Dose rate converter
Convert a radiation dose rate between sieverts per hour, millisieverts per year and the American rem units.
That's about the same as natural background. A whole year in it would be about 0.8766 mSv, against a world average of 2.4.
What it means
How much radiation is that?
Yearly figures assume constant exposure for all 8,766 hours of a year, which is how limits are written but rarely how life works.
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Your dose rate in every unit
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Three things worth knowing
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1 µSv/h = 8.8 mSv per year
There are 8,766 hours in a year, so multiply by roughly 8.8 to turn an hourly reading into a yearly dose.
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Sievert replaced rem
The sievert arrived in 1979, named after Rolf Sievert, who built the first instruments for measuring radiation dose in medicine.
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Rate is not dose
A high reading matters only for as long as you stand in it. A minute at 100 µSv/h is less dose than a day at 1 µSv/h.
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Background
About dose rate
A dose rate is how fast you are accumulating radiation dose. Outdoor background gamma is about 0.1 µSv/h, just under 1 mSv a year; radon and food bring the world average total to about 2.4 mSv. A transatlantic flight runs at about 3 µSv/h.
The US still uses rem: 1 sievert is 100 rem, so 1 µSv/h is 0.1 mrem/h.