Gas Prices Going Up

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.

You can do that by buying futures through your brokerage.

Maybe we should get some of those futures. Are they available to anyone, or you have to be a certain type of investor?

Water is next, I just saw 40 cents/gallon of filtered water at one of those outdoor water dispensing machines, the price doubled in the last few years,

I know quite a few EV owners and the subject of being green or our carbon footprint rarely comes up. I have either been in or driven over a dozen all electric vehicles and what is talked about is how fun they are to drive. One pedal driving fundamentally changes how you drive. And there are some very interesting things to come as well. A lot of misconceptions out there. The first 13 minutes of this video summarizes it well.

As far as gas prices go, the rate of increase between 2002 and 2008 is quite extreme. According to this cited source it was nearly $2. While causation and association are two different things, it’s worth considering when thinking about the collapse of 2008. Makes me wonder what the US economy would look like if over 6 years you added $2 to today’s prices. It’s not like China and India are going to slow down their thirst for oil. Wouldn’t getting through some of the growing pains car manufacturers are having and gaining consumer acceptance be a good thing. I would rather see a slow steady change to say 10% of the cars on the road being electric as opposed to the 1% now. Might give the U.S. a buffer in case of a natural and/or man made extreme events.

IMO, most people’s best bets to save on gas would be:

1. Use an electric car heater during the winter.
2. Try to keep a constant speed to prevent acceleration and deceleration.
3. Keep your windows open during the summer below 50mph, and closed with AC running above 50mph.
4. Try to use other types of vehicles, like bikes, walking, public transport.
5. Car sharing. Meaning you not only get to pay each less gas, you get to socialise a bit.
6. Turn off the engine/put it in neutral mode after 30 seconds for putting it in neutral, and about 2 mins for turning off the engine.

I saw the video and if one like electric and suits them fine, but once again, more nonsense about the real cost of driving electric cars. Starting from “”it’s only 8 cents” which i seriously doubt that there are no other charges. Minimum billings, delivery charges, transmission loss charges, etc.

Up here, it’s “only 12 cents” but lands up costing 28 cents CDN with all the charges and taxes. Then there is the efficiency loss of charging. The comparison has to be the all in price at the plug versus the pump. For comparable sized cars, at our electricity cost, there is not much difference. Definitely not the nonsense numbers of the video.

Then there is the “average America goes 33 miles a day”. Because I want to buy a Smart car, which actually has one of the lowest ranges, I’ve taken notice of our “shopping trips”. They run anywhere from 10 to 45 miles BUT, if we go to the other side of the city, and it is a BIG city, day shopping and dinner, then we could be closer to 100 miles. So even though I like the Smart for it’s convenience and not worrying about someone scratching it, it has real limitations. If the outing involved highway use or closer to the upper end of it’s range, it’s staying home.

The Leaf is better in both the above regards….but now it’s less “disposable”. The Tesla even more so and closer to a “no anxiety” daily driver.

Like I said in previous posts, I don’t have any problem with electric cars, just the BS that surrounds them. Real costs aside, if it’s a second car AND pretty predictable use AND the ability to conveniently charge it, it IS a solution.

When I buy mine, I’ll make a no BS video.

Between Canada and USA oil production, we don’t need any oil from anyone else. So if the Hormuz Strait closed tomorrow, aside from Russia, China, Europe, Japan and pretty much every major country in the world would be in a world of hurt.

Of course the oil companies will be jumping with glee to rake us over with “world prices”….until they get slapped with “no exports allowed”.

The biggest threat to our oil security are enviros. Which can only be a threat if we let them be a threat.

Ok wut.

Weeze got to thinkem outside da box……

Hahahaha.

I mean, the biggest argument to not using gasoline cars would actually be this, to people who don’t care about our survival on this planet anyway:

If we continue to use petroleum based fuels, how are we going to produce many chemicals if we run out of petrol? Petroleum jelly, many cosmetics, medical plastic, liquid lubricants, etc.

The World Is Going To End In 12 Years… :person_facepalming:

With current coal/gas/oil deposits, about 400 years. They are interchangeable in use.

I want research on this….

1,741 kWh * 0.039782 = $69.26
1,741 kWh * 0.003230 = $5.62
1,741 kWh * 0.066002 = $114.91
$189.79 + other charges = Total $205.36/1741 = $0.118 kWh

OK been gone for a day, and wow this thread has some interesting points.

1. No, put a cover on your radiator. Use the heat from the engine to heat your car, it will still get cold air for better combustion you want to get the longest life out of your rig to maximize the “Carbon foot print”. Also double duty if you find your car not moving, you still have a way to keep warm.
2. Works great if you are driving in no traffic and no hills.
3. Might work, but comfort is the name of the game on long commutes. If you are comfy you are most likely to work on getting better MPG.
4. Again great if your not looking at longer commutes in bad weather or during winter.
5. If there is someone going your way it is a great idea. Not so much if you are going counter to traffic, or have an off hour work schedule.
6. Turn off the engine while in traffic waiting for a light to change? It works if your car does it automatically, if not you are just putting a huge amount of stress on your starter, and shortening the life span of the starter. Also it may work for an automatic car, some of us still drive manual transmission.

Don’t get me wrong, I have a summer car that gets 40~ish MPG, and I have a winter rig that gets 20-24. In the summer my little commuter is a great car and I only have to dodge other drivers and Moose. The winter is a different story. 16 inches of snow over night is not unheard of. I have yet to see a electric or hybrid deal with 6 inches of snow. AWD or 4WD are needed for winter. Icy roads and temps that drop in to the –20 deg F are also common.

Like one of the members from Aus said a page or 2 back. Electric are great if you live in a city, have chargers ready at a decent interval and live in a mild climate.