My friend Ami Slavin requested that I write about this important topic in response to the horrifying videos showing up online of death and gore associated with compressors exploding. He pointed out that the “diesel effect” can be the cause, so let's explore what may be—and likely is—leading to these horrible incidents. In a diesel […]

This article is based on Ross Trethewey’s energy comparison sheet for fuels at select efficiencies and costs. All tables and their respective data belong to him. Ross Trethewey is the founder and lead engineer of TE2 Engineering and has served as the Home Technology Expert on “This Old House.” You can find a PDF file […]

The general law of perfect gas is a combination of Boyle’s and Charles’s laws. Each of those laws neglected pressure, temperature, or volume in their formulas. The law of perfect gas combines the two, clearly establishing the relationship between all three variables and giving those laws a much more practical use in our field. We […]