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The average US house is not the average house, nor is it representative of normal in the world we live in, which happens to dwarf the US by a factor of roughly
by natch 6y ago
The average US house is not the average house, nor is it representative of normal in the world we live in, which happens to dwarf the US by a factor of roughly 25.
- tyingq 6y agoI don't assume they mean something smaller than a factor of 25 either. 1.2kWh would be substantially less than 40kg.
- kragen 6y agoNo, no, the world is 25 times bigger than the US, by population. So it's ridiculous to equate houses with US houses, especially when reading a British publication.
- tyingq 6y agoThe article uses US dollars quite a lot. That's why I posted US stats, marked as such. I did update it with a UK average as well. Also, FWIW, the North American edition of the Economist accounts for more than half the readers. UK readers are less than 20% of the total.
- natch 6y agoKragen was right, I was talking about the size of the world. The US is not representative of average or normal. Nor is the UK. And UK publications, due perhaps to colonial history, tend to take a more global view so I would not assume their notion of an average house is centered on the UK either.
- tyingq 6y agoNeither is air conditioning representative of the world, or people with a "house" that have $2k to spend on a 40kg lithium battery plus more on the other stuff like inverters, frames, installation. But all are clearly noted in the article as part of the target audience.
- kragen 6y agoThe Economist usually takes a worldwide perspective; that's why this article uses US dollars and French kilograms and meters, because those are the most widely recognized units, even though the article focuses mostly on developments in the US. As for your other comment, that air conditioning and spending US$2000 isn't "representative of the world," I think you will be very surprised if at some point you travel outside the US. The rest of the world does not consist of Elbonian mud farmers as you seem to think. Air conditioning is common throughout the warmer parts of the world; the majority of the world's population has access to air conditioning, though not always at home. The gross world product is about US$17500 per person per year, PPP.
- tyingq 6y ago"I think you will be very surprised if at some point you travel outside the US" I'm not quite sure what prompted you to drag this down to that level. FWIW, I spent several years living in Europe and the Middle East. In homes that weren't air conditioned even. And a fair amount of travel to many other places. "The rest of the world does not consist of Elbonian mud farmers as you seem to think" Wow. You have no reason to go there. Fuck off. Saying that lacking $2k of discretionary money to spend on lithium batteries is "Elbonian mud farmers". Wtf. I've certainly had times I my adult life where I didn't have $2k of discretionary money.
- kragen 6y agoHaha! I didn't realize you were imagining a battery bank as some kind of toy. I was thinking more like an alternative to a gasoline generator, which is not really "discretionary spending".