Electric vehicles

[johna.clements]

Just the scale of the problem.

If you can easily fix part of a problem why shouldn't you do it.

In the distant past when I was at school I was told to do the parts of the exam I could do then look again at the harder parts.

 

[johna.clements]

They have one thing in common with a smart phone and that is they are not very smart!

I will avoid at all cost, already know several people that were conned into having them and none of them actually communicate readings and others that have had failed displays so you cannot even manually read them.


That will be what they are calling the Internet of things IOT, a totally connected house and again something to avoid, would you want Alexa in total control or rely on it to ensure your house does not freeze whilst you are away, forget it still early days and I don't believe in being a guinea pig at my expense.

You are over complicating things. If you need to limit electrical demand the car you do not need to know that the kettle, oven etc is on. All the car needs to know is to stop charging when the rest of the house is drawing more than X. No Alexa or other such technology required, all you need is an electricity metre that measures the rate of usage not just the cumulative amount. It is fairly old tech to measure the speed with which a wheel goes around, there are devices like that in cars.

 

[Spectric]

You will now need the meter to communicate with the car, these meters have issues with communicating at the best of times.

 

[johna.clements]

This is interesting Climate change: 'Sand battery' could solve green energy's big problem
There are a lot of unknowns about the future, not only the details of the impending crisis but perhaps new and viable energy solutions, looking on the bright side!

Sounds like an interesting idea.

I have seen proposals to cool buildings in the summer by running water through them then down into the ground. Then in the winter run it to take the heat back.

There have been similar ideas to use the heat in the ground around the deep tube lines to heat the buildings above in the winter. Cooling the ground in the winter would make the tube cooler the following summer which would make sence as it is difficult to cool the train itself whilst it is underground. The channel tunnel is cooled by water that is pumped back and forth.

 

[johna.clements]

You will now need the meter to communicate with the car, these meters have issues with communicating at the best of times.

Like the sensor that measures a cars speed communicates with the display on the dashboard. Does not seem to be too difficult.

 

[pe2dave]

You say in 1 sentence what I took an essay to say - thank you!

It does assume solar (at least). Not a wanted additional £Nk on top of the car?
I agree without it, it sort of makes sense (cost of installed hardware?).
A well worked out balance sheet may not look so rosy today?

 

[johna.clements]

It does assume solar (at least). Not a wanted additional £Nk on top of the car?
I agree without it, it sort of makes sense (cost of installed hardware?).
A well worked out balance sheet may not look so rosy today?

The cost of running a wind turbine will be made up of the wear and tear and other day to day costs and the return on the capital to build the thing and remove it at the end of the day.

If there is no demand at 3am they can reduce the wear and tear by turning it off but it is just sat there producing no income to pay off the capital costs. If you find a use for the electricity (charging EVs etc) and cover the wear and tear plus something towards the capital you are better off.

 

[pe2dave]

The cost of running a wind turbine will be made up of the wear and tear and other day to day costs and the return on the capital to build the thing and remove it at the end of the day.

Maybe. If you have the real estate to mount one, the finance to erect one, the finance to integrate it with your house electrics.
Too many ifs for me John.

 

[Droogs]

Why does everyone who brings this up have to add a parenthetical "which nobody wants to talk about"? I know lots of people who talk about it, and I disagree with most of them. Why? Because those people, the ones you don't want to talk about, they're not the ones driving Range Rovers, or flying about in private jets, or living in air conditioned houses.
If you think we should have a cull, or compulsory birth control, (which I don't)maybe it should be based on carbon footprint.

This argument is totally mute anyway. As the most recent demographic studies have already shown and been discussed ad nauseum at many high brow confrences the birth rate for the last 2 generations Gen X on has been way below that needed to maintain let alone increase the world's population post 2050. What has kept the numbers going up over the last 30 years has been increased longevity due to better overall health, nutrition and living conditions. China for example has around 1.2 billion people currently most of whom are in fact over 50 in a nation with an expected lifespan of 70, by 2050 they will have under 500 million people. Of which over 40% will be about to retire and leave the working populace.
The birth rates in the west have been nearly as bad. Russia is even worse, this being one of the underlying drivers of their current dispute with Ukraine (if they don't do it now - they will wont have the manpower to succeed for at least 2-3 generations after 2030). The 2 generations born since the 90s in Russia have been the smallest in the country's history and will see their populace fall to around 80 million equal to Germany's now. The Germans along with most of western european nationalities will fall to their lowest numbers in over 150 years by the 2070s. It is the same for South America for the most part with the main exception being Argentina who has not had a significant drop in birthrate over the last 50 years, the US being much the same. As for Africa the birth rate is almost as high as ever but with the prospect of a massive increase in general mortality expected over the next 20 years due to starvation and resource wars.

So there will be enough resources to provide EVs and power generation for those lucky enough to be left. But and this is a big but, they are gonna have to go through hell to get there.

 

[johna.clements]

Maybe. If you have the real estate to mount one, the finance to erect one, the finance to integrate it with your house electrics.
Too many ifs for me John.

Not sure what you are talking about. Few have there own wind turbine. The wind turbine owner will want to make money no ifs involved.

 

[Spectric]

Like the sensor that measures a cars speed communicates with the display on the dashboard. Does not seem to be too difficult.

Yes it may appear that simple but have you ever worked on Canbus? On most cars now the vehicle speed is supplied by the ABS module which puts that message onto the bus and the instrument cluster just reads it and displays. That message is also available to any other module that requires road speed data and the bus carries many messages between modules. Recently a module failed on my car, picked up a known working module and then got the guy round to reset the system so as it reconises my keys. It refused to function until we realised the module came of a two door motor and this one has four doors so it now had unreconised parts in the door locking system, the only solution was to download the original configuration file for the car. You can only do this if you have a valid account and pay. So what may appear simple can often be a lot more complicated and takes us back to standards, ie we use common protocols which just does not happen, can you imagine getting the EV OEM and the ultility meter suppliers to use a common protocol so they can communicate!

 

[pe2dave]

can you imagine getting the EV OEM and the ultility meter suppliers to use a common protocol so they can communicate!

Open standards vs commercial interests? Always a touchy debate!

 

[Spectric]

This argument is totally mute anyway. As the most recent demographic studies have already shown and been discussed ad nauseum at many high brow confrences the birth rate for the last 2 generations Gen X on has been way below that needed to maintain let alone increase the world's population post 2050.

So why have people stopped wanting kids, could be many reasons and the obvious is the long term commitment and expense or maybe they look at the current ones and just don't want one of them or they are so confused with all this shieete about gender they no longer understand the birds and the bee's.

Now look at the boomers, we have done our bit and are now all either approaching or at retirement age so just think how many businesses will be impacted, either closures or staff shortages. Then we already have a skills shortage, take us lot out and it gets much worse because we were a generation of doers and straight talkers rather than the latest lot of screen starrers and thumb wigglers.

But a massive reduction in populations can only be good for the planet, we are over crowded and puting to much strain on resources so that will be a great benefit to the planet.

 

[Spectric]

Open standards vs commercial interests? Always a touchy debate!

Yes that good old balance between letting people have something or making it a money spinner. Good example here is the Android OS, started of life as a completely open source piece of software and now becoming so googlised for there data collection business that it is becoming bloatware and so unfreindly.

 

[johna.clements]

Yes it may appear that simple but have you ever worked on Canbus? On most cars now the vehicle speed is supplied by the ABS module which puts that message onto the bus and the instrument cluster just reads it and displays. That message is also available to any other module that requires road speed data and the bus carries many messages between modules. Recently a module failed on my car, picked up a known working module and then got the guy round to reset the system so as it reconises my keys. It refused to function until we realised the module came of a two door motor and this one has four doors so it now had unreconised parts in the door locking system, the only solution was to download the original configuration file for the car. You can only do this if you have a valid account and pay. So what may appear simple can often be a lot more complicated and takes us back to standards, ie we use common protocols which just does not happen, can you imagine getting the EV OEM and the ultility meter suppliers to use a common protocol so they can communicate!

You could of course set up you electric meter to communicate by your broad band to California to talk to the manufactures main frame. The computer could then contact your car via the mobile phone network and tell it to stop charging.

Alternatively you measure the speed that wheel goes around with a simple electrical mechanical device and when it gets to fast a switch cuts off the electric supply with to the car. When the wheel slows down the supply gets switched back on. I would be surprised if such a device cost as much as a £100.

There is no need to complicate things, unless you wish too. I personally see no benefit in the switch knowing the reason why it is operating.

 

[pe2dave]

Not sure what you are talking about. Few have there own wind turbine.

And to invest 'for an EV' makes no sense to me(mainly financial). That was my point.

 

[DRC]

I don't think anyone will mind driving EV's if the whole thing had been properly planed and the right infrastructure put in place but at the moment it is chaos. Round here no main dealers will repair an EV, they get sent many miles to one of the OEM's repair centres who specialise in that type of vehicle, ok one day things will change but just like when ICE's came onto the scene it took a while to get them to a good all round standard so why be one of the first to jump on the bandwagon and try new technology at the higher cost, wait until it falls.

OEM's being what another b*****y acronym????

 

[Spectric]

Original equipment manufacturer, the company that produces something but may not necessarily sell directly to the public.

I should have said one of the OEM's authorised repair centres.

 

[Spectric]

And to invest 'for an EV' makes no sense to me(mainly financial). That was my point.

I think that many companies producing all sorts of products have cut back on inhouse testing and even quality control so that it is the customer who now completes the testing and is exposed to early product failures, so at this point in time EV's may not be a good investment even if you want one.

 

[pe2dave]

I think that many companies producing all sorts of products have cut back on inhouse testing and even quality control so that it is the customer who now completes the testing and is exposed to early product failures, so at this point in time EV's may not be a good investment even if you want one.

How far up the dev curve should we go? Old expression, you pays your money and makes your choice?
Fair point about user beta testing though... Sadly.