Understand the whole energy system. Then do the maths yourself.
Power plants, heat, grids and the energy we use at home and at work, explained in plain language by an engineer who has worked in each of them. Every lesson comes with a spreadsheet, so you can check the numbers.
Welcome to Gridley, a town that lives on a napkin.
a quick one
Your heat pump is 300% efficient. That's not a typo.
A heat pump moves heat from the outside air into your home. One kWh of electricity can deliver three kWh of heat. That's why it can beat a gas boiler even when electricity costs more per kWh than gas.
Would it work out for your home? The free calculator tells you, using your own bill.
free, no strings
Two calculators to start with
Small spreadsheets you can open in Excel or Google Sheets. Yellow cells are yours to change. Everything else is worked out for you.
Energy units made simple
kWh, MJ, BTU, therms, TWh. Type any amount and see it in every unit, and in everyday things like boiling a kettle or charging your phone.
Heat pump vs. gas boiler
Compare the yearly costs and CO₂ of both, using the prices on your own bill. A table shows what happens when those prices change.
that's meuh, that's not me
who's drawing on the napkin
Hi, I'm Michel
I've spent my career working across the energy system. Today I teach electrical engineering at a university of applied sciences, where I also coordinate the curriculum. I like explaining hard things simply, with a joke where it fits and a calculation you can check.
- Ran shifts in a power plant
- Balanced an electricity portfolio with batteries
- Designed and improved factories
- Worked on congested grids, heat networks and hydrogen
coming soon
The course: Energy for non-engineers
Nine short modules that take you from "energy is complicated" to "I get how it fits together, and I can talk about it at work". Each module ends with a calculator you fill in yourself.
- Speaking energy
- Where energy goes
- Making electricity
- Heat and fuels
- Grids
- Storage and flexibility
- Markets and prices
- Putting it all together
- Reading energy news like an insider
how this was made
I use AI to help me draft scripts, build spreadsheets and animate diagrams. The final words are mine, and so are the voice and the face. I check every number before anything goes out.
When I catch a mistake, I'll say so here.