4 ms·
Like the author says, Megawatt is a measurement of energy wasted per second. If we take his claim that 10 MW is being wasted, then the energy wasted at 10 MJs⁻
by solox3 13y ago
Like the author says, Megawatt is a measurement of energy wasted per second.
If we take his claim that 10 MW is being wasted, then the energy wasted at 10 MJs⁻¹ over a year is the energy of 5 small atomic bombs.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=10MW+times+a+year http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=10MW+times+a+year
- kryten 13y agoLots more energy is lost during power conversion than this. Scary numbers though even if they are ballpark figures.
- caf 13y agoI don't think "5 small atomic bombs per year" is a particularly relatable example. It's about the average electricity consumption of 7500 US homes - that seems more concrete to me. If you can save the equivalent of switching off 7500 homes by fixing a bug in your software, that's a pretty big impact for one person to make.
- 6d0debc071 13y agoConsidering the amount of energy we use, it's barely a drop in the ocean.
- pepve 13y agoA drop with a radius of 5.7 km... http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=10MW+times+a+year+divided+by+143.851+PWh+times+1.3+billion+cubic+kilometres http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=10MW+times+a+year+divid...
- 6d0debc071 13y agoI'm not sure whether you're agreeing with me or not, and in a way that's why people shouldn't just use large numbers and then act like they've said something meaningful. Ratios matter, large numbers without a relevant basis for comparison on the other hand are just misleading. There are roughly 116 million households in the US, saving the energy of 7,500 is not a big change. You're solving roughly 1 - 15,466 th of the problem. And that's assuming that all the savings could even be applied to the US, which they most certainly couldn't. That's not a big impact. Chances are no-one - even if they were looking - could notice the figurative needle move on a change that small at all the power-stations serving the aggregated demand.
- caf 13y agoThat's true, but it's also a lot larger than the impact any one individual's actions usually have.