It is often debated by environmental groups, the power industry, and people who
ID: 1717193 • Letter: I
Question
It is often debated by environmental groups, the power industry, and people who pay the bills whether it makes more sense to use electric heat or gas heat. Determine: The typical unit that natural gas is sold in, and what the local price is (if you don't pay a gas bill, look up the price on Northwest Natural's website). Convert this unit to SI units, and indicate the cost per SI units. The typical unit of energy electricity is sold in, and what the local price is (if you don't pay for electricity, look up the price on Portland General Electric's website). Convert this unit to SI units, and indicate the cost per SI unit. Is it more cost effective to heat your house or apartment with natural gas or electricity? Why or why not? Assume no energy loss and that all energy becomes heat. Explain what factors you considered. Which energy source is more environmentally friendly? State what you think in a few sentences, and explain your reasoning.Explanation / Answer
a. Natural Gas is usually measured by volume and is stated in cubic feet. A cubic foot of gas is the amount of gas needed to fill a volume of one cubic foot under set conditions of pressure and temperature.To measure larger amounts of natural gas, a "therm" is used to denote 100 cubic feet, and "mcf" is used to denote 1,000 cubic feet.To provide greater accuracy in comparing fuels, energy content is measured in terms of "British Thermal Units (BTU's)." A BTU is the amount of heat required to raise one pound of water (approximately a pint), one degree Farenheit at or close to its point of maximum density. The energy content of natural gas differs in various locations thoughout the country. For the sake of comparison, one average cubic foot of natural gas about 1,000 BTU's of heat energy.The chart below shows how much heat energy is released in various quantities of natural gas.
UNIT OF MEASURE
APPROX. HEAT ENERGY
1 cubic foot= 1,000 BTU's
100 cubic feet (1 therm) = 100,000 BTU's
1,000 cubic feet (1 mcf) = 1,000,000 BTU's
The average heat content of natural gas for the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors was about 1,028 Btu per cf; one Ccf = 102,800 Btu or 1.028 therms; one Mcf = 1.028 MMBtu or 10.28 therms.
Natural gas in the US is sold in Therms or 100 cubic feet. One Therm is equal to about 105.5 megajoules. In the rest of the world, natural gas is sold in gigajoules.the cost of gas is re. 137.38 per mbtu.
b. The energy unit used for everyday electricity, particularly for utility bills, is the kilowatt-hour (kWh); one kWh is equivalent to 3.6×106 J (3600 kJ or 3.6 MJ). Electricity usage is often given in units of kilowatt-hours per year (kWh/yr). This is actually a measurement of average power consumption, i.e., the average rate at which energy is transferred.
C. Natural gas is the most popular and now the cheapest, as well. A decade ago, gas cost about 80 percent of an equivalent amount of oil; it now costs less than half of oil, as oil prices have risen and America’s boom in natural gas drilling has kept gas prices low. Nearly half of all homes use natural gas as their primary heating source. Some analysts forecast a huge supply of the fuel will be available for decades to come. Not everyone believes the supply is so large that natural gas will continue to be a low-cost fuel. The trends of the past decade, however, are encouraging: In inflation-adjusted terms, natural gas prices are roughly the same as they were in 2003-04, even before adjusting for inflation.
d.
All renewable energy sources are environmentally friendly energy sources but as I always say a perfect energy source does not exist, and this rule also applies to renewable energy sources. From the environmental point of view renewable energy sources are far more acceptable than fossil fuels, mostly because they do not emit greenhouse gases like burning of fossil fuels does, but this does not make them a perfect solution to protect our environment, they are more like the best available energy option we currently have
Renewable energy sources can also have negative environmental impact in certain area, the major difference in this point between fossil fuels and renewable energy sources is the fact that fossil fuel burning always has negative environmental impact, while on the other hand using renewable energy sources "can" have negative environmental impact.
Wind energy has been over the last couple of years the most popular renewable energy source but despite its popularity this renewable energy source has also been the subject of some rather interesting environmental debates, for instance are large wind turbines really killing thousands of birds with their fast rotating huge blades and do large wind turbines really create significant noise pollution.
Solar energy is renewable energy source that has probably received the least critics from environmentalists but even the abundant solar energy isn't the perfect environmental solution. The environmental drawbacks of solar energy include the fact that large solar power plants use large quantities of water for cooling purposes which could lead to water shortages, and they also need huge area which could shrink habitats of animals in nearby area.
Geothermal energy is in most cases extremely environmentally friendly energy source but if for instance drilling isn't done with proper care, it can lead to release of many harmful gases which could cause significant environmental damage.
Tidal and wave power projects can also have negative impact on environment by for instance disturbing or disrupting marine ecosystems by noise and/or visual pollution.
As you can clearly see from above even the renewable energy sources aren't perfect from the environmental point of view, but are currently the best energy option at our disposal, especially if we accept the fact that ongoing climate change phenomenon is the greatest environmental problem of all time.
The only real chance in fight against climate change is the strong development of renewable energy sector, because this would mean less need for fossil fuels, and less fossil fuel burning would mean less greenhouse gas emissions, most notably CO2 emissions.
The share of renewable energy in global energy supply is increasing year after year but even despite this positive trend world will still continue to heavily depend on fossil fuels in years to come, meaning that the condition of our environment will likely further deteriorate and climate change impact will continue to strengthen.
Renewable energy needs time to become competitive in terms of costs and efficiency with fossil fuels, and this will certainly take some time. I'm just hoping that by the time this happens our environment, most notably our climate, won't past the point of no return.
CONDITION SLAB LOW SLAB HIGH RATE IN Rs Consumption less than 50 Units 1 50 1.45 Consumption between 51 & 100 Units 1 50 1.45 51 100 2.6 Consumption between 101 & 200 Units 1 50 2.6 51 100 2.6 101 150 3.6 151 200 3.6 Consumption more than 200 Units 1 50 2.6 51 100 3.25 101 150 4.88 151 200 5.63 201 250 6.7 251 300 7.22 301 400 7.75 401 500 8.27 501 ABOVE 8.8Related Questions
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