Missing the Point: Energy delivery efficiency as low as 13 percent

Getting the most from Energy

American Scientisit January 2009
"...In a typical fossil-fuel-fired power plant, only one-third of all the energy present in the fuel is turned into usable electricity, whereas two-thirds ends up as cast-off heat. (Even more waste occurs during the use of electricity. For example, an incandescent bulb turns less than 5 percent of power input into light. This is amongh the reasons whey country's overall evergy efficiency is as low as 13 percent.)..."

Norton's comment: If only 33% of the generated electricity reaches the incandescent light bulb, and the bulb only converts 5% of that to light; then the light output is only 5% of 33% or 1.5% of the generated electricity. Another way to put this is to light that bulb we need to generate 65 times the required electricity because of inefficiencies in transmission of it to our house and inefficiencies in our appliances (in this case the incandescent bulb)!