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Automotive News & Views Are automobiles a major cause of global warming?
6987 messages, Last post on Dec 07, 2009 at 9:03 AM
You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires
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Replying to: oldfarmer50 (Dec 13, 2008 6:33 am) |
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Replying to: oldfarmer50 (Dec 13, 2008 6:33 am)  I know around here many would have been smashed, by the same trees that brought down the power lines. And at the time of year where we want the most energy, guess what the sun is only up about 9 hr a day low on the horizon. I wonder if windmills froze up in the storm, or were damaged by the weight of the ice?
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Replying to: kernick (Dec 13, 2008 7:32 am) That's an interesting question. I'm not sure the panels would have been damaged by the trees as you would locate them far away from trees for maximum sun exposure. The trouble would be that during the storm the skys are very cloudy so your panels wouldn't be doing much. Combine that with ice build-up and performance really sucks. And of course, at night they do nothing at all.
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Replying to: kernick (Dec 13, 2008 7:32 am) |
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Replying to: oldfarmer50 (Dec 13, 2008 8:08 am) Infrared solar panels work at night, but they are a few years (decades?) from practicality. Why a generator? Just plug your Honda hybrid into the wall outlet and reverse the current flow. 
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Replying to: steve_ (Dec 13, 2008 8:35 am) Old Farmer, glad you are OK and back on line. |
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Replying to: steve_ (Dec 13, 2008 8:35 am) That is exactly what I did with my 2005 GMC Hybrid PU. It had 4 ccts 20 amps each. I kept the refrigerators and freezer going periodically when we had one of those rolling blackouts. The real problem is you need a power transfer switch to isolate your generation from the grid power. If I was going to the trouble of a battery backup system I would just get off the grid and produce all my own. Lots of places in Hawaii do that. Electricity is soooo expensive that alternatives make good sense.
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Replying to: gagrice (Dec 13, 2008 9:29 am) The problem with being off the grid is that you can't sell your excess back to the utility. Here's another GW tack: "Cutting smog and soot has an immediate impact on climate change. The climate-warming effects of these short-lived pollutants have largely been ignored by scientists and regulators focusing on climate policy. Carbon dioxide, with a lifetime of many centuries, is the star of that show, and the effects on climate by these other pollutants, which endure for mere months, are less well understood." Trimming smog and soot offer immediate impact on climate change (Mercury News)
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Replying to: steve_ (Dec 13, 2008 10:00 am) We may dodge the bullet this winter if oil prices stay low. It will mean less people using wood to supplement their other more costly heating oil etc. The neighbor in front and back of me heat with wood. Being close to 100 feet away brings only a faint odor of wood smoke.
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Current after market emergency back ups can be pricey at best. I get a tool equipment catalog www.NorthernTool.com 800-556-7885 that has from the mild to wild (actually common sensical) adaptations which really CAN cost BIG bucks. Bottom line is they are either RUG or D2 powered. When I was in the military and ran a production control facility (efforts of 3000 folks ) we had emergency back up diesel generators roughly about the size of a tractor trailer rig on a hard pad surface. |
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