Just a small clarification,

The chiller is rated at

1.7kW thermal while consuming

1kW electrical

That's about 1/2 tonne of AC. Insane ...

(and before anyone complains, yes, thermal pumps can have greater than 100% "efficiency" - that is: heat transported per energy spent)

What's 1k7W?

Shorthand for 1.7kW or 1,700 Watts. The shorthand is common in some fields, I've mostly seen it in electronics where you might have 4k7 to represent 4.7 kOhm or 4,700 Ohms.

This is a new one to this old dog. 2k18 is 2018. 1k7 looks to me like 1007. Much shorter to use 1.7kW which most know how to parse to 1.7 x 10³ Watts.

I can vouch for the fact that 1k7=1700 is a common convention. It comes from the face that . can be hard to read sometimes. You often also see something like an “0R5” resistor which is 500 milliohms.

More common in EE contexts than anywhere else.

Sorry to break the news, but 2k18 is 2180. You're a few years off.

It's not. "2k" is pronounced "two thousand". "2k18" is "two thousand eighteen".

For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHL_2K

You, but in the case where the shorthand is required, the suffix (W in this case) is also dropped, or at least has been every time I've seen or used it.

Never saw that once in EE.

It's a fairly common notation on printed circuit board resistors where a dot could get lost. Better readability. They usually drop the suffix though, not sure if it's common for non-resistance items to use, but I got what he was trying to say.

A similar shorthand exists for calendar years - e.g. "2k8" means "2008".

which is clearly different to 2k8 meaning 2800. (or 1k7 meaning either 1700 or 1007...)

It's mainly common in EE schematics because 1k7W doesn't have any weird characters like '.' that may not parse correctly in CAD software.

1,700w CPU cooler