Posted on 12/24/2018 8:49:26 AM PST by Borges
Thought this bears notice.
Heat! Energy!
LOL...love it! Merry Christmas!
Yes! I will raise a ttoast to the new Awoke Jewel. She deserves it.
As an engineer in the electric field
I love to point out that the kilowatt- hour is a nonsensical term
That we should be talking about megajoules instead
W= j/s. Power is watts. Energy delivered is joules. J. =. W -s
Almost everyone is confused by this nonsense. Caused by Watt who had better politicians
Tesla is another who only now is getting well know. By Elon
Watt is better then Joule any day!
By the time of Joules research, coal fired steam engines were in development for over 100 years. Coal had become less expensive with time, as engine improvements added efficiency.
William Jevon noted that this improved efficiency actually resulted in more energy use, not less. Less expense allowed coal to be employed in more frivolous endeavors, such as rail transportation. It posed a paradox!
It’s interesting that Joule was evaluating the recently-invented electric motor against coal power. Remember that, at the time he did this comparison (early 1840s), the concept of a central power station was still 40 years in the future. In other words, Joule was thinking about battery powered electric motors vs coal motive power. The batteries consumed zinc, so his efficiency comparison came down to the consumption of zinc vs consumption of coal.
That was some futuristic thinking!
” He went on to realize that burning a pound of coal in a steam engine was more economical than a costly pound of zinc consumed in an electric battery. “
Bears application to the current debate of the economic value of renewable energy, electric cars versus “fossil fuel” use.
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