diff --git a/constants.h b/constants.h
index fe881bd..8e34339 100644
--- a/constants.h
+++ b/constants.h
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 /* interval between rebalance attempts in seconds */
 #define SLEEP_INTERVAL 10
 
+#define NSEC_PER_SEC 1e9
+
 /* NUMA topology refresh intervals, in units of SLEEP_INTERVAL */
 #define NUMA_REFRESH_INTERVAL 32
 /* NIC interrupt refresh interval, in units of SLEEP_INTERVAL */
diff --git a/irqbalance.c b/irqbalance.c
index b47db99..ca01719 100644
--- a/irqbalance.c
+++ b/irqbalance.c
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ unsigned long long cycle_count = 0;
 char *pidfile = NULL;
 char *banscript = NULL;
 char *polscript = NULL;
+long HZ;
 
 void sleep_approx(int seconds)
 {
@@ -274,6 +275,12 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
 		log(TO_ALL, LOG_WARNING, "%s\n", note);
 	}
 
+	HZ = sysconf(_SC_CLK_TCK);
+	if (HZ == -1) {
+		log(TO_ALL, LOG_WARNING, "Unable to determin HZ defaulting to 100\n");
+		HZ = 100;
+	}
+
 	action.sa_handler = handler;
 	sigemptyset(&action.sa_mask);
 	action.sa_flags = 0;
diff --git a/irqbalance.h b/irqbalance.h
index 5d4843a..eef8a8a 100644
--- a/irqbalance.h
+++ b/irqbalance.h
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@ extern char *banscript;
 extern char *polscript;
 extern cpumask_t banned_cpus;
 extern cpumask_t unbanned_cpus;
+extern long HZ;
 
 /*
  * Numa node access routines
diff --git a/procinterrupts.c b/procinterrupts.c
index 2ba6f59..242a760 100644
--- a/procinterrupts.c
+++ b/procinterrupts.c
@@ -243,12 +243,12 @@ void parse_proc_stat(void)
 		if (cycle_count) {
 			cpu->load = (irq_load + softirq_load) - (cpu->last_load);
 			/*
-			 * the [soft]irq_load values are in jiffies, which are
-			 * units of 10ms, multiply by 1000 to convert that to
-			 * 1/10 milliseconds.  This give us a better integer
-			 * distribution of load between irqs
+			 * the [soft]irq_load values are in jiffies, with
+			 * HZ jiffies per second.  Convert the load to nanoseconds
+			 * to get a better integer resolution of nanoseconds per
+			 * interrupt.
 			 */
-			cpu->load *= 1000;
+			cpu->load *= NSEC_PER_SEC/HZ;
 		}
 		cpu->last_load = (irq_load + softirq_load);
 	}