Fisherman
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Even better then.
Is it the death knell for the combustion engine?
- Thread starter izwozral
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Even better then.
Asterix
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I read about one of the Scandi countries (don't recall which) but some of their EV drivers are actually getting a small profit from doing just that,depends on how you use your EV I guess but if you're only using it for short commutes then you can probably put a large % back into the grid. Think of all the EVs as one massive battery ready for instant demand from the grid,something we don't presently have,it takes time to restart power stations to cope with peak demands,which is the cause of most power cuts,EVs can stabilise the grid and prevent this happening.
Asterix
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Another EV (Tesla) advantage...
www.bournemouthecho.co.uk
'Miracle' as falling tree narrowly misses two Teslas – because the cars have automatic emergency brakes
A ‘MIRACLE’ twist of fate saved a family’s life when their car was hit by a huge falling tree as Storm Dennis raged through Dorset.
www.bournemouthecho.co.uk
Tonybvi
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I‘ve got a feeling that Orkney, the uk powerhouse for renewable energy, does something similar, although it could be that folk are charging at work for free then using power from the car at home to reduce their own costs!!
trevskoda
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And the electric of course is free to make to do the job,dont think so.
Fisherman
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Nabsim
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It doesn’t alter the fact if you don’t have a drive or able to park your vehicle on your land you can’t charge it at home. I live in the sticks, there are ten cottages going up the hill then 6 across the top. Two across the top are new builds with a small driveway. The other 14 houses would be unable to charge. Add to that because it is in the sticks with rare and erratic public transport most residents have two cars. How would these work with current technology for ev’s?
I have also mentioned before people living in flats, they can’t charge at home. Elon Musk has done lots of work and is going to be a lot richer before much longer, not through Tesla cars but by his solar/electricity storage banks. Very forward thinking and he can provide what councils/city’s/governments need but it still doesn’t get it to a lot of end users.
It either needs hydrogen that you can just pull up and fill tank then move on again just like fossil fuel or an easily replaceable fuel cell that charges the battery bank onboard.
As to health risks in city’s then that’s simple, block off the roads and stop all private vehicle access. City’s should already have the infrastructure to move people quickly and efficiently with electric trams, busses and trains. Should I say as they are all thinking about the environment and health of the people who pay them. Of course they will have lots of excuses as to why they haven’t got that infrastructure but never mind, come 2032 or 2035 if will magically be okay. Lol
I have also mentioned before people living in flats, they can’t charge at home. Elon Musk has done lots of work and is going to be a lot richer before much longer, not through Tesla cars but by his solar/electricity storage banks. Very forward thinking and he can provide what councils/city’s/governments need but it still doesn’t get it to a lot of end users.
It either needs hydrogen that you can just pull up and fill tank then move on again just like fossil fuel or an easily replaceable fuel cell that charges the battery bank onboard.
As to health risks in city’s then that’s simple, block off the roads and stop all private vehicle access. City’s should already have the infrastructure to move people quickly and efficiently with electric trams, busses and trains. Should I say as they are all thinking about the environment and health of the people who pay them. Of course they will have lots of excuses as to why they haven’t got that infrastructure but never mind, come 2032 or 2035 if will magically be okay. Lol
Tonybvi
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That guy Musk (love him or loathe him) has his head screwed on right. One of the stories I was told and I apologise for not remembering the precise details, was that either NZ or Australian authorities wanted bids for a huge solar battery storage facility. Included in Musks bid, which was not the cheapest, was that he would provide it for free if it wasn’t completed by the requested date. Guess who was awarded the contract and guess who met the deadline!!
Nabsim
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Yes I think he us great, always been cutting edge, he has a fully functioning space port built with a consortium I think in Arizona, has a training station for living on Mars in the desert as well.
Just hope he isn’t too good and ends up the victim of skullduggery as he is seen as a threat by US government now.
That’s the sort of guy who should be sorting things out
Just hope he isn’t too good and ends up the victim of skullduggery as he is seen as a threat by US government now.
That’s the sort of guy who should be sorting things out
Chris356
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I have been working on some mobile filling stations they are 45 ton trailers for refuelling trucks that run on cng compressed natural gas and renewable biomethane not sure what’s involved to convert your van but about 20 years ago a guy ran his frontera diesel with a lpg bottle in the boot plumbed in with a valve connected to the throttle pedal
trevskoda
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You can add some gas to a diesel engine,think a small amount but its done in the USA to save on long runs,30% springs to mind.
Martin P
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My only experience with lithium batterys is with the cordless tools I use. My old Ni cads used to tail off after about 3 years but the lithiums seem to come to a more abrupt end after 2 and a half to 3 years
The batteries are always charged daily so around 1000 charging cycles seems to be about the norm.
Would be interested to know how a cordless tool ( makita) lithium battery differs from ev technology
The batteries are always charged daily so around 1000 charging cycles seems to be about the norm.
Would be interested to know how a cordless tool ( makita) lithium battery differs from ev technology
Asterix
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runnach
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I think the ultimate solution to ditching fossil fuels or at least using minimal amounts is a multi renewable fuel type arrangement that embraces mixed technology for example regenerative braking , solar power and wind.....so far concentration has been on the vehicles but what about the surfaces they run on? Solar roads offer an opportunity the rolling resistance of tyres generating electricity, the employment of magnet motors that is enjoying some success in Japan
We have to remember all emerging technology some will fall by the wayside, but where were ice engines in the early days? Look how information technology has progressed over the last 30 years, when a 1 mb bbc computer was state of the art...I am optimistic for the future,just wish I was bright enough to help solve the conundrum
We have to remember all emerging technology some will fall by the wayside, but where were ice engines in the early days? Look how information technology has progressed over the last 30 years, when a 1 mb bbc computer was state of the art...I am optimistic for the future,just wish I was bright enough to help solve the conundrum
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I designed a house about 5 years ago for a chap we called 'the nutty professor'. A retired electrical engineer hell bent on making a home fully sustainable and he'd spent 5 years working it all out and writing computer programmes to prove his own point. He was retired, had no family apart from an elderly sister and wanted to prove a point - and he did.
The house looks no different really to a chalet style house but it couldn't be more different and took 2 years to complete. Normal building costs for this 190 sq m floor area would have typically been around £300,000 but this when completed was nearer £700,000 but to him that didn't matter; it was how it worked. While the builder kept asking if he could use different materials that were cheaper we kept to our guns and said NO. House walls are 390mm thick (typical now 300mm) , solid ground floor thickness was around 450mm (typical normal construction is around 300mm), roof insulation above, between and under rafters was 300mm rigid. Windows quad glazed with max 18mm air spaces and external doors 68 thick. Energy supply was from solar panels in the tiles, a small wind turbine, air source and ground source heat pumps as well as water source from rainwater - battery banks to store excess electricity for night use! Grey water washing etc and it went on.............................. up shot of all this is when commissioned he was literally self-sufficient. Needless to say this retired Plessey Communications engineer had all manner of electrical wizardry going on. When I visited after 3 months (after he'd resolved all his bugs etc) I walked in and lights come on auto (quite normal nowadays) and imediately you felt a slight air movement - the heating/cooling system had noticed a change in atmosphere and turned heating on but within seconds it had shut down and then you were aware of a slight air movement - it had detected the temperature had risen - body heat from me..................basically it was keeping the place precisely at 20 deg. I couldn't really believe how things worked but I was truly amazed. He received a letter from electricity board requesting they visit to check his meter as it was reading wrong..................... he wasn't actually using any!!!!!! The only thing he paid for was water (he had a hi-tech package treatment plant for sewerage) and internet - truly amazing and when he's gone (he's in his 80's now) I'd be the first wanting to buy that house!!!
The house looks no different really to a chalet style house but it couldn't be more different and took 2 years to complete. Normal building costs for this 190 sq m floor area would have typically been around £300,000 but this when completed was nearer £700,000 but to him that didn't matter; it was how it worked. While the builder kept asking if he could use different materials that were cheaper we kept to our guns and said NO. House walls are 390mm thick (typical now 300mm) , solid ground floor thickness was around 450mm (typical normal construction is around 300mm), roof insulation above, between and under rafters was 300mm rigid. Windows quad glazed with max 18mm air spaces and external doors 68 thick. Energy supply was from solar panels in the tiles, a small wind turbine, air source and ground source heat pumps as well as water source from rainwater - battery banks to store excess electricity for night use! Grey water washing etc and it went on.............................. up shot of all this is when commissioned he was literally self-sufficient. Needless to say this retired Plessey Communications engineer had all manner of electrical wizardry going on. When I visited after 3 months (after he'd resolved all his bugs etc) I walked in and lights come on auto (quite normal nowadays) and imediately you felt a slight air movement - the heating/cooling system had noticed a change in atmosphere and turned heating on but within seconds it had shut down and then you were aware of a slight air movement - it had detected the temperature had risen - body heat from me..................basically it was keeping the place precisely at 20 deg. I couldn't really believe how things worked but I was truly amazed. He received a letter from electricity board requesting they visit to check his meter as it was reading wrong..................... he wasn't actually using any!!!!!! The only thing he paid for was water (he had a hi-tech package treatment plant for sewerage) and internet - truly amazing and when he's gone (he's in his 80's now) I'd be the first wanting to buy that house!!!
mariesnowgoose
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campervanannie
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COPIED FROM ANOTHER SITE.
Electric cars? I have been following developments closely. A few pointers:
1) Get the name right. They’re not electric cars, they are coal-powered cars. Some might be nuclear, eventually all might be. The electricity has to come from somewhere.
2) They cost the planet an arm and a leg to make. They use rare earth elements in their batteries. We have only 50 years worth left of lithium on current production. Worrying for people with bi-polar disorder who need it for medication.
3) We don’t know how to fix them. Really! The highest qualification in the UK only touches briefly on hybrid vehicles. Unbelievably, there is no current qualification available for pure electric vehicles on any City and Guilds course in the UK!
4) We can’t train the new generation of ‘technicians’ (new-speak for ‘mechanics’), as the handful of manufacturers developing coal-powered cars jealously guard their secrets and each are developing slightly different systems. So if you are one of the few apprentices lucky enough to be trained by a manufacturer, your skills are not transferable to other makes.
5) This marks the end for the bloke on the corner who fixes everyone’s vehicles. Cos hey, we want to regulate everything right? And drive motorists into the greedy arms of the dealerships who currently seem to charge more on ‘trad’ vehicles. God help us all when they find they have no competition. Prices will soar.
6) We are not training youngsters to work on these new coal-powered vehicles in academic establishments. We are not future-proofing these kids careers. They are even now still being trained to work on petrol and diesel vehicles. One college was given an electric car by the manufacturer, but without the repair manual, (due to the desire to protect industrial secrets). As these cars can kill unskilled ‘tinkerers’ the staff, understandably, did not allow the students to work upon the vehicle. It has sat there untouched for a number of years.
7) Manufacturer assume that with only around 22 parts in the drive train, (compared to a few thou in the ‘trad’ vehicle), their coal powered cars are less likely to break down. But what about the ‘Friday cars?’ We have all heard of them, thrown together at the end of a long week that carry ‘teething troubles’ from day one of their miserable lives. What if you get saddled with one of them?
8) If we’re not gearing up to repair them now, what will happen when we all have them - how long will we have to wait in a very long queue for repairs?
9) How do we safely break them up at end of life if they are so dangerous to work on?
10) Cars are made, they get refueled and driven, they get repaired, they are broken up and recycled. If we haven’t got the most basic infrastructure worked out for the latter stages, we are mindlessly swapping one headache for another.
I’m not encouraging people to drive anything. I’m trying to get them to think about the bigger picture. As a country we are not prepared - or even preparing - for an electric vehicle revolution. It’s just the government paying lip service to environmental concerns. If they really meant it then the announcement would have been accompanied by solid investment in the infrastructure. But it didn’t. I’m just saying ‘Look! The emperor has no clothes...!’
Electric cars? I have been following developments closely. A few pointers:
1) Get the name right. They’re not electric cars, they are coal-powered cars. Some might be nuclear, eventually all might be. The electricity has to come from somewhere.
2) They cost the planet an arm and a leg to make. They use rare earth elements in their batteries. We have only 50 years worth left of lithium on current production. Worrying for people with bi-polar disorder who need it for medication.
3) We don’t know how to fix them. Really! The highest qualification in the UK only touches briefly on hybrid vehicles. Unbelievably, there is no current qualification available for pure electric vehicles on any City and Guilds course in the UK!
4) We can’t train the new generation of ‘technicians’ (new-speak for ‘mechanics’), as the handful of manufacturers developing coal-powered cars jealously guard their secrets and each are developing slightly different systems. So if you are one of the few apprentices lucky enough to be trained by a manufacturer, your skills are not transferable to other makes.
5) This marks the end for the bloke on the corner who fixes everyone’s vehicles. Cos hey, we want to regulate everything right? And drive motorists into the greedy arms of the dealerships who currently seem to charge more on ‘trad’ vehicles. God help us all when they find they have no competition. Prices will soar.
6) We are not training youngsters to work on these new coal-powered vehicles in academic establishments. We are not future-proofing these kids careers. They are even now still being trained to work on petrol and diesel vehicles. One college was given an electric car by the manufacturer, but without the repair manual, (due to the desire to protect industrial secrets). As these cars can kill unskilled ‘tinkerers’ the staff, understandably, did not allow the students to work upon the vehicle. It has sat there untouched for a number of years.
7) Manufacturer assume that with only around 22 parts in the drive train, (compared to a few thou in the ‘trad’ vehicle), their coal powered cars are less likely to break down. But what about the ‘Friday cars?’ We have all heard of them, thrown together at the end of a long week that carry ‘teething troubles’ from day one of their miserable lives. What if you get saddled with one of them?
8) If we’re not gearing up to repair them now, what will happen when we all have them - how long will we have to wait in a very long queue for repairs?
9) How do we safely break them up at end of life if they are so dangerous to work on?
10) Cars are made, they get refueled and driven, they get repaired, they are broken up and recycled. If we haven’t got the most basic infrastructure worked out for the latter stages, we are mindlessly swapping one headache for another.
I’m not encouraging people to drive anything. I’m trying to get them to think about the bigger picture. As a country we are not prepared - or even preparing - for an electric vehicle revolution. It’s just the government paying lip service to environmental concerns. If they really meant it then the announcement would have been accompanied by solid investment in the infrastructure. But it didn’t. I’m just saying ‘Look! The emperor has no clothes...!’