About those batteries. 2

[rb1957]

whilst all that is good and practical, I'm sure the "green" folks want us to drop our cars (I mean Greta doesn't need one) and use public transit if we must (though I image cycling is the preferred mode). And, please, don't respond with how impractical this is (particularly if you don't live in Europe or a large city) ... and don't respond with how we'll have to do this (I don't care).

"Hoffen wir mal, dass alles gut geht !"
General Paulus, Nov 1942, outside Stalingrad after the launch of Operation Uranus.

 

[JoshPlumSE]

rb1957:

Have you seen any of those partially electric bicycles? I'm seeing a ton of them these days. It's just just enough of a motor and a batter to power you up hills and such. But, it's still pretty light weight for when you're doing regular biking. Most of the last 20 years I have lived within about 7 miles of my home. If I had one of those bikes back then:
a) I would be in way better shape than I am now.
b) It wouldn't have taken me any longer to commute.
c) I could have saved a ton of money in gas.

Not saying that this is a major solution. Just pointing out how the marketplace is coming up with small, incremental improvements based on profit motive. Not enough to "save the world" on it's own. But, it's not something that should be dismissed. These small things really do add up.

 

[rb1957]

A friend had one on a bike trip (the Loire valley ... fantastic). Ok it was some years back but it was as heavy as ... you can imagine, very unstable at low speed, big turning rad. And still I hear the "greenies" saying ... "too much, pedal power is what you need. What is the environmental cost of your batteries, your electricity ?" What is the cost of your steel (lord forbid Carbon) tubes ? your rubber wheels ? tisk, tisk

"Hoffen wir mal, dass alles gut geht !"
General Paulus, Nov 1942, outside Stalingrad after the launch of Operation Uranus.

 

[GregLocock]

"it's surprising how much better the gas mileage is when you use this mode"

When my car is idling it uses 1.4 litres of fuel per hour, with HVAC on. I use about 30 litres a week, which takes about 6 hours. So for auto stop start to make an appreciable difference (5%) to my fuel cosnumption it would have to be engaged an hour a week, 1/6 of my travel time. As usual it is horses for courses, in town it would not surprise me to hear that I am stopped for minutes in every hour, my nearest (as of this minute) set of lights has a cycle time that is of the order of 90s, and is not the worst by a long chalk. However, my occasional forays into town are few and far between. 3 of the the nearest 4 towns to where I normally live don't even have lights.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

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[TugboatEng]

I can't imagine poor combustion during startup and loss of catalytic converter efficiency due to lower temperatures help with pollutant emissions.

 

[LionelHutz]

That's OK, the manufacturers did imagine both of those and they took steps to address both of those issues.

 

[TugboatEng]

Did they?

 

[JoshPlumSE]

"it's surprising how much better the gas mileage is when you use this mode"

Greg -

I should point out that this mode may involve other things with the car as well. The most NOTICEABLE thing, of course, is the engine shutting down when idling. The car doesn't seem to accelerate as quickly when in that mode. However, I have no idea why.

 

[GregLocock]

Oh OK, mine just has a button for autostopstart only.

Yes light up time for the cats was a big issue for emissions in the first 60 seconds (I think). Solution was to move cats closer to the heads, insulated downpipes, cal changes. I'm sure there was more.

Of course that meant the cats overheated at full power, so they dump fuel in to keep everything cool. hmm.

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?