Quote:
Originally Posted by NachtRitter
dcb,
Ha ha... Wow!
Nevertheless, it seems like in the tiny slice of the world represented by this forum, it should be possible to agree on one of those conversion standards so that the EV comparison in mpg numbers are at least consistent with each other. Either the forum moderators can "dictate" the conversion to be used, or they could put it up for a vote. The way the current fuel log works, using the agreed-upon conversion would be voluntary, or the fuel log could be modified (says the guy in the peanut gallery) to accomodate electric vehicles with a field for KWh consumed instead of gallons (with the conversion to mpg being done in the code). Or even forget about the conversion, and just record and display the miles/KWh (though I definitely agree with Trebuchet that the fuel-based measure of mpg or L/100km is something the vast majority of folks can grasp).
It is in that sense that I meant "simple"; no need to figure out (or fight about) the correct WTW factor that needs to be applied.
I don't think it really matters which conversion is used for BTU in order to determine the KWh equivelant... after all, gasoline, diesel, and ethanol each have significantly different BTU equivelants yet we still use the same mpg measure for each one. Consistency is really more important.
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Gasoline, diesel, and ethanol are heat producing fuels and the comparison can be made fair quite easily. But the difference is small. The whole thing gets important when talking about EVs because electric energy was produced in a heat engine somewhere out of the car. To ignore that gives the EV an advantage of a factor of 2 or 3. Yes, a factor that makes the EV look 100% or 200% better than it is. Not just 10% or 20%.
It is important to make a stink about this since the whole country seems to be getting duped by this confidence game. It gets worse. There are many who are saying the Hummer or Fisker or the Bright van gets 100 MPG where they are simply ignoring the electric energy part. We can not be that easily tricked, can we?
And it is going to end up costing us all huge bucks and derailing any serious effort to reduce CO2.