A Simple Calculation
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INTRODUCTION : Near the bottom of the home page of this site, there is a simple calculation that shows that the heat-generating 'potential' of the 2-billion-plus gasoline-and-diesel-burning internal combustion engines (ICE's) on planet Earth is roughly the equivalent of about 2 billion times 300 horses = 600 BILLION horses. So, in the past 120 years or so (about 1900 to 2020), humans have effectively added about HALF A TRILLION potentially-heat-generating horses to planet Earth --- almost 100 times more 'horse-equivalents' than the 7 billion humans on Earth (100 for every human) --- and about 10,000 times more than the 60 million actual horses in the world. (Luckily, nowhere near all of those 'horse-equivalents' are working 24 hours a day, every day.) That bottom section of the home page also points out that --- in addition to internal combustion engines --- which burn LIQUID petroleum fuels --- generating enormous amounts of heat into the atmosphere --- there are millions of industrial and residential NATURAL-GAS ovens, kilns, furnaces, heaters, smelters, foundries, gas turbines for electricity generation, etc. --- running 24/7 --- or 3/7 --- or 16/5 --- or thereabout. Those millions of furnaces-ovens-kilns-etc are generating (every day) billions of 'hot horse equivalents' of heat by the consumption of the world's natural gas. (By 'hot-horse-equivalent' is meant the heat generated by a hard-working, untiring horse --- all day, every day --- without the horse-poop. In other words, a 'super horse'.) Besides LIQUID-petroleum fuels and Natural GAS, there is a third major category of HEAT-GENERATION --- from SOLID fossil fuel (coal). Fossil fuels can be categorized into THREE major types:
Here is a link to a page on this site which provides a calculation of the approximately 8 BILLION 'hot-super-horse-equivalents' generated by the burning of Petroleum LIQUIDS, all over planet Earth. Here is a link to a page on this site which provides a calculation of the approximately 6 BILLION 'hot-super-horse-equivalents' generated by the burning of Natural GAS, all over planet Earth. Here is a link to a page on this site which provides a calculation of the approximately 10 BILLION 'hot-super-horse-equivalents' generated by the burning of COAL, all over planet Earth.
The intent of this page is to provide a simple arithmetic calculation (using only multiplication and division of a few quantities) to convert the world consumption of COAL (on the order of terawatts --- that is, trillions of watts) to 'Room Space Heater Equivalents' --- where the typical room-space-heater is rated at about 1500 watts (1.5 kilowatts). We can provide a more precise definition of 'hot super horse equivalent' than the rather-vague 'hard-working-horse' description above. A 'hot super horse equivalent' is the heat energy being generated constantly at the same energy generation rate as a horse lifting 550 pounds one foot in each second, every second of every day. This is based on the definition of a unit of 'horsepower'. In other words, a 'hot super horse equivalent' is the constant heat generation from a hard-working 'super horse' that never gets tired and works 24 hours a day, day after day --- lifting a 550 pound weight at a rate of one foot each second. HOWEVER, it still may be difficult to 'grasp' the heat generated by a 'super horse'. So this page is meant to put the heat geneated by the COAL USAGE on Earth into an alternate unit of measure --- namely, 'room-space-heater-equivalents' --- instead of 'super-horse-equivalents'. Note that power is a measure of the amount of energy created or expended per unit of time. Also note that 'watts' are a unit-of-measure of power. And 'kilowatt-hours' are a unit-of-measure of energy --- typically used by electric utility companies. Power-units (watts) multiplied by time-units (hours) gives energy-units (watt-hours). THE CALCULATION : There are several ways that the annual world-wide consumption of COAL could be converted to 'room-space-heater-equivalents' --- using various units of measure and various conversion factors. First of all, we note that the typical POWER rating of a room space heater is about 1500 watts (1.5 kilowatts). You can do a WEB SEARCH on keywords such as 'space heater power rating' to see that 1500 watts is typical. Then we could use the annual world-wide consumption of COAL --- in TONS, say. We could convert those tons into ENERGY units (kilowatt-hours). We could divide those kilowatt-hours by the number of hours in a year to get the POWER (rate of energy consumption & generation) in the coal being used world-wide at any moment in recent time. Then dividing that figure by 1500 watts (the max-power rating of the typical space heater) would give us the world's coal heat-generation rate in 'room-space-heater-equivalents'. Here are details of calculation steps using that method:
The bottom-line : Due to annual world-wide consumption of COAL, humans have added the equivalent of about 10 BILLION heat-generating, 24-hours-a-day, non-tiring, hard-working 'super horses' to the planet --- about 167 times more than the 60 million actual horses in the world. OR --- viewed in different (non-horse) units-of-measure --- due to annual world-wide consumption of COAL, humans have added the equivalent of about 5.3 BILLION room-space-heaters --- running 'full-blast' 24-hours-a-day --- to the planet.
NOTE: So a 'hot super horse' is roughly equal to half a 'room-space-heater'. This 10 billion 'coal-horses' --- or 5.3 billion room-space-heaters --- is in addition to the 7 billion-plus humans --- with their NATURAL-GAS-burning furnaces-ovens-kilns-etc which add another 6 BILLION 'hot-super-horse-equivalents' to planet Earth --- and their machines burning Petroleum LIQUIDS, all over planet Earth, which add another 8 BILLION 'hot-super-horse-equivalents' to planet Earth. Here is a condensation of what was mentioned at the bottom of the home page of this site --- using our world natural-gas-AND-coal-AND-petro-liquids consumption figures, in 'super-horse' units: In the 1600's, the "Father of Microbiology" Antonie van Leeuwenhoek predicted that the Earth could support no more than 13.4 billion people, due to the land-area limitation. BUT ... Leeuwenhoek had not counted on
In other words, humans are facing not only a land-limitation threat to a high-quality existence, but also a heat-generation threat to a high-quality existence. At this time (around the year 2020): About 7.5 billion humans are responsible for about 6 + 10 + 8 = 24 BILLION hot-super-horse-equivalents of heat generation every day on planet Earth --- due to burning natural-gas AND coal AND oil distillates --- about 400 times more horse-equivalents than the 60 million actual horses in the world (which are NOT working-all-day 'super-horses'). Another way of looking at this: Each human has, on average, about
24-billion super-horses / 7.5-billion humans working for them --- 24 hours a day --- every day. CONCLUSION: Humans have some work to do, if they want to stop over-heating their world and avoid wiping themselves out. Note that the neutralizing effect of glaciers-and-snow-and-ice is fast disappearing. When they are gone, the Earth temperatures will REALLY start rising fast.
For further facts on coal heat-generation and atmospheric heating, here are some web searches to try (and to modify).
You could try changing some of these 'keywords' to look for information of interest to you. |
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