Not grounding accounts in essentials — "how much" or "how long"

Wrong Track: It's a big power, so it'll cost a lot.

Wrong Track: That's a huge energy.

Wrong Track: The TV is on for a long time.

Right Lines: The fridge demands power for 19 hours a day, so you might expect it to cost a lot.

Right Lines: 200 joules is only a small energy.

Challenge of quantification

Right thinking about energy and power demands quantification. Use numbers to create for discussions that can go somewhere.

Encouraging discussion that does not compare values of quantities strips away an adequate grounding in the lived-in world to allow for assayable judgements. With such purely qualitative assertions it's not possible to plan a well-grounded course of action.