HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

It actually takes a lot of electricity to refine oil into gasoline. If we need less gasoline, then that's a lot of electricity freed up for general grid use.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BQpX-9OyEr4

Oil companies don't emit a whole lot of CO2.

Not true. Refining crude oil into gasoline or diesel is itself very energy-intensive.

It takes around 4.5kWh to refine each gallon of gasoline from crude. In many cases that energy is supplied by fossil-fuel burning power plants.

Volts for oil: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BQpX-9OyEr4

⬐ edblarney

You proved my point.

4.5 kWh is not a lot of energy.

It's the amount of energy needed to light a 1K lightbulb for 4 hours.

It's a pittance compared to what you burn in you car.

4.5Kw/h won't get you around the block :)

⬐ Reason077

4.5Kw/h won't get you around the block :)

4.5 kWh will take you nearly 20 miles in an electric vehicle. Not far short of what 1 gallon of gasoline will get you.

⬐ zrail

A 1kW lightbulb is rather bright and not used in homes, more so in studios. A better comparison might be 10 100W bulbs or maybe an average chandelier.

⬐ Reason077

Even 100W bulbs are pretty rare now days (illegal in the EU), replaced with LED versions that consume far less energy.

4.5 kWh is really a tremendous amount of energy just to refine a single gallon of gasoline. And it's energy that's completely lost, just converting hydrocarbons from one form into another.

By putting that energy directly into electric vehicles instead, you'd be able to power around half of all the vehicles on the road!

⬐ phlo

I think you may be mistaken about amounts of energy. Typical modern domestic-use light bulb (ccfl) are rated around 20 watts. 100 W was the typical maximum in incandescent light bulbs for domestic use, excluding some very bright halogen bulbs at around 200 W. 1000 W bulbs are mainly used in studio applications (as someone else mentioned) and for stage lighting.

On the subject of getting around the block: A kilogram of gasoline contains some 46 MJ of energy. Gasoline is a bit lighter than water, so one kilo is around 1.3 liters. 46 MJ is equal to, roughly, 13 KWh, so 4.5 KWh are around 300 grams, or around 400 ml. A Manhattan city block is around 80x280 Meters, for a circumference of roughly 720 Meters. An inefficient modern car might use 8 Liters per 100 Kilometers, so 400 ml (or roughly 4.5 KWh) will move an inefficient modern car by around 5 Kilometers.

In other words, it'll get you around the block. Not once, not twice, but slightly less than 7 times.

The extra electricity required is often estimated to be much less then you'd expect.

One reason is that refining crude oil uses electricity. Some people (such as Elon Musk) even claim that the electricity used to refine gasoline is so great, that it roughly equals the amount of electricity that an electric car would require to go the same distance as a gasoline powered car. In other words, no extra electricity is required.

A short video on the topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQpX-9OyEr4