Electric cars!....really?

[Omega Man]

what the hell? ...So I'm looking at the power bill, and a commercial comes on the TV touting the virtues of the car of the future, an electric car. My power bill is painful already, I doubt I could afford an electric fill up every night too. I believe the hydrogen tech is a reality, so lets focus on that.



Here is the Honda FCX(Hydrogen) ready to go.



~O~

 

[dan filipi]

Yeah I find it odd the power companies are pushing for us to conserve electricity every way we turn then up pops electric cars.
There is obviously more to this than we know.

 

[slabghost]

Yep get all the energy star crap and replace your incandescent bulbs then plug in this POS car that won't go more than 100 miles. Hydrogen cars are another pipe dream until a cheaper faster way of producing hydrogen is available.

 

[AApple]

The real problem with Hydrogen is storage, or should I say SAFE storage. Unless you can get a system that is built in on the car, you need a storage tank, and some way to safely fill it. Hydrogen likes to explode if not contained properly. There are some cars out there with experimental on-board hydrogen generators, but they aren't all that cost effective, nor do they have the capacity to venture very far without a refill of H2O....hmmmm...if I didn't know better, I'd think I had just described an electric car! :shock:
I had a friend back home that was a college perfesser(physics). He was always trying to get me to build a hydrogen powered car, with his help. We had the same problem...$$$$$! :smilie_happy:

Hybrids WILL be the cars of the future. Believe it or not, there are actually hybrid 18 wheelers on the roads now.... :idea:

 

[mcgovern61]

I agree...hybrids are the wave of the future! Too much money is currently invested in our oil and gasoline distribution system to make a change over to anything else very effective at the moment. In the marine end, we are using hybrids in tugs and ferries. (Tugs up to 4000HP) On the diesel side..keep your eyes and ears open to microturbines. (Google them if you so desire!)

https://www.foss.com/pdfs/PortTechHybArticle.pdf

https://fastlane.dot.gov/2010/02/hybrid- ... ports.html

https://www.capstoneturbine.com/prodsol/ ... ns/hev.asp

 

[carl62cycles]

Wouldn't solar panels in roofs or yards be enough to power these puppies besides of the rest of the home comsumptions. :headscratch:

 

[dan filipi]

Wouldn't solar panels in roofs or yards be enough to power these puppies besides of the rest of the home comsumptions. :headscratch:

Around here a solar system large enough to produce an adequate return costs between $35-$40k.
At the current rate I hear it takes almost 20 years to pay that back in savings. Even that I think is overly optimistic.

It's up to the individual if they can make these investments but the way I see it, going solar is just giving your money to someone else.

 

[Andyb]

what the hell? ...So I'm looking at the power bill, and a commercial comes on the TV touting the virtues of the car of the future, an electric car. My power bill is painful already, I doubt I could afford an electric fill up every night too. I believe the hydrogen tech is a reality, so lets focus on that.


~O~

I am no fan of electric cars because more electricity being used equals more electricity being generated. Living here in Eastern Kentucky, I see what coal has done. It is, at best, a mixed blessing, but accelerating the extraction to feed more electrical demand would only help a few folks while leaving behind some devastation.

That being said, O-Man, I wonder if the increased electric bill cost would be offset by the lack of gas costs? Does anybody know the cutoff where $/KWH stops being a constraint? How many KW do the cars take to recharge everynight?

 

[dan filipi]

That being said, O-Man, I wonder if the increased electric bill cost would be offset by the lack of gas costs? Does anybody know the cutoff where $/KWH stops being a constraint? How many KW do the cars take to recharge everynight?

I'd really like to know the answer to this too.

If it helps anyone figure it out:

1 kilowatt hour (KWH) equals 1000 watts for one hour so........
if you have a 1000 watt bulb burning for 1 hour that will cost you 1 kwh.
A 60 watt bulb would take about 16 hours to consume the same 1 kwh.

Around here we pay about .09 cents per kwh so if you know what the watts required to charge those batteries is it's a easy calculation to figure the cost of electricity compared to gasoline.

 

[slabghost]

what the hell? ...So I'm looking at the power bill, and a commercial comes on the TV touting the virtues of the car of the future, an electric car. My power bill is painful already, I doubt I could afford an electric fill up every night too. I believe the hydrogen tech is a reality, so lets focus on that.


~O~

I am no fan of electric cars because more electricity being used equals more electricity being generated. Living here in Eastern Kentucky, I see what coal has done. It is, at best, a mixed blessing, but accelerating the extraction to feed more electrical demand would only help a few folks while leaving behind some devastation.

That being said, O-Man, I wonder if the increased electric bill cost would be offset by the lack of gas costs? Does anybody know the cutoff where $/KWH stops being a constraint? How many KW do the cars take to recharge everynight?

That's only part of the equation. Fuel is burned either way. It's burned to make the electricity and then use it to power a conveyance that has traditionally burned it's own fuel. Doing this only relocates where the burn is and where the lions share of our money goes. We depend on too many products from oil to simply choose another option. There are plenty of fuel options for transport or electricity production. Biomass, methane, hydrogen, biodiesel, and alcohol to name some of the most popular. None of which can begin to replace the vast number of other products we depend on every day derived from crude oil. We've already proven that cheap oil brings prosperity to the country. Which fuel we use for what is not the problem. The problem is in too much regulation.

 

[joedrum]

this represents the value to regulation which is just a denial of freedom--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------its all a negetive outcome to advancement and freedom :mrgreen: control has nothing to do with freedom period :mrgreen:

 

[dan filipi]

I agree we all should do our part to help the environment but what steams me is when we get forced into it and I don't like to be forced into doing ANYTHING!
I've seen it happen a lot in the lighting industry and electronics.

I'm starting to look at the little clues.
Gas price is going up, that starts making a hybrid and other alternates look better.
Drive up costs to force us to buy.
Make this not work with that, have to upgrade. No choice unless your going to stop using whatever that is.

I have a first generation Apple TV.
The new version only has DVI output, no DVI on my nice flat screen 32 inch HD TV so I order an adaptor cable to Component.
The new Apple TV doesn't support that cable so no worky.
This time I decided :sensored: you guys and returned it!
Not gonna play their game!

End of rant.

 

[sledge]

one of the many problems with Electric or Hydrogen cars ...is we waited TOO LONG to start on a plan of this size. they should have been working on this 30 or 40 years ago... could we blame this on the man in the big office..... or All of them ..... :smilie_happy:

 

[thewhiterhino]

Yeah I find it odd the power companies are pushing for us to conserve electricity every way we turn then up pops electric cars.
There is obviously more to this than we know.

There are a lot of things that will save electricity none of which are recommended when you get a power audit from the power company.
Rule of thumb:
Never take advice on conservation from anyone that makes money selling the commodity.

Most of the recommendations are expensive with too small benefits.
:mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[slabghost]

one of the many problems with Electric or Hydrogen cars ...is we waited TOO LONG to start on a plan of this size. they should have been working on this 30 or 40 years ago... could we blame this on the man in the big office..... or All of them ..... :smilie_happy:

Uhhh electric and hydrogen and a lot of other alternates were being researched 30-40 years ago. Electric has been around over 100 years. See here.
https://inventors.about.com/library/week ... ctrica.htm
Same with hydrogen.
https://www.firstcarnow.com/first-hydrogen-car.htm
The issue is that the technology has always had issues that made both impractical.

 

[mcgovern61]

one of the many problems with Electric or Hydrogen cars ...is we waited TOO LONG to start on a plan of this size. they should have been working on this 30 or 40 years ago... could we blame this on the man in the big office..... or All of them ..... :smilie_happy:

Not so fast!! GM had a hydrogen operated engine back in 1980! I was at Epcot center then and GM had their own section that included a working hydrogen operated vehicle. So who stopped the plan back then?? (Another neat booth back then was the AT&T display which was show casing video telephone calls! Can you say webcam??)

 

[scdmarx]

I agree that hybrids is where it's at, and that's gonna be around for a long time yet.
As for petroleum anything, all I can say is "follow the money".

Personally, I will buy into the electric transportation thing when I am able to generate my own electricity at near 0 cost.

 

[slabghost]

Hybrids will last until batteries need replaced. No one will see any value in replacing them.

 

[sledge]

yeah your right , they have been around for 100 years , but back then nobody was in a hurry like today ,as long as a car was faster than a Horse it was ok.... and just like now , if they had a small battery pack ,that didn't take all the power to pull the batteries around , AND , that would REchange in the amount of time it takes to fill your Gas Tank , and still run the car at least 100 miles before charging , it would sell .... but , we ain't there yet. ......BUT .......we do have our Goldwings...... and mine gets about 42 MPG .......thats pretty good. :music:

 

[AApple]

Randy made a good point to start with. How is plugging your fancy-schmancy E-lectric car in to your wall outlet at home gonna save you any cash, if you're still paying for the electricity? It's still money going out of yer pocket for transportation. Full electrics are only meant to be commuter cars anyway...not barn burners on the freeway. And...when time comes to replace the batteries, is paying almost the same for batteries as you paid for the car really gonna be worth it? No.
The real push for electrics & hybrids is emission control...not saving the driver money. :head bang: