Gas Prices Going Up

The new Benz diesels and one of the gas hybrid gas engine (Prius?) is running about 41%.

Big carbon based generating plants can run as high as 50%, but then, there are transmission losses.

Generally, it’s mostly true that carbon based generating plants are more efficient, buy if you combined the very latest car engines with battery recapture, they start to match the central plants.

No.

Electricity “generators” themselves convert ANY rotation at around 90–95.

When one commonly talks about “generator efficiency”, it’s about the conversion efficiency of feul. Gallons/liters per hour per kw.

Hybrids “win” by recapture, not by converting diesel or gas at any higher efficiency. In fact, there are generating losses. When a Prius runs out of electricity, it goes about 45 mpg.

STOP.

Every time I hear “hydrogen production” i want to hurt a squirrel.

Think clearly about this….you are going to generate electricity……to break down water…to make hydrogen…to store it…transport it….to run it in a combustion power plant. And lose 60% of it. Or in a unicorn feul cell and still lose 40% of it.

Why? Why do you want me to hurt squirrels?

The “hydrogen economy” is a pile of crap invented by the car companies to save their enormous investments in combustion engines. The utter nonsense is dying off as batteries are getting better.

Electricity, meet battery. Battery, meet electric motor. Done.

God spoke to me and said….if i wanted people to fly, I’d give them wings. So they should pay for the jet feul and stop kvetching.

@Spartan, you are probably right about hybrid cars. I’m going to do some additional research to do see if I’m misinformed about them, or if I’m just not a good French-English translator in terms of scientific subjects :person_facepalming:

Also, about hydrogen, that’s why we are using excess electricity.

Using excess electricity to form hydrogen isn’t a bad idea if you use it to power something like airplanes or large boats.
That’s where the money is.

Until we can engineer very high energy dense cells, that is going to be a stop gap solution for large vehicles.

I’m probably wrong too about that.

Let’s, make a deal. You help me with flashlights and I’ll help you with car or grid related questions. :confounded:

Generating and storing hydrogen to reuse it is not a good idea because to convert it back to useable electricity wastes about half of it.

We need better batteries.

Which I will qualify….we need better batteries to store electricity for transportation, not the grid. I can only imagine the scale of grid level storage based on wind/solar. Probably need a double fridge size battery in every home and house size battery in ever corner.

.

BTW….If you are in Quebec, you have enormous amount of hydro power which tilts the renewable discussion. Even then, if you start converting transportation, you will run out of it.

The most viable. Efficient, Cost effective fuel so far. For heavy transport.
Which. In places like US, AUST and Can.
is gas primed diesel powered Combustable motors…
You could never have the volume or capacity of battery or Solar power to haul trucks around that weigh over 103 ton as our main tpt on the roads are.
Even the little 32 and 64 ton Semi and B doubles wouldn’t be viablefor any distances under todays technology.

When Battery tech improves 50+ %.
Then we can consider OFF Grid in homes like ours, with more panels added.

Our 4.2kw System. Combined with grid. Runs us,
and gives SOME cash returns. Around $650 Per annum.
when managed properly.
and while they giving us 44c per kw Fed into grid
after our usage for running home.

In Hindsight, I should have installed the max allowed 5 kw inv
and around 7kw in panels.
But my mind was honest. Just thinking of running my home on a system with capacity of doing so. Not cash returns at all Drrrrr.
A 7kw panel/5 kw Inv. Gives SOME loss in panel output when on full sun. I.E.
Generating 7kw from panels. While System only accepting max 5kw through inverter.
But giving FULL 5kw INput into system and grid 90+% of time,
for Best cash returns.

You live and remember hey. Later.

I have that system on home. with a 20 yr old wind Genny from earlier yacht
mounted on Carport roof with one old (35yrs) 40w panel
through a 15a 12v regulator.
Just to keep my 4 x boat battery’s and 3 x Ute battery’s floating.
Old but goodie. Still works well with free power input.
It Often floats Roger, next door ute batt’s too,
while he out on the mines earning a crust or two.

At the moment. Here.
It would cost me OVER $14k, for a 10yr max life Battery Bank
to run this system/home. 24/7/365.

NOT yet viable hey. But one day.
Probably AFTER we in two little Chinese painted jars I reckon.

Since last December we paid on average $2.23/gal… and our car gets about 130 mpg.

And among the tires, there was much rejoicing. :smiley:

I heard him too. God was only talking about Fling Wings (helicopters)… lol

I agree, for some electric cars are perfect.
But for the rest of us it is not,

Electricity is not cheap, and the more you use , the more expensive it gets. When you charge an electric car, you also waste a bit due the inefficiency.
Obviously gas engines are way more inefficient although in the winter it helps with the heating .

What I can’t justify is the extra $5000-10000 when you buy an electric/hybrid car vs a similar gasoline car or about $50-100 in monthly payments. You also need to buy a charger for your home and that is not a cheap Liitokala. :slight_smile:

And then you can’t fold the back seats because of the battery and your trunk is smaller as well, so you might end up buying a bigger car.

Smart car as a 4th car sounds cool especially with your parking issues, is that electric or gas? They are kind of loud, so I assume gas but no idea.

Insurance is 3x times your gas bill? Wow, I guess 15 minutes will not save you 15%. on car insurance…,
Looks like they are taking advantage of you.

What kind of car do you have?

Yeah.

130MPG is absolutely insane, and is the realm of electric cars.

With the volumetric energy density of gasoline, that kind of efficiency would be monumental.

Unless you meant 13,0MPG of course…

Tesla Model 3 :slight_smile: I converted kwh of electricity cost to $/Gal of gasoline.

You guessed it, electric. The cool thing about having a massive electric motor is that it is also a massive generator when you let off the gas. So you recharge when you slow down, upping your MPG.

Ok… not bad at all. :wink:

2.65$ here in West Virginia.

Ahhh Good old times :slight_smile:

Storing hydrogen is generally a Bad Idea, roundabout at best.

Anyone ever hear of hydrogen embrittlement? The little critters get into the spaces between metal atoms and do what freezing water does to cracks in concrete.

And it’s ever-elusive, being able to sneak through even the smallest gaps in connectors, fittings, and the like. Leaks like a sieve…

It also has that nasty property of a negative JT constant, so when you release it from a container, it doesn’t get cold like, say, an aerosol spray, but heats up and can actually get hot enough to burst into a wonderfully invisible flame. Firefighters encountering H2 flames have to use cloth-on-a-stick to poke around and see if it bursts into flames, rather than walking into it themselves.

Produce it on demand if you really need it, but don’t store it.

Electric Smart car. They get hammered the first three years and then become cheap enough to ignore any further depreciation.

Even though I’m the sole driver, insurance companies are hitting me as if all three are daily drivers.

When we finally convert over to the perfect green world of no carbon based fuel use, I will need a 1 MW battery in the basement.

Yearly, I use 12-14 megawatts normally, another 6-7 megawatts for transport, yet another 9-10 megawatts for heating. So a two week backup is….1 megawatt.

About 91,000 18650 cells. That shouldn’t be too expensive.

Ohhh……what I wouldn’t give to live in some politicians utopian fantasies….

I have some sexy words for you.

Radioisotope thermal generators.

Please contain your excitement!

Porn site….no enviros allowed….

http://ansnuclearcafe.org/2012/08/07/converting-heat-into-electricity-without-moving-parts/#sthash.BD8d0r7x.dpbs

Yeah, that’s what they use in satellites and probes and all kinds of spacey star-tracky stuff.

Probably get raided by some DOE hit squad, though.