6/20 It costs less for a gas dryer to dry one load of clothes than for an
electric dryer, or for a gas heater to heat up a room than for an
electric heater. But does gas dryer/heater actually use less natural
resource than the electric one to get the job done?
\_ depends where you get your electricity from
\_ PG&E for both gas and electricity, in the Bay Area.
\_ I think better question to ask is rather natual gas dryer/heater
is more "efficient" than electronic one. And the answer is "YES."
electricity is typically coming from some sort of hydrocarbon
(in U.S., chances are, it's coming from burning coal). And during
the process of convert hydrocarbon to electricity, you typically
will only get 65-70% efficiency on a good day. So, in that
sense, gas dryer/heater use "less" natural resources to achieve
same effect.
\_ So what's the efficiency of burning gas in a gas dryer? Close
to 100%?
\_ Not coal. That's China. A tremendous amount of US electricity
is coming from nuclear power plants and hydro. Most of the rest
is petro. Coal? Not in the last 50 years in this country. Once
the rest of the world runs out of oil, we can tap the alaskan oil
fields and a few other places and use more nuclear before we have
to touch the coal reserves in a serious way.
\_ 40% of US power still comes from coal. The Mid-Atlantic
states are full of it. 60 Minutes showed mining companies
flattening the hills of Tennessee and Virginia with
nitroglycerin and bulldozers bigger than a Ford Expedition.
\_ Check out :http://www.ucsusa.org/energy/brief.coal.html
it details the amount of crap a coal plant makes. --PM
\_ Someone tell the Los Angeles Dept. of Water & Power that
the billions they've spent building coal-fired power plants
over the last twenty years is a waste of money since you
refuse to admit their existence.
\_ Want to try real numbers instead of making up your own?
Check out http://www.energy.ca.gov/reports/2000-04-14_300-00-004.PDF
Some numbers:
1994: Southwestern US - 74% coal, 26% natural gas
1999: California - 20% coal, 20% hydro, 31% gas,
16% nuclear, 12% "renewable" (solar, wind,
biomass, geothermal, etc.)
\_ My error in being unclear. I did not intend to state that
coal use in this country is zero but simply that it isn't
at the levels of use in less developed countries like China.
I certainly don't refuse to admit the existence of coal
derived power in this country.
\_ in the summer PG&E generates quite a bit of power in its
gas turbine plants around the edges of the bay (those noisy little
blue buildings with the smokestacks). it is more efficient for
you to generate heat by burning gas than for PG&E to turn into
electricity (with loss) so you can turn electricy into heat
(with more loss). |