Lance Armstrong vs Austin Electric Utility Power Plant

[Dude]

I was at the shopping mall today, and saw in the Oakley store window a poster with some figures
concerning Lance's power output. I first heard these figures quoted by Chris Carmichael on OLN
during the 2001 Tour.

On the poster: "Over the 20 stages of the Tour, Lance produces 97,175,983 total Watts of power,
That's enough power to light his hometown of Austin, Texas for 2 hours and 18 minutes, or the entire
state of California for just over 3 seconds."

These boasts are way, way off. One of Austin's power plants, the Holly Street Unit can produce
628,000,000 watts of power. Lance's average Tour output was 340 watts, that is 0.000054% of the
Holly Street Power Plant. How long would it take Lance to generate energy equal to the power
plant's output for 2 hours and 18 minutes? 484 years or 49,398 times longer than the 86 hours of
the 2001 Tour.

 

[Tom Schulenburg]

"dude" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I was at the shopping mall today, and saw in the Oakley store window a poster with some figures
> concerning Lance's power output. I first heard these figures quoted by Chris Carmichael on OLN
> during the 2001 Tour.
>
> On the poster: "Over the 20 stages of the Tour, Lance produces 97,175,983 total Watts of power,
> That's enough power to light his hometown of Austin, Texas for 2 hours and 18 minutes, or the
> entire state of California for just over 3 seconds."
>
> These boasts are way, way off. One of Austin's power plants, the Holly Street Unit can produce
> 628,000,000 watts of power. Lance's average Tour output was 340 watts, that is 0.000054% of the
> Holly Street Power Plant. How long would it take Lance to generate energy equal to the power
> plant's output for 2 hours and 18 minutes? 484 years or 49,398 times longer than the 86 hours of
> the 2001 Tour.
>

You are assuming that all of the power produced by the plant is immediately consumed by the city.
Chances are that even it was running at full capacity (628,000,000 watts ?), the power plant
probably provides power to other cities / county areas / etc. Not to mention that the capacity you
mentioned is probably needed for fail-over situations with other plants in other cities / states.

-T

 

[Jeff Brody]

On Sun, 29 Jun 2003 02:29:09 GMT, dude <[email protected]> wrote:

>I was at the shopping mall today, and saw in the Oakley store window a poster with some figures
>concerning Lance's power output. I first heard these figures quoted by Chris Carmichael on OLN
>during the 2001 Tour.
>
>On the poster: "Over the 20 stages of the Tour, Lance produces 97,175,983 total Watts of power,
>That's enough power to light his hometown of Austin, Texas for 2 hours and 18 minutes, or the
>entire state of California for just over 3 seconds."
>
>These boasts are way, way off. One of Austin's power plants, the Holly Street Unit can produce
>628,000,000 watts of power. Lance's average Tour output was 340 watts, that is 0.000054% of the
>Holly Street Power Plant. How long would it take Lance to generate energy equal to the power
>plant's output for 2 hours and 18 minutes? 484 years or 49,398 times longer than the 86 hours of
>the 2001 Tour.

And your point is?

 

[Ronaldo Jeremia]

dude <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> I was at the shopping mall today, and saw in the Oakley store window a poster with some figures
> concerning Lance's power output.

There are Oakley stores in the mall now?! Does anyone else remember when Oakley was a company that
just made number plates for BMX bikes?

I first heard
> these figures quoted by Chris Carmichael on OLN during the 2001 Tour.
>
> On the poster: "Over the 20 stages of the Tour, Lance produces 97,175,983 total Watts of power,
> That's enough power to light his hometown of Austin, Texas for 2 hours and 18 minutes, or the
> entire state of California for just over 3 seconds."
>
> These boasts are way, way off. One of Austin's power plants, the Holly Street Unit can produce
> 628,000,000 watts of power.

'The Holly Street Unit' should have no problem beating Herman Meier in the prologue then.

Is she related to Picabo? Or Randy Johnson?

-'The RJ Unit'

 

[Phil Holman]

"dude" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I was at the shopping mall today, and saw in the Oakley store window a poster with some figures
> concerning Lance's power output. I first
heard
> these figures quoted by Chris Carmichael on OLN during the 2001 Tour.
>
> On the poster: "Over the 20 stages of the Tour, Lance produces 97,175,983 total Watts of power,
> That's enough power to light his hometown of Austin, Texas
for
> 2 hours and 18 minutes, or the entire state of California for just
over
> 3 seconds."
>
> These boasts are way, way off. One of Austin's power plants, the
Holly
> Street Unit can produce 628,000,000 watts of power. Lance's average Tour output was 340 watts,
> that is 0.000054% of the Holly Street Power Plant. How long would it take Lance to generate energy
> equal to the power plant's output for 2 hours and 18 minutes? 484 years or 49,398 times longer
> than the 86 hours of the 2001 Tour.
>

The poster should probably have said 97,175,983 Joules. 1 watt = 1 Joule/sec so at an average 300
watts, Lance's time would be roughly 90 hours.

Phil Holman

 

[Dude]

In article <[email protected]>,
"Tom Schulenburg" <[email protected]> wrote:

> "dude" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> > I was at the shopping mall today, and saw in the Oakley store window a poster with some figures
> > concerning Lance's power output. I first heard these figures quoted by Chris Carmichael on OLN
> > during the 2001 Tour.
> >
> > On the poster: "Over the 20 stages of the Tour, Lance produces 97,175,983 total Watts of power,
> > That's enough power to light his hometown of Austin, Texas for 2 hours and 18 minutes, or the
> > entire state of California for just over 3 seconds."
> >
> > These boasts are way, way off. One of Austin's power plants, the Holly Street Unit can produce
> > 628,000,000 watts of power. Lance's average Tour output was 340 watts, that is 0.000054% of the
> > Holly Street Power Plant. How long would it take Lance to generate energy equal to the power
> > plant's output for 2 hours and 18 minutes? 484 years or 49,398 times longer than the 86 hours of
> > the 2001 Tour.
> >
>
> You are assuming that all of the power produced by the plant is immediately consumed by the city.
> Chances are that even it was running at full capacity (628,000,000 watts ?), the power plant
> probably provides power to other cities / county areas / etc. Not to mention that the capacity you
> mentioned is probably needed for fail-over situations with other plants in other cities / states.
>
> -T
>
>
>

I couldn't find information on Austin's power consumption, so I used just one power plant's output.
Austin's utility owns two plants locally and portions of others outside the city. The Holly Street
plant is the smallest currently in service.

 

[Rope <-- Huh?]

Holly puts out 570 megawatts not 628

Rope

"dude" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> I was at the shopping mall today, and saw in the Oakley store window a poster with some figures
> concerning Lance's power output. I first heard these figures quoted by Chris Carmichael on OLN
> during the 2001 Tour.
>
> On the poster: "Over the 20 stages of the Tour, Lance produces 97,175,983 total Watts of power,
> That's enough power to light his hometown of Austin, Texas for 2 hours and 18 minutes, or the
> entire state of California for just over 3 seconds."
>
> These boasts are way, way off. One of Austin's power plants, the Holly Street Unit can produce
> 628,000,000 watts of power. Lance's average Tour output was 340 watts, that is 0.000054% of the
> Holly Street Power Plant. How long would it take Lance to generate energy equal to the power
> plant's output for 2 hours and 18 minutes? 484 years or 49,398 times longer than the 86 hours of
> the 2001 Tour.

 

[Rope <-- Huh?]

In middle of summer Austin has a peak load of 2069MW

Rope

"dude" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Tom Schulenburg" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > "dude" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> > > I was at the shopping mall today, and saw in the Oakley store window a poster with some
> > > figures concerning Lance's power output. I first
heard
> > > these figures quoted by Chris Carmichael on OLN during the 2001 Tour.
> > >
> > > On the poster: "Over the 20 stages of the Tour, Lance produces 97,175,983 total Watts of
> > > power, That's enough power to light his hometown of Austin, Texas
for
> > > 2 hours and 18 minutes, or the entire state of California for just
over
> > > 3 seconds."
> > >
> > > These boasts are way, way off. One of Austin's power plants, the
Holly
> > > Street Unit can produce 628,000,000 watts of power. Lance's average Tour output was 340 watts,
> > > that is 0.000054% of the Holly Street Power Plant. How long would it take Lance to generate
> > > energy equal to the power plant's output for 2 hours and 18 minutes? 484 years or 49,398 times
> > > longer than the 86 hours of the 2001 Tour.
> > >
> >
> > You are assuming that all of the power produced by the plant is
immediately
> > consumed by the city. Chances are that even it was running at full
capacity
> > (628,000,000 watts ?), the power plant probably provides power to other cities / county areas /
> > etc. Not to mention that the capacity you
mentioned
> > is probably needed for fail-over situations with other plants in other cities / states.
> >
> > -T
> >
> >
> >
>
> I couldn't find information on Austin's power consumption, so I used just one power plant's
> output. Austin's utility owns two plants locally and portions of others outside the city. The
> Holly Street plant is the smallest currently in service.

 

[Jeff Brody]

Wonder how the Holly Street Unit climbs. Or time trials! Yes! Now there's a match-up .... Armstrong
v. Holly Street U in the prologue.

On Mon, 30 Jun 2003 06:39:45 GMT, dude <[email protected]> wrote:

> In article <[email protected]>,
> "Tom Schulenburg" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> "dude" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
>> > I was at the shopping mall today, and saw in the Oakley store window a poster with some figures
>> > concerning Lance's power output. I first heard these figures quoted by Chris Carmichael on OLN
>> > during the 2001 Tour.
>> >
>> > On the poster: "Over the 20 stages of the Tour, Lance produces 97,175,983 total Watts of power,
>> > That's enough power to light his hometown of Austin, Texas for 2 hours and 18 minutes, or the
>> > entire state of California for just over 3 seconds."
>> >
>> > These boasts are way, way off. One of Austin's power plants, the Holly Street Unit can produce
>> > 628,000,000 watts of power. Lance's average Tour output was 340 watts, that is 0.000054% of the
>> > Holly Street Power Plant. How long would it take Lance to generate energy equal to the power
>> > plant's output for 2 hours and 18 minutes? 484 years or 49,398 times longer than the 86 hours
>> > of the 2001 Tour.
>> >
>>
>> You are assuming that all of the power produced by the plant is immediately consumed by the city.
>> Chances are that even it was running at full capacity (628,000,000 watts ?), the power plant
>> probably provides power to other cities / county areas / etc. Not to mention that the capacity
>> you mentioned is probably needed for fail-over situations with other plants in other cities /
>> states.
>>
>> -T
>>
>>
>>
>
>I couldn't find information on Austin's power consumption, so I used just one power plant's output.
>Austin's utility owns two plants locally and portions of others outside the city. The Holly Street
>plant is the smallest currently in service.

 

[Stewart Fleming]

Jeff Brody wrote:
> Wonder how the Holly Street Unit climbs. Or time trials! Yes! Now there's a match-up ....
> Armstrong v. Holly Street U in the prologue.

Holly Street U. sounds like an academic institution.

 

[Duke Robillard]

dude wrote:

> On the poster: "Over the 20 stages of the Tour, Lance produces 97,175,983 total Watts of power,
> That's enough power to light his hometown of Austin, Texas for 2 hours and 18 minutes, or the
> entire state of California for just over 3 seconds."
>
> These boasts are way, way off. One of Austin's power plants, the Holly Street Unit can produce
> 628,000,000 watts of power. Lance's average Tour output was 340 watts, that is 0.000054% of the
> Holly Street Power Plant. How long would it take Lance to generate energy equal to the power
> plant's output for 2 hours and 18 minutes? 484 years or 49,398 times longer than the 86 hours of
> the 2001 Tour.

On the other hand, the poster only says "light," not "provide for all electric power consumption."

Duke