Question: what is the formula for calculating the efficiency of a heat engine?
Answer: So, for a boiler that produces 210 kW (or 700,000 BTU/h) output for each 300 kW (or 1,000,000 BTU/h) heat-equivalent input, its thermal efficiency is 210/300 = 0.70, or 70%. This means that 30% of the energy is lost to the environment. An electric resistance heater has a thermal efficiency close to 100%.