Converting Budget Energy Numbers

Published before 2015

September 19, 2008

Table 1. Conversion of diesel to electricity, propane, gasoline, and natural gas. (Source: Estimating the Saving From Improving Pumping Plant Performance by Darrel Martin).
Energy Source	Units	Multiplier

Electricity	Kilowatts-hours	14.12
Propane	Gallons	1.814
Gasoline	Gallons	1.443
Natural Gas	1000 cubic feet	0.2026

If your energy source is different from that used in the 2009 crop budgets, Extension Irrigation Engineer Derrel Martin has prepared a table to convert from diesel to other energy sources.

For example, to convert diesel in gallons to kilowatt-hours electricity, the multiplier is 14.12. If electricity is $0.072 kilowatt, the calculation would be 14.12 x 0.072 = $1.02. The 2009 crop budgets featured in this and the Sept. 12 issue of CropWatch use $4/gallon diesel, but if you use electricity, the cost would be about 25% of that cost.

With electricity also consider that there are connect charges and that to get the best rates, you'll need to sign up for load management.

Robert Klein
Extension Cropping Systems Specialist
West Central REC, North Platte

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