Affect Change

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Energy Perspective Part 2

again power perspective...part 2.

It's no secret that we (americans) waste energy. It's all around. From SUV to constantly running the TV, lights, water when we don't need to. So what's the real cost? What does it take to generate the power?

Everyone's had this idea at one time or another. Hanging out in the gym watching all those people pedalling and thinking: "I wonder if you could generate enough electricity to power the lights in the building." Well, I took two servo motors, slapped them on a bike and wired it up (pictures to follow). While the energy varies with performance generally I get about 18 watt-hours for one half hour at a nice pace. 18 freakin watt-hours, that's it! That's enough to light a traditional 60 watt lightbulb for just under 20 minutes. It'll power a compact fluorescent lightbulb for over an hour (I think 60 watt = 15 watt for CFLs). Granted I get a nice work out, however the light I use to illuminate the area uses more energy. I'm really not gaining anything. My point is that you can bust your ass for an hour and maybe get 50 watt-hours. Look at your electric bill and see what fraction this is. Perhaps it might be easier to turn off the light when you leave the room.

Energy Perspective

Or more appropriately power perspective.

1 watt = 1 joule/sec
1 watt-hour = 3600 joules
1 kilowatt-hour = 3.6 joules
1 horsepower = 550 ft*lbsf/sec = 746 watts = 0.746 kilowatts = 746 joules/sec
150 horsepower = 111.9 kilowatts = 111900 joules/sec
1 gallon of gasoline ~ 100000000 joules (http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/Numbers/Math/Mathematical_Thinking/jeep_to_estimate.htm)

So what's with all the unit conversions? Well I wanted to try and provide a basis for comparisons. We get our energy in these units that while are meaningful comparing from event to event ("wow, my electric bill is down 100 KWh this month") but seem kind of abstract when comparing it to the amount of energy it takes to go get a beer from the fridge ("all the way over there!?!") or the chemical energy stored in the beer itself (not to be confused with the energy it took to get the beer in the can and to your fridge).

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Initial Post

This is just a half-ass kick off post while I watch the Sabres in their semi-inept state. My intentions for creating this site is to stimulate discussion and try to educate and provide resources for the progression of sustainability in energy as well as all aspects of life. It is my opinion that education and discussion are two invaluable tools to affect change. I'll try to keep up on this but as a disclaimer I have started projects that tend to get neglected.