Jim, I'll follow your suggestion, with a direct appeal to the EIA to add a column in SI Units to every EIA table of energy comparisons.
Gene ________________________________________ From: James [j...@metricmethods.com] Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2014 10:24 AM To: mechtly, eugene a; U.S. Metric Association Subject: Re: [USMA:54417] Fwd: RE: EIA energy conversions As you saw in that forwarded email, Gene, Andrew Curley is not the appropriate person. He said he would pass this along to that person. I suggest that you go in "cold" when you approach the EIA. Look at their website and take it from there. If you go back in the files, you will see that my initial contact was with the EIA webmaster, which is what garnered Andrew Curley's reply. Jim -- James R. Frysinger 632 Stoney Point Mountain Road Doyle TN 38559-3030 (C) 931.212.0267 (H) 931.657.3107 (F) 931.657.3108 On 2014-10-21 10:17, mechtly, eugene a wrote: > Jim (Frysinger), > > I would like to write to the EIA in support of your email of October 16, > > Please send me the address of Curley Andrews or of the "appropriate person" > who is reviewing your request for use of SI by the EIA. > > > Gene Mechtly > > ________________________________________ > From: owner-u...@colostate.edu [owner-u...@colostate.edu] on behalf of James > [j...@metricmethods.com] > Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2014 3:57 PM > To: U.S. Metric Association > Subject: [USMA:54417] Fwd: RE: EIA energy conversions > > Received about 20 minutes ago: > > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: RE: EIA energy conversions > Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 20:38:47 +0000 > From: Andrews, Curley..... > > Dear James R. Frysinger, > > Thank you for your comments concerning energy conversions. I will pass > along your concerns to the appropriate personfor review. > > Please contact us again for energy statistics or data. > ..... > > -----Original Message----- > From: James [mailto:j...@metricmethods.com] > Sent: Friday, October 03, 2014 8:58 PM > To: U.S. Metric Association; Webmaster > Subject: EIA energy conversions > > The EIA has a "wonderful" page to help us poor folks when dealing with > their diverse units. It's called their "Energy Calculator" and it's at > http://www.eia.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=about_energy_conversion_calculator-basics > (Notice, that on their website this is aimed at kids! See the directory > structure above.) > > Several sources of energy are listed, with some conversion factors > provided behind the screen. Just for fun, put 1000000 (that's 1 000 000 > without the spaces) in the Btu column for each source. One finds that a > million British thermal units are equivalent to > 1091.86844 MJ for coal, > 1055.09965 MJ for electricity, > 1058.14634 MJ for natural gas, > 1055.05517 MJ for crude oil, > 1055.05521 MJ for gasoline, > 1055.08688 MJ for diesel fuel & heating oil, and > 1055.10671 MJ for food in "food calories" (kcal, or "Cal"). > One wonders why the values did not come out to be the same in each case! > > Now, I don't believe the EIA actually uses differently sized Btus. I > think that it's just a screwed up government webpage, containing a > gremlin causing round-off errors. Well, I hope so, anyway. > > Interestingly the EIA defines the British thermal unit here and there as > that energy required to heat one pound of water enough to raise its > temperature by one degree Fahrenheit. It does not specify the > temperature at which that occurs, thus suffering the same problem as the > calorie. Depending on the temperature at which that determination is > made, the value of the Btu (and the calorie) will vary due to the > non-constant heat capacity of water with temperature. For example, the > calorie at 15 °C is not the same as the calorie at 20 °C; the same is > true for the Btu. That's why the joule is much to be preferred. The > joule comes in only one size, regardless of temperature, energy source, > nationality, or creed. > > Yes, barrels and gallons of petroleum products and tons of coal will > vary in energy content with the quality and properties of the particular > batch, but energy units should not vary amongst themselves. > > It certainly is too bad that the EIA has chosen to defy Acts of Congress > and Executive Orders by refusing to metricate their pages of information. > > I am including the EIA webmaster on this email and will report any > replies I might receive. Perhaps he or she was not aware of the coding > problem in this webpage. > > Jim > > -- > James R. Frysinger > 632 Stoney Point Mountain Road > Doyle TN 38559-3030 > > (C) 931.212.0267 > (H) 931.657.3107 > (F) 931.657.3108 > > > > > > >
