It is amazing how much we learn to perceive things through units that become common in our lives. On a cool autumn morning, you look at the thermostat in the United States and from experience you know how to choose the perfect coat for 52 °F. However, if you hear the temperature in Gallargues-le-Montueux, France, reached 46 °C (this past July), you probably have to Google a temperature conversion to change it to Fahrenheit (115 °F) to understand it. When you go to work and drive on a road posted at 35 mph, you know what that speed feels like, but what if you were in Europe and it was posted in kph? Or what if a European tells you the mileage for her car in liters per 100 km, and you struggle to relate that to numbers you know based on miles per gallon. We develop a sense of things based on experience with certain units, and when those are different, you lose your perception of the quantity. Most of us do not have a basic sense of the amount of energy we consume for different activities in our lives. One reason is that we find it difficult to compare things that have different units, even if they describe the same property (such as temperature), and units of energy are particularly challenging! We often make comparisons based on something we can relate to, such as saying how many football fields we could cover or how many Olympic size pools we could fill. It is more difficult to relate energy units within one context, such as energy for our apartment or house, to other things in our life, such as fuel for our car. We need common units to be able to become literate in the amount of energy we consume for different activities in our lives, especially if we are going to substantially reduce our energy consumption. Consider the myriad of energy and power (energy per time) units we experience in our life that can include calories (cal), Calories (Cal, or 1 kcal equal to 1000 cal), watts (W), kilowatt hours (kWh), British thermal units (BTU), horsepower (hp), and megajoules (Mj). For example, the following list includes some energy and power units for a few things in our lives: With all of these different units, it seems impossible to compare energy used for these different activities. For example, is our household energy use of 30 kWh per day, or ∼900 kWh per month, more or less than the energy used for commuting to and from work each day? We could spend an afternoon calculating these and other unit conversions and then trying to make sense of it all, or we could more simply choose a common unit for all of these numbers. For example, if we use kWh for a single day, we have Note that these units are in energy use per day (kWh/d), which has units of power, and a gallon of gasoline is included as a reference point. Some of these units makes sense to compare, but for others, such comparisons are awkward. For example, the 120 hp engine from your car translates to an engine rated at 2160 kWh, but you would not (I hope) operate your car all day at its maximum power. These units of kWh also span different time frames (you do not eat continuously all day), and some units lack a more personal connection, such as food units in kWh. To make comparison of energy units easier, and to express them in terms of something to which we can all relate, I propose a new unit called the daily energy unit, D. One thing that all people in all countries share is needing to eat every day. Therefore, we can define 1 D as the average energy in the food consumed by a healthy, well-fed person each day (2000 Cal = 2000 kcal = 8.4 Mj = 2.3 kWh), which is about the energy needed to power a 100 W lightbulb all day (2.3 kWh/24 h). For the cases described above, with an adjustment on vehicle use, we now can express everything in units of D as Now we have everything in our life expressed in units that will have meaning for our daily activities. Of course these numbers will vary depending on your particular situation. Maybe you need to eat less than the stated average and you consume 0.9 D, or you have been on vacation and eating 1.5 D? Want to lose a pound of fat? You will need to lose 1.75 D (3500 kcal/lb of fat, or 3.9 D/kg). Do not forget that it is easier to gain a D than to lose one! A practical unit for power for a horse is based on the average daily food consumed by a horse (10 D), or 10 times that needed by a human. The D unit comparison shows just how amazing gasoline is in terms of energy storage! A gallon of gas contains 14 D (3.7 D per liter), so using a gallon of gas for your daily commute can consume about as much power as your home for a day. The daily average vehicle energy use in the list above is calculated for all light duty transportation vehicles divided by the number of people in the United States, which indicates ∼1.5 gallons of gas used daily per person. What is a reasonable amount of energy consumption for a person in a modern, industrial world? The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH Zurich) has proposed a 2000 W society, or about 20 D. Currently, each person in Switzerland consumes about 53 D, or approximately half that of a person in the United States. Going solar? While the amount of solar energy you can capture with a standard solar panel varies by location, for a standard 250 W panel you might obtain an average of 0.43 D, which means you need ∼30 panels on your roof just to break even with your home energy use. Have an electric car? You will need 2.3 D (assuming 5.4 kWh for 18 miles) compared to the same commute using a gallon of gas (14 D), or another five or six solar panels for that daily commute. Using the D unit to quantify your energy use can bring a tangible sense of energy use to everything we do on the basis of something we all understand: how much food we need to eat every day. Unlike temperature in Fahrenheit, Celsius, or Kelvin, the one thing we have in common is needing to eat. Starting to use the same units for energy for food, heating, transportation, and everything else in our lives will enable us to appreciate the magnitude of this journey we are undertaking to totally transform our energy infrastructure to be based on solar, wind, and other forms of renewable energy. Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS. This article has not yet been cited by other publications.

中文翻译：

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能源素养始于有意义的单位：每日能源单位D

令人惊讶的是，我们学会了如何通过生活中常见的单元来感知事物。在一个凉爽的秋天早晨，您看一下美国的恒温器，根据经验，您知道如何选择52°F的理想涂层。但是，如果您听到法国Gallargues-le-Montueux的温度达到46°C（今年7月），则可能必须向Google进行温度转换才能将其更改为华氏温度（115°F）才能理解。当您上班并在以35英里/小时的速度行驶的道路上行驶时，您会知道这种速度的感觉，但是如果您在欧洲并且以kph的速度行驶怎么办？或者，如果某个欧洲人告诉您她的汽车行驶里程（以每100公里的升数为单位），而您却很难将其与基于每加仑英里数的已知数字联系起来。我们会根据某些部门的经验来发展事物意识，当这些不同时，您会失去对数量的认识。我们大多数人对生活中各种活动所消耗的能量没有基本的了解。原因之一是，我们很难比较具有不同单位的事物，即使它们描述的是相同的属性（例如温度），并且能量单位也特别具有挑战性！我们经常根据可以关联的内容进行比较，例如说可以覆盖多少个足球场或可以填充多少个奥运规模的游泳池。将一种环境中的能源单位（例如我们公寓或房屋的能源）与我们生活中的其他事物（例如我们的汽车燃料）联系起来更加困难。我们需要共同的单位，以便能够掌握生活中各种活动所消耗的能量，特别是如果我们要大幅减少能源消耗的话。考虑我们生活中经历的无数能量和功率（单位时间能量）单位，包括卡路里（cal），卡路里（cal，或1 kcal等于1000 cal），瓦特（W），千瓦时（kWh），英制热量单位（BTU），马力（hp）和兆焦耳（Mj）。例如，以下列表包括一些我们生活中需要的能源和电力单位：对于所有这些不同的单元，似乎无法比较用于这些不同活动的能量。例如，我们每天使用30千瓦时或每月约900千瓦时的家庭能源消耗量，是每天上下班通勤所使用的能量多还是少？我们可以花一个下午的时间来计算这些和其他单位的转换，然后尝试理解所有这些转换，或者我们可以更简单地为所有这些数字选择一个通用单位。例如，如果我们一天使用kWh，则有请注意，这些单位是每天的能源使用量（kWh / d），具有功率单位，并且包括一加仑汽油作为参考点。这些单位中的一些比较起来很有意义，但对另一些单位而言，这样的比较是尴尬的。例如，您汽车上的120 hp发动机转化为额定2160 kWh的发动机，但您（我希望）不会整天以其最大功率运行汽车。这些kWh单位还跨越不同的时间范围（您不会整天连续吃东西），并且某些单位缺乏更个人的联系，例如以kWh为单位的食物单位。为了使能源单位的比较更加容易，并用我们都可以涉及的某种东西来表达它们，我提出了一个新的单位，称为每日能源单位D。所有国家所有人共享的一件事是每人都要吃东西天。所以，我们可以将1 D定义为一个健康，饮食充足的人每天所消耗食物中的平均能量（2000 Cal = 2000 kcal = 8.4 Mj = 2.3 kWh），这大约是为100 W灯泡供电所需的能量天（2.3千瓦时/ 24小时）。对于上述情况，通过调整车辆使用量，我们现在可以将所有内容以D表示为现在，我们将生活中的一切都以单位表示，这将对我们的日常活动产生意义。当然，这些数字将根据您的具体情况而有所不同。也许您需要吃的食物少于规定的平均水平，并且消耗了0.9 D，或者您正在休假并吃了1.5 D？想减掉一磅脂肪吗？您将需要减少1.75 D（3500 kcal / lb的脂肪，或3.9 D / kg的脂肪）。不要忘记获得D比失去D更容易！马匹的实际功率单位是基于马匹每天消耗的平均食物（10天）或人类所需食物的10倍。D单元的比较显示了在能量存储方面汽油的惊人程度！一加仑汽油包含14 D（每升3.7 D），因此在日常通勤中使用一加仑汽油一天所消耗的电量大约相当于您的房屋。上面列出的每日平均车辆能源使用量是针对所有轻型运输车辆除以美国人数得出的，这表示每人每天使用约1.5加仑汽油。在现代工业世界中，一个人的合理能源消耗量是多少？苏黎世的瑞士联邦技术学院（苏黎世联邦理工学院）提出了2000 W的能量，约20D。目前，瑞士每个人的消耗量约为53 D，约等于美国人的一半。要太阳能吗？虽然标准太阳能电池板可捕获的太阳能量随位置而变化，但对于标准250 W电池板，您可能会获得平均0.43 D的能量，这意味着您的屋顶需要约30个太阳能电池板才能使房屋达到收支平衡。能源消耗。有电动车吗？您将需要2。3 D（假设18英里为5.4 kWh）与使用一加仑汽油（14 D）进行的通勤相比，或者每天通勤使用的五到六个太阳能电池板。使用D单位量化您的能源使用量，可以根据我们都了解的东西为我们所做的每件事带来切实的能源使用感：我们每天需要吃多少食物。与华氏温度，摄氏温度或开尔文温度不同，我们共同的一件事是需要吃饭。开始将相同的单位用于食物，供暖，运输以及生活中的其他一切能源，将使我们能够体会到这次旅程的规模，我们正在努力将我们的能源基础设施完全转变为基于太阳能，风能和其他能源的基础设施。形式的可再生能源。本社论中表达的观点只是作者的观点，不一定是ACS的观点。