What 'units'? Ergs? Joules? Horsepower? Watts? Calories? BTU's? A 'gain' of 10 whatevers is meaningless without some base for comparison............
I was under the impression that when one uses the generic “units”, it meant any unit you wished to use, be it BTU’s, watts, etc.
As long as the in and out unit is the same, the type of unit is irrelevant.
Uh, its a ratio, and therefore unitless. But since one of their prospective marketing targets is to rejuvenate old coal-fired power plants, the ultimate top end has to be kilowatts (or greater). And their research prototype for their 600 degree unit (the one targeted towards the coal plants) puts out 30KW.
Well, technically, gain is a unitless item of measure. It’s Watts/Watts or BTUs/BTUs or whatever/whatever, with the units cancelling. That’s first year chemistry & physics.
But it really would be meaningless if the units were small enough, say microwatts/microwatts. Because the level of noise at that realm is significant. So, yeah, it is sloppy, but it’s also not likely to be microwatts/microwatts, either.
Careful there, you are teetering on the edge of misuse of units. Calories, BTUs, Ergs, & Joules are measures of energy whereas horsepower and watts are measures of energy per unit time which is power either created or consumed. The difference is rather like conflating distance and velocity where both contain a spacial measurement but only one takes time into account.
As long as you are measuring gain as output Vs input and compare energy to energy or power to power the choice of units cancels out leaving "gain" a dimensionless figure of merit, that is gain IS the "base for comparison".
Regards,
GtG
PS Suggested reading assignment "Dimensional Analysis", not nearly as daunting as it might sound. Algebra only needed, no relativity required.