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As my life long pursuit of teaching people the difference between a Megawatt and Megawatt-hour, I will link to this: http://www.xtremepower.com/about-energy-sto
by amirmansour 14y ago
As my life long pursuit of teaching people the difference between a Megawatt and Megawatt-hour, I will link to this: http://www.xtremepower.com/about-energy-storage/mw-vs-mwh.php http://www.xtremepower.com/about-energy-storage/mw-vs-mwh.ph.... Since this article is going to attract some eyes. DeedOfTheDay++
- andrewcooke 14y agoi'm confused - the terminology in the article seems fine to me. are you implying otherwise (am i mistaken?), or do you just intend to post this every time power is mentioned?!
- amirmansour 14y agoI just intend to post this every time an article has something to do with power and things of that nature. Too many people get them mixed up or simply don't know. Even professionals get MW and MWh mixed up. Electrical engineer here :)
- nasmorn 14y agoI really dont understand why though. It's like mixing up kilometers and kilometers per hour. I couldn't imagine a mental model of these units that would make them interchangeable.
- polshaw 14y agoBecause it is referred to as Rate X Time, whereas most things, like Km/KPH, are referred to as Quantity per Time. (which is more explicit) I'm sure no one would be confused by the difference between joules and joules per second.
- stcredzero 14y agoActually, I'm sure there are people who don't process the 'per' as more than a verbal convention with an abstract meaning, and who are somewhat confused about the entire notion of rate. They're probably pretty rare on HN, however.
- ghshephard 14y agoI work in the smart grid industry, just a lowly network engineer, but in the last 5-7 years, I've rarely, if ever, see anyone confuse kWh/kW. I would presume that for people who care about MWh, that there is even less likelihood of confusion. I think the general populace, the industry, and certainly the professionals in Northern California have become pretty well educated on this topic, mostly as a result of the prevalence here of energy startups, solar panel installations, and needing to understand what that "$0.31/kWh" on their PG&E bill means. Might be different in other places though.
- stcredzero 14y ago> I work in the smart grid industry, just a lowly network engineer, but in the last 5-7 years, I've rarely, if ever, see anyone confuse kWh/kW. I suspect you're not the demographic the commenter was aiming at.
- mistercow 14y agoMy favorite is when people start throwing around units like MWh/day.
- nilsbunger 14y agoThat actually makes sense though, it's how much energy I used in a day!
- mattst88 14y agoWhy don't we just start using the actual unit of Energy (joules) instead of Power times Time, i.e., Energy per Time times Time?