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Green Building Bible, Fourth Edition
Green Building Bible, fourth edition (both books)
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Fundamentals: Killa wot ours?

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    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010 edited
     
    I get all wound up with us not using proper nomenclature for units

    most recently we see power usage expressed as kwh, KwH, KWH etc

    It should be kWh --- small k for thousand (kilo) Watt for Watts and h for hours kWh always please

    there are plenty of other things too you may notice that centimetres do not figure in my vocabulary -- these are not SI units metres or millimetres are though.
    • CommentAuthorneelpeel
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010
     
    Wrong side of bed this morning? :shocked:

    Only, kidding. These things sometimes bug me too.

    Surely though millimetres is in the same boat as centimetres? ...with metre being the SI unit.
    Personally I mix and match for distances, depending which is easiest to visualise. Often use inches and feet as well, even though I'm just a young whippersnapper.

    I'm sure there will be other people that will get hung up on your punctuation. :bigsmile: Not me though.
  3.  
    The french architecture/construction system is built on cm. Though I like use meters, cm and mm as fits the situation, at the end of the day Im obliged put cm on the plans cause its what everyone uses.

    And the French invented the metric system!
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010 edited
     
    I try and stick to the SI units or derived units such as J or Joule. Easy to get muddles though. What I do hate though is the misuse of the term 'average' and that it implies that if the average (one of three) is the same then everything is alright. Think Prof Jones may be feeling the same about this after yesterday.

    Should kWh really be ((kg/m)s)s
  5.  
    What about "tony" with a capital T?
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010 edited
     
    Posted By: neelpeelOften use inches and feet as well, even though I'm just a young whippersnapper
    That's remarkable - my daughters in their 30s have no concept of a inch! or a half-crown! BTW, are we all less English or even British because of that, as was feared, and still is, in new forms and guises?

    kWh is far from being an SI unit, but serves us well. So do e.g. cms, especially to Europeans - tho not to Brits.

    One hp is 750W, so a car lightly cruising at 15hp is producing, and dissipating to atmosphere, 11.25kW. Consider the size of the copper cabling, if it were an electric car - alternatively the high voltage necessary.

    Boiling a 3kW kettle requires 4 x 750W carthorses or 20 x 120W olympic cyclists!
    or a 4ft wide x 12ft diam overshot waterwheel, enough to power a whole early industrial revolution factory!
    • CommentAuthorbrig001
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010 edited
     
    fostertom, wow! I struggle to get my son (16) to work in metric - probably his obsession with 12" speakers for his guitar. He doesn't know what a half crown is though (tiara?). If only 1 hp = 750W http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hp reckons anywhere between 735.499 and 9,809.5W :shocked:
    • CommentAuthorsinnerboy
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010
     
    Well I have to say that when in Ireland we changed over from Ire£'s to €€€'s that one thing did not change

    - still don't have enough of the folding stuff !
    • CommentAuthorRobinB
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010
     
    was just wondering how young someone who uses words like "whippersnapper" could be...:wink:
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010
     
    Was taught that 1HP was 748W
  11.  
    That there is still a large part of the population that insist on working in feet and inches is 1000 times more irritating than not using the right SI nomenclature!

    I blame the yanks...
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010
     
    And they can't even get a gallon right, let alone a metre (meter)
    • CommentAuthormarktime
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010 edited
     
    You guys obviously haven't bought pipe fittings lately. All BSP threads in my Leroy Merlin. I blame the Brits! :bigsmile:
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010
     
    Jim -- the reason i call myself tony (with a small t) is to define myself from all the rest of the Tonys in the world and to realise how unimportant I am too.
  15.  
    I don't believe you...

    J
    • CommentAuthorowlman
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010
     
    Virtually everyone uses BSP for plumbing threads, and pipework. Metric coarse seems non existant. Most cabinet fittings, hinges, handles, etc. are not true metric but are the nearest imperial equivalent. Even though perhaps the majority are made in Germany or Italy. When I lived in Germany I was amused to find the older generation on the markets still asking for "Ein halbes pfund...." and a friend who purchased an archery bow described the pulling power as LIBS it took me ages to figure out the bow was American and the LIBS were pounds,lbs. Ever tried talking to a precision engineer when they get into full flow with 25 thous, here and 17 thous there, AF and whitworth, etc etc. and its not SI they're on about. You're right Marktime we've bug---ed it up for everone. :cool:

    Mike
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010
     
    8 by 4 sheets of ply too

    But interestingly a seat has a standard height of 18inch, this does not translate well to the metric on 0.0441m, just sounds wrong!
  18.  
    All of domestic (at least) construction is still imperial, its just pretending to metric.

    J
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010 edited
     
    I dunno, I always think that the way brick/block dimensions coordinate together so miraculously, since dims went truly metric, are a miracle. Laid flat, on edge, (2x100)+10 equals (3x65)+(2x10) equals 215 (near enough) etc - and the 140 size - all working out on a 75x75 grid - amazing! Didn't work so well in inch sizes. You realise how clunky it used to be when trying to adapt a not-so-old building. Continental systems that try the same trick on a 100 grid don't work so well.
  20.  
    Posted By: fostertom75x75 grid


    3in...
    •  
      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010
     
    Yeah, but it didn't quite work at 3", does superbly since changed to true 75mm.
    • CommentAuthorowlman
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010 edited
     
    Posted By: SteamyTea, But interestingly a seat has a standard height of 18inch, this does not translate well to the metric on 0.0441m, just sounds wrong!

    It is! :confused:
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010
     
    Yes your right, should be 0.441m Give me fractions
    • CommentAuthortony
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010
     
    440mm would do for me
    •  
      CommentAuthorSteamyTea
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010 edited
     
    A comfy chair would do for me, fed up with sitting on the penance spike in the name of 'saving the planet' :shocked:
  26.  
    I get annoyed when people don't know the difference between energy and power. A kWh is a unit of energy!

    I actually read once that a PV system would produced X kWh/h!

    By The way, all units in SI are in lower case unless they refer to someone's name.
    • CommentAuthorseanie
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010
     
    Posted By: SteamyTeaYes your right, should be 0.441m Give me fractions


    Except that 18 inches are 0.457m.

    Approximately.
    • CommentAuthorseanie
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010
     
    And "your" should be "you're"...
  29.  
    18 inches are 0.4572m
    • CommentAuthormarktime
    • CommentTimeMar 2nd 2010
     
    So that's where those two bl**dy microns came from!

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