What about a Green Thread

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steelersman

Senior Member
Location
Lake Ridge, VA
Or you could get the Chevy Volt when it becomes available. That way when your battery is low your onboard generator takes over and charges the battery uninterrupted. Of course you're still using gas but not nearly as much. Also the battery doesn't take that long to charge if plugged into an outlet. 5 hours if plugged into a 240 volt outlet and 10 if plugged into a 120 volt outlet.

It actually takes fewer hours to charge than I previously posted. 3 hours at 240volts and 6 hours at 120volts. Even better.
 

steelersman

Senior Member
Location
Lake Ridge, VA
But still only 40 miles before you need the combustion engine.
yep. For me it would get me to work one way and about half way back home, so I would save significantly. As a whole if everyones' cars or even trucks had this technology it would at least drastically reduce our dependence on oil not to mention the reduction in emissions and Co2. :)
 

ronaldrc

Senior Member
Location
Tennessee

steelersman

Senior Member
Location
Lake Ridge, VA
Still better than Gas GM gives 50 to 80 cents per charge with the Chey Volt.

Using Handymath electrical cal. at 8 cents per kilowatt hour which is about average.
40 miles cost around $1.73

Still better that gas right now.

Kw =7.2 or 7200
8 cents per Kw hour
Volts=240
Time=3 hours





http://www.handymath.com/cgi-bin/electric.cgi?submit=Entry


Ronald :)
and if these electrical cars catch on then it could and probably will create alot more work for electricians installing 120 or 240 volt outlets in public parking lots all over that would probably just be metered just like parking meters. Slip in a few quarters for an hour or so and get a charge while you are shopping or whatever. :)
 

LarryFine

Master Electrician Electric Contractor Richmond VA
Location
Henrico County, VA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
As a whole if everyones' cars or even trucks had this technology it would at least drastically reduce our dependence on oil not to mention the reduction in emissions and Co2. :)
No argument, but do keep in mind that the electricity still has to be generated somewhere, so even all-electric cars (and buildings) are not necessarily zero-polluting, just pollution-displacing.

An example is, from what I've read, that the manufacturing of photo-voltaic panels causes quite a lot of environment-unfriendly byproducts, and consumes quite a bit of power in the process.
 

steelersman

Senior Member
Location
Lake Ridge, VA
No argument, but do keep in mind that the electricity still has to be generated somewhere, so even all-electric cars (and buildings) are not necessarily zero-polluting, just pollution-displacing.

An example is, from what I've read, that the manufacturing of photo-voltaic panels causes quite a lot of environment-unfriendly byproducts, and consumes quite a bit of power in the process.
Yeah I understand that we would ultimately all be using more electricity, but I still think that it would be much "greener" than what we currently mostly all use.

I didn't know about the byproducts of photo-voltaic panels being environmentally unfriendly. That's a bummer.

Ultimately I suppose used grease for bio diesel might be the "greenest" method for fueling vehicles.
 

Besoeker

Senior Member
Location
UK
Most would like that.
If you mean the car, possibly so.
It's the first Diesel I have had. Dynamic performance, though not electrifying, isn't bad - 130MPH+ top speed, low profile asymmetric tyres for grip....etc. Manual transmission with a six-speed box.
And it's fairly well equipped.
From the dozen or so buttons on the steering wheel I can tell it to do anything from calling my wife to finding the nearest restaurant.
Good but not great car.
 

ronaldrc

Senior Member
Location
Tennessee
If you mean the car, possibly so.
It's the first Diesel I have had. Dynamic performance, though not electrifying, isn't bad - 130MPH+ top speed, low profile asymmetric tyres for grip....etc. Manual transmission with a six-speed box.
And it's fairly well equipped.
From the dozen or so buttons on the steering wheel I can tell it to do anything from calling my wife to finding the nearest restaurant.
Good but not great car.


Both the car and Ladies shopping with the money they saved from not buying gas. :)
 

dejeud

Member
Green

Green

1: The green movement is not a solution to the energy problem, at best it's a patch, at worst its a lot of resources thrown away. Keep in mind that all these controllers and sensors and what not takes energy to produce and install and I'm somewhat skeptical about their efficiency. I'm not skeptical about the energy it COULD save, but the energy it ACTUALLY saves. The problem is these systems need maintenance, sensors need replacing. I've seen way too many times buildings where the AC's and light where bypassed because the EMS failed and no one fixed it. On the other hand putting a break on economic growth will put a break on technology progress as well.
2: The hydro power is a great resource for some of the energy, but it's limited and it does create enviromental issues, not to mention it's wide open to terrorism.
3: I'm not crazy at all with wind energy, bulky, unreliable, takes too much space to really mean something.
4: Solar power does seem like a good resource, however at this point it takes way too much space, too costly and somewhat unreliable. If the future would be in solar power I think it'd more toward having satellites harnessing the energy and sending it down via lasers.

These are the areas which I believe we should concentrate to resolve the energy problem.

1: Atomic energy. And I'm not talking today's nuclear plants. Too much irradiated material left over. The nuclear plants of today actually heat water to produce energy. I'm talking about controlling the energy that's released thru fusion. We can not do it right now, but supposingly couple grams could run a house for a few thousands years. This might be way far down the road.
2: Wave movement. This is something that surprisingly is not much thought of. Think about it, even a calm area has a movement of least half a foot or so every 2-3 seconds. Even 4 inches gives you around 200,000 TONS of lift every 2-3 seconds for just a square mile area that's a lot more that the wind delivers and is a lot more reliable. This is readily available. Still this is not something that will make the future unless we plan to cover the entire oceans with platforms.
3: Last, my favorite: Hydrogen, high thermal coefficient, clean burning and literally unlimited. I really believe this is where the world should concentrate on. Right now it's too expensive to separate it from water and it's easy to understand why, at best you'll get back the energy it took to separate. So I don't think we'll ever have cars which we'll just pour a gallon of water in the tank. However combined with the atomic energy maybe we can figure out a way to control that energy just enough to separate mass amounts of Hydrogen from water.
 
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