therm
/θəːm
/noun
A unit of heat, especially as the former statutory unit of gas supplied in the UK equivalent to 100,000 British thermal units or 1.055 × 108 joules.Luckily, there are plenty of units for energy, so it is probably best to just leave the calorie unit to the food people, and use joules or Kilowatt hours or therms or ergs for energy calculations unrelated to human nutrition....
- At present, natural gas can cost anywhere between 18p and 25p a therm for industrial users while their contract terms are based on 12p a therm for a period of 10 years.
- UK gas prices stood at 12p a therm at the beginning of 2000 but now stand in excess of 55p a therm - and have been as high as 75p recently.
Origin
1920s: from Greek thermē 'heat'.