- Joined
- Mar 1, 2014
- Messages
- 4,579
- Points
- 828
I see! I must admit, it's strange seeing a picture of a Soul on charge, when I'm so used to seeing them with engines, lol!
Going electric
- Thread starter PuntoHowTo
- Start date
Currently reading:
Going electric
- Status
I always thought it strange that so many electric cars still used incandescent bulbs when it was a fairly obvious saving to switch to l.e.d. but yeah makes sense. When you have such a large battery for motive power other electrics are negligible.
Gotta say stopping twice in 170 miles is 2 more times than I stopped last time I did 170 miles..but given it was last summer it's possibly not exactly a prescient concern.
Guess I have 2 issues currently, first would be although I could have a current electric car for my commute and actually only charge it once a week my summer weekend usage tends to be long distance day trips. So 4k a year is 18 mile round trips 5 days a week then the other 4k tends to be motorway long distance or over the pennines e.t.c. for which the range isn't there and I'm not someone who likes to sit and kick my heels mid trip.
Second would be even if electricity was free the car isn't..and given I filled up yesterday and the previous time was the 22nd of February, depreciation and purchase price would far out strip any fuel savings.
Same, once I start a long journey I don't want to get out until it's over. Driving from York to Elgin on one tank in one stint (nigh 8 hours) is just gonna be a nightmare if I had an electric car. Probably 3-4 stops, bringing that time up to nearly 12 hours? No thanks! But, as you say, daily commute (94 mile round trip) would be fine especially as we have a charging point at work now
On a full charge using the heating - which on the Soul is a very efficient airsource heat pump, reduces the indicated range by only 3-4 miles.
On cars like the early Nissan Leaf etc with eletric heating (think small Emerson heater setup with an element in coolant, it's crippling and will half your range!
Other electrics make no noticeable difference.
I think someone on the Leaf forum worked out the headlights will reduce your range by something silly like 200ft per charge lol.
Two 55W headlights and 4 5W sidelights - 130W which is 0.65% of the capacity of a 20kWh battery or just under 1 mile reduction on a 150 mile range. (notional figures not any specfic car) The Leaf uses LEDs for the dipped beam so 200ft might be acheivable but I doubt it (assume 24W total =0.1% =0.1m = 528ft. Thus 200ft would be less than 10W which is improbable as the front sidelights are 5W incandesents)
A mile off the range is not unreaonable for headlight use.
The heat pump is the preferred choice for heating and is basically the same as an electric aircon with valves to swap the condenser and evaporator.
Robert G8RPI.
OP
OP
LED headlights are a comparatively recent thing, you still need very powerful LEDs for headlight use and the LED headlights are ludicrous expensive something like £1000 optional extra on out mini (although they are very good)
For ease of use and minimal complexity, incandescent bulbs do a perfectly adequate job and are much cheaper and easier to manufacture, the amount of energy they use is also likely to be comparable. Most cars now all the tail lights are LED and the smaller front lights on everything but the cheapest cars
For ease of use and minimal complexity, incandescent bulbs do a perfectly adequate job and are much cheaper and easier to manufacture, the amount of energy they use is also likely to be comparable. Most cars now all the tail lights are LED and the smaller front lights on everything but the cheapest cars
OP
OP
And King's Lynn had 3 Rapids, so unlikely to pull up and find them all in use currently which is a bonus.
Saw one just like this today, in Norwich near TK Maxx and farm foods, the guy getting in to it looked a bit dodgy but the car looked ok
Saw one just like this today, in Norwich near TK Maxx and farm foods, the guy getting in to it looked a bit dodgy but the car looked ok
Haha. It's rather cold out currently, so I'm normally in my hoodie looking a bit thug'ish
OP
OP
Haha. It's rather cold out currently, so I'm normally in my hoodie looking a bit thug'ish
My wife said it looked like a mini, mainly due to the colour scheme and hers looks like this
Attachments
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2008
- Messages
- 4,983
- Points
- 970
I think the theory is something like this.
Only about 25% of the energy contained in diesel fuel is used to push the car along, the rest is wasted.
When oil is used to generate electricity, a bigger percentage of the energy contained in the fuel actually produces electricity, so whilst it is still polluting, we get more energy, so less is wasted.
It'll still take a long time for electricity to come close to the convenience of petrol or diesel cars - long distances between fill-ups, and quick to refill.
Only about 25% of the energy contained in diesel fuel is used to push the car along, the rest is wasted.
When oil is used to generate electricity, a bigger percentage of the energy contained in the fuel actually produces electricity, so whilst it is still polluting, we get more energy, so less is wasted.
It'll still take a long time for electricity to come close to the convenience of petrol or diesel cars - long distances between fill-ups, and quick to refill.
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2008
- Messages
- 4,983
- Points
- 970
It's a bit different and more complicated, I'm afraid.
A modern Diesel engine is about 45-55% efficient ( so not 25%!!).
In Europe, mostly coal is used to power electricity plants, which produces a LOT of pollution, besides electricity...
In the UK, France and Belgium, plants are nucluair powered, producing a lot more different trouble...
Nuclear is about as clean as high-capacity energy generation gets, until something goes wrong of course.
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2008
- Messages
- 4,983
- Points
- 970
It never goes wrong...:devil:
And what about nuclear waste..?
We are storing it, putting it under ground ( in foreign countries) for our next generations to handle....!!
And what about nuclear waste..?
We are storing it, putting it under ground ( in foreign countries) for our next generations to handle....!!
Last edited:
Yeaaaah I'm 100% sure I didn't say that. But in the scheme of how many nuclear power plants there are vs. how many have had an 'incident', I'm still on board. At least until someone finds a way to cover the sahara in solar panels and sorts the entire global energy out in one fell swoop.
On a side note, it still surprises me that we've not devised a more efficient way of energy generation than boil water, make steam, turn turbine.
I don't know who "we" are, but in the UK we don't store partially reacted fuel (it's not waste), we reprocess it and get more energy out. As far as I'm aware only the USA has the, in my view misguided, policy of storing partially reacted fuel.
Irrational fear of radiation and worries about proliferation have held back development of nuclear power and driven up costs. Practically, if new designs of fast neutron reactors with integral reprocessing were built we have enough "waste" depleted uranium and part reacted fuel to provide projected needs for at east 100 years without doing any mining. Then there is Thorium.
The weirdist approach is Germany who shut down existing nuclear reactors and are burning brown coal (about the worst fuel after peat) instead. Very few people have died as a result of nuclear accidents but millions have been affected by emissions (CO2, Sulphur compounds, heavy metal and radioactive waste) from fossel fuel plants. Yes I did say radioative waste. Burning coal concentrates Uranium. Some coal ash is more radioactive than low level waste from nuclear facilities. The Chinese have a particular issue with this and are looking it coal ash as a source of nuclear fuel.
Robert G8RPI.
Actually that is still a rather good way to do it as the steam generation and turbine parts are very well understood and are essentially off the shelf. The heat exchangers to reheat the steam don't care if the source is molten salt (heated in by the sun or nuclear), geothermal, conventional nuclear, coal and so on. The steam is super heated, known as dry steam, and never is allowed to enter a liquid phase.
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2008
- Messages
- 4,983
- Points
- 970
In Holland, nuclear waste is stored underground, wating for new techniques to handle it in the future...
It used to go by heavily guarded trains to Germany, but after a lot of protests and riots, it's stored underground now...
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2008
- Messages
- 4,983
- Points
- 970
The company that is digging the browncoal, has build a special "Skywalk" for viewing the heavy equipment in progress, yes its been dig up in open air, not underground!
It's great to see it in progress!
The viewpoint "Garzweiler" is near the "Ruhr gebiet", close to the city of Aken, Germany.
Go and see it, if you are passing by!
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2008
- Messages
- 4,983
- Points
- 970
- Status
