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Posted by Ken Dunnington [71.211.220.182] on Wednesday, December 08, 2010 at 19:41:00 :
In Reply to: Current theories anybody--or facts?? posted by Bob in North GA [75.91.44.195] on Wednesday, December 08, 2010 at 07:26:29 :
- supply/demand is different for diesel vs gasoline
- new "formulations" of diesel cost more to make than in the past
- more BTUs in a gallon of diesel vs gasoline
Consider this, we equate a gallon of diesel to a gallon of gasoline based on the fact that they have the same volume. But a gallon of each have different weights and different energy contents from one another. What if we switched from this volume based metering to weight? Or BTU? Where would the numbers go then?
Consider $2.50/gallon gasoline and $3.00/gallon diesel, or a 20% increase in price for diesel.
gallon of gasoline: ~6.2 lbs
gallon of diesel: ~7.15 lbs
Above rates per pound:
$.40/pound gasoline and $.42/pound diesel for a 5% increase in price for diesel. Hmmm, looks like diesel is not so much more expensive on a per pound basis.
gallon of gasoline: 125,000 BTU
gallon of diesel: 147,000 BTU
Above rates per 10K BTU:
$.20 per 10K BTU gasoline and $.20 per 10K BTU. Wow. So a gallon of gasoline at $2.50 actually has the exact same value as a gallon of diesel at $3.00, if considered on the basis of energy content.
Just something to consider.
Ken
PS, I simply used the $2.50 and $3.00 numbers as they are close to what I noticed a few days ago here in Fort Collins. I had no idea it would work out the way it did on the BTU comparison.