Regarding Stan Jakub's recent email (quoted below), I wrote to the
Energy Information Administration. Here's what I wrote:
I continue to be dismayed at the way energy data in different areas
is all quoted in different units of measure.m Why can't it all be
measured in the same unit? Joules would do; even kilowatt-hours
would do. This quote from the newspaper indicates what is wrong and
what YOUR agency should be able to do about it.:
"Federal energy forecasters caution against comparing electric heat
with fuel oil costs because they are measured in different units -
gallons of heating oil and kilowatt-hours of electricity."
If your forecasters already know that different units make necessary
comparison difficult if not impossible, then why aren't you doing
something about it? YOU can stop reporting data in such a wide
variety of units.
A point I didn't follow in Stan's message was the very end when he
said information in BTU's could be changed to MJ or GJ by just moving
the decimal point. I've got a feeling that something was left out there.
Regards,
Bill Hooper
Here is what Stan Wrote in case you need to refer to it.
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On Jul 17 , at 10:04 AM, Stan Jakuba wrote:
As most of the people on this forum know, the ultimate source of
energy data in the U.S. is the Federal EIA (Energy Info
Administration). Despite decades of barrage of letters from metric
proponents, EIA insists on using not only archaic units, but also
different units for energy in fuel than in electricity (among other
anomalies). Thus it is ironic that this morning daily (The Hartford
Courant) comparing costs of energies felt obliged to print:
"Federal energy forecasters caution against comparing electric heat
with fuel oil costs because they are measured in different units -
gallons of heating oil and kilowatt-hours of electricity."
How ironic that FEDERAL people warn us against THEIR own practice.
Perhaps they are changing their attitude and the barrage should
intensify. Write [EMAIL PROTECTED] The USPS address is at their
website http://www.eia.doe.gov.
Fortunately, the staff writer reacted to the caution and had the
initiative to unify all the data on, not joules, but at least Btus.
Thus it was only a matter of moving the decimal point to get GJ, MJ
etc.
Stan Jakuba
