine configured for a specific application . Some of an engine�s power is diverted to the operation of pumps, generator and other devices essential to the engines operation or lost from drive train inefficiencies in delivering the power to the actual load. In addition some of an engines maximum power potential is often sacrificed by pollution control systems and other considerations.

[R1Geezer]

Further to the above, the traditional term "horse power" was in fact an amount based on an equation. Taking into account things like number of cylinders, compression ratio etc etc. It was Loosely based on some measure of actual "horse" power. Brake Horse Power is a direct force measurement based on the amount of energy required to "brake" the engine, an instrument called a dynomometer measures the amount of power output at the wheels and as such is considered an accurate measure. When the term "horse power" is used these days, it is usually Brake horse power that they are referring to.