|
Post by the light works on Feb 2, 2014 15:02:59 GMT
I will also put it there - but yes, in my climate, people would be amazed at how well a dark colored vehicle disappears in the wrong weather conditions.
|
|
|
Post by silverdragon on Feb 4, 2014 8:02:32 GMT
Sodium lights, its known that a "Pure" red car looks black under sodium street lights.... And thats YOU ferrari owners.
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Feb 4, 2014 15:12:06 GMT
Sodium lights, its known that a "Pure" red car looks black under sodium street lights.... And thats YOU ferrari owners. I don't know that, and one of my missions in life is to slowly replace the ugly inefficient sodium lights on the fire stations with fluorescents. they don't look as nice and red, but they don't look black.
|
|
|
Post by c64 on Feb 5, 2014 12:41:59 GMT
Sodium lights, its known that a "Pure" red car looks black under sodium street lights.... And thats YOU ferrari owners. I don't know that, and one of my missions in life is to slowly replace the ugly inefficient sodium lights on the fire stations with fluorescents. they don't look as nice and red, but they don't look black. Germany is doing the opposite. Most councils swapp(ed) the mercury street lamps with sodium ones to save electricity. So maybe you could trade in your sodium lights for the mercury ones? My council was a lot smarter, they sat it out until LED technology became good enough and started to switch late in the last year. Even more power savings and even better lights! And according to the letter I received from them, the costs for the swap are compensated by power savings within 5 years - and the LED street lamps will last at least 10 years.
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Feb 5, 2014 14:34:29 GMT
I don't know that, and one of my missions in life is to slowly replace the ugly inefficient sodium lights on the fire stations with fluorescents. they don't look as nice and red, but they don't look black. Germany is doing the opposite. Most councils swapp(ed) the mercury street lamps with sodium ones to save electricity. So maybe you could trade in your sodium lights for the mercury ones? My council was a lot smarter, they sat it out until LED technology became good enough and started to switch late in the last year. Even more power savings and even better lights! And according to the letter I received from them, the costs for the swap are compensated by power savings within 5 years - and the LED street lamps will last at least 10 years. mercury vapor lights have been outlawed for several years. if I were to change to another HID, it would be Metal Halide, which produces a more balanced light - but considering HID bulbs cost $30-50 and upgrading to CFL costs no more than $10 (for the bulb) and produces better light at half the energy cost, and converting to LED will be as easy as changing a bulb, later; it's a pretty good plan.
|
|
|
Post by c64 on Feb 5, 2014 15:05:54 GMT
Germany is doing the opposite. Most councils swapp(ed) the mercury street lamps with sodium ones to save electricity. So maybe you could trade in your sodium lights for the mercury ones? My council was a lot smarter, they sat it out until LED technology became good enough and started to switch late in the last year. Even more power savings and even better lights! And according to the letter I received from them, the costs for the swap are compensated by power savings within 5 years - and the LED street lamps will last at least 10 years. mercury vapor lights have been outlawed for several years. if I were to change to another HID, it would be Metal Halide, which produces a more balanced light - but considering HID bulbs cost $30-50 and upgrading to CFL costs no more than $10 (for the bulb) and produces better light at half the energy cost, and converting to LED will be as easy as changing a bulb, later; it's a pretty good plan. Actually they all had changed the florescent with sodium, too. The sodium lights in the area where my parents live are very bad. You can't really see a thing there as pedestrian. You see a lot of people with LED headlamps walking their dogs which wear blinking LED lights there. But for driving a car, there is an advantage in those "Right has right-of-way" mazes they have there. If you don't see white light, you don't need to slow down at an intersection. But just shutting down all street lights would have an even better effect. My council is also swapping all street lamp heads for LED ones. They need a different reflector to be real efficient. Also while in the past, they switched off every second street light to save power after midnight, now 1/4 of the LEDs shut down on each lamp. It doesn't turn that darker and the streets are still illuminated relative evenly. And even during power save mode, they are much better than the sodium lights! In power save mode, the remaining LEDs form an X pattern. The only thing which is sad is that those LED heads look ugly on the very old street "lantern" poles.
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Feb 5, 2014 15:43:33 GMT
I haven't bothered to take pictures - but I am retrofitting 70W sodium fixtures for 26W CFLs - and by retrofitting, I mean bypassing the ballast and connecting the socket directly to the circuit. when a bulb fails, I retrofit the fixture - so there are still some sodiums on the station, and some fluorescent - you can tell which is which because the fluorescents look brighter.
|
|
|
Post by c64 on Feb 5, 2014 16:04:03 GMT
you can tell which is which because the fluorescents look brighter. and "not yellow"!
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Feb 5, 2014 16:10:01 GMT
exactly.
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Feb 15, 2014 16:34:51 GMT
watching old episodes of Top Gear on Netflix, and Jeremy Clarkson said something quite profound while testing the Nissan Leaf:
"the electric car is a bit like the laserdisc or betamax"
and that is quite true - it is a transitional car which essentially serves to test new technologies to develop a platform that will be a replacement for the traditional internal combustion engine.
|
|
|
Post by kharnynb on Feb 23, 2014 20:53:02 GMT
Catching up on this thread a bit.
I prefer newer cars, say after 2002 or so , that have the basic safetyfeatures with most of the initial bugs ironed out....
We drive a 2003 xsara picasso with about 200k on the counter, it drives well, not over the top, but it is a comfortable, relatively cheap car that fits 5 adults or a surprising amount of stuff.
Especially since all rear chairs are individually removable ;D
|
|
|
Post by kharnynb on Feb 23, 2014 20:54:21 GMT
Oh, and "newer" abs yes, esp only on certain cars, not on audi's, since they cannot seem to program an esp that's actually improving safety on iced roads.
|
|
|
Post by silverdragon on Feb 27, 2014 8:00:19 GMT
But then some poor sod pays good money to beta test it for them..... And when it breaks down, are they going to be happy with that response?...
Thats because the berk in the merc (Mercedes) and the [deleted] in the BMW have all gone to audi now, and the quality of drivers has dropped right through the floor and is now dragging on the tarmac. Dont blame the car, blame the driver.... Most of them are still trying to beat the lap record they have for that road set on the clock on the dashboard.... Unfortunately, this means the onboard computers have a higher IQ than the driver.
Yesterday I witnessed an Audi force his way onto a roundabout without giving way (Traffic circle in usa), which of course got a cacophony of Horn blasts from the poor guy who he cut up who had to test his ABS, he then gets out and verbally berates the guy he just cut up for nearly causing a dent in his "posh" car... audi TT, 2014 plate.... What a twonka. I then witnessed him cut up, swerve suddenly to lane change, weave in and out of traffic, for about the next 5 miles, until I turned off that road....
I was driving my favoured Volvo FH16, with about 30 tons behind... so all that tw@tishness didnt get him that far ahead did it?...
This is common behaviour for the traffic twit these days, its an almost daily occurrence, most of them drive Audi, and around the usual suspect time, school hours, an alarming number of road fools are WOMEN.....
Stands back and awaits the usual criticism... I know that allegation is controversial, but, its the truth, as observed by me.
I only notice and/or remember the really bad drivers.....
|
|
|
Post by kharnynb on Feb 27, 2014 10:16:19 GMT
While I totally agree that Audi has become nitwit car nr1, my experience is with work's A8's that we drive if we have to move to "the big city".
The damn thing overcompensates so badly in slippery corners, that unless you remember you are driving the dumbmobile, you'll end up on the inner lane of the corner.....
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Feb 27, 2014 16:09:25 GMT
But then some poor sod pays good money to beta test it for them..... And when it breaks down, are they going to be happy with that response?... Thats because the berk in the merc (Mercedes) and the [deleted] in the BMW have all gone to audi now, and the quality of drivers has dropped right through the floor and is now dragging on the tarmac. Dont blame the car, blame the driver.... Most of them are still trying to beat the lap record they have for that road set on the clock on the dashboard.... Unfortunately, this means the onboard computers have a higher IQ than the driver. Yesterday I witnessed an Audi force his way onto a roundabout without giving way (Traffic circle in usa), which of course got a cacophony of Horn blasts from the poor guy who he cut up who had to test his ABS, he then gets out and verbally berates the guy he just cut up for nearly causing a dent in his "posh" car... audi TT, 2014 plate.... What a twonka. I then witnessed him cut up, swerve suddenly to lane change, weave in and out of traffic, for about the next 5 miles, until I turned off that road.... I was driving my favoured Volvo FH16, with about 30 tons behind... so all that tw@tishness didnt get him that far ahead did it?... This is common behaviour for the traffic twit these days, its an almost daily occurrence, most of them drive Audi, and around the usual suspect time, school hours, an alarming number of road fools are WOMEN..... Stands back and awaits the usual criticism... I know that allegation is controversial, but, its the truth, as observed by me. I only notice and/or remember the really bad drivers..... well, it appears the current consensus is that people love their hybrids and would not buy another one. I personally think as America increases our urbanization, more and more multiple car households will have an electric for one of them. the biggest hurdle for car tech is still people with "one for all" mentalities. I mean - you don't consider that any car you drive has to have all the capabilities of your Volvo FH16 - but a lot of 'Muricans do have that sort of mindset. "but I have to have a car that carries 8 passengers, because once I drove the carpool for my bridge club" or "my car has to be able to do a nonstop road trip to disneyland, even though if I go there I will probably fly" or "my state's highest speed limit is 65 MPH, but I still have to have a car that will do 150, because one day I might decide to become a club racer"
|
|
|
Post by GTCGreg on Feb 27, 2014 17:09:59 GMT
watching old episodes of Top Gear on Netflix, and Jeremy Clarkson said something quite profound while testing the Nissan Leaf: "the electric car is a bit like the laserdisc or betamax" and that is quite true - it is a transitional car which essentially serves to test new technologies to develop a platform that will be a replacement for the traditional internal combustion engine. I agree with that assessment of EV's. It will take a major breakthrough in technology to make them practical. But here is one new technology that could do just that. It's a battery with refillable liquid electrodes. When you use up all the electrode liquid, you just refill it and you're good for another 500 miles or more. Or you can plug the car in and recharge your old liquid if you have the time, such as overnight. It would only take a few minutes to refill the battery. About the same as filling the gas tank on a conventional vehicle. Then the "gas" station would recharge your old liquid and sell it to another customer. Refillable Liquid Electrode Battery
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Feb 28, 2014 2:05:42 GMT
watching old episodes of Top Gear on Netflix, and Jeremy Clarkson said something quite profound while testing the Nissan Leaf: "the electric car is a bit like the laserdisc or betamax" and that is quite true - it is a transitional car which essentially serves to test new technologies to develop a platform that will be a replacement for the traditional internal combustion engine. I agree with that assessment of EV's. It will take a major breakthrough in technology to make them practical. But here is one new technology that could do just that. It's a battery with refillable liquid electrodes. When you use up all the electrode liquid, you just refill it and you're good for another 500 miles or more. Or you can plug the car in and recharge your old liquid if you have the time, such as overnight. It would only take a few minutes to refill the battery. About the same as filling the gas tank on a conventional vehicle. Then the "gas" station would recharge your old liquid and sell it to another customer. Refillable Liquid Electrode Batterythe other option is to make them with hot swappable battery packs. It would be a bit of a challenge handling the financial side - but then a driver could go to a battery station and get a battery swap. of course, the other option is to not use EVs for long distance travel. a 100 mile range is plenty adequate for the average commuter, and with improvements in auto train tech or simply renting a conventional car for vacation the occasional long range trip is covered.
|
|
|
Post by GTCGreg on Feb 28, 2014 3:12:10 GMT
the other option is to make them with hot swappable battery packs. It would be a bit of a challenge handling the financial side - but then a driver could go to a battery station and get a battery swap. of course, the other option is to not use EVs for long distance travel. a 100 mile range is plenty adequate for the average commuter, and with improvements in auto train tech or simply renting a conventional car for vacation the occasional long range trip is covered. The problem with swapping complete battery packs is the size of the battery. What many do not realize is that the energy stored in a battery is in the chemical makeup of the electrodes, not in the electrolyte solution. In order to have a lot of stored energy, you have to have a lot of electrode material and all of the support structure to hold it. This makes for a very large and heavy battery pack. One of the advantages of this liquid electrode battery is that the actual battery cell is fairly small and you can concentrate a lot of electrode material in tanks and just pump it into the cell as needed. You could even keep a spare tank of electrode liquid "on charge" at home while your are out driving as the electrode liquid can be reused over and over. It will be a while before this technology is ready for prime time, if it ever is. But I personally know some of the people at Argonne National Lab and they are pretty excited about it.
|
|
|
Post by silverdragon on Feb 28, 2014 8:03:05 GMT
I cant see what is wrong with a one-for-all mentality. Especially if you only have space and or finances for one vehicle.... I can only drive one at a time. The Volvo FH16 is the works truck , it is happy pulling 44 tons, but I cant fit that on my drive... and trust me I tried?... its just too big for the road I live on.
Edit..:[Disclaimer, all figures stated are "off the top of my head", as in, something I think I already know, but were correct last time I looked, and I DID look recently, but I, as always, reserve the right to be a bit out as technology overtakes me.]
People without drives, those that live in apartments, may only have one parking spot allocated per household. Those who live in estates where parking is restricted may only have one or two spaces per household.
So where does the small one or two seater fit as a second car in that?...
My own vehicle, apart from work, where indeed I may have to have a vehicle that can do 300 mile there and back, if it hasnt got the whole family in, its got a weeks shopping for that family... so all of its use is outside the abilities of a low powered reduced space vehicle.
And where in some places, a one hour commute to work is about normal, that up to three hours daily if you plan ahead and consider that often you will be delayed, the electric car is perfectly useless ... unless you can do that commute without any heat, lights, or any form of radio.... so useless in winter.
So, for the ones who CAN use a reduced range reduced load reduced passenger trips, you are aiming the vehicle at Minorities.
My own Mum is likely to be doing a 200 mile trip at least once per month. She owns a small car, four/five seat, a mobile home which she uses for holidays, and a push-bike for local trips, as a pensioner, she gets about a bit, but she neither has the room, finances, or want for an electric thing, as it wont work for her.
So apart from those who's commute is about 50 miles or less, who live on their own, have no friends, and dont go anywhere, just who wants this vehicle?...
And for those who do have and love-and-will-never-change, the ones I meet who are like that are also highly likely to hug a tree with no prior warning.
Unless, as you say, they have the ability to own finance run and store a fleet of various other vehicles.....
And just who wants a garden full of different cars for different days?... The space in my garden is for kids to play in. My kids.... and their likkle dog.....
Insurance, between 200 to 500 a year per vehicle with a full 10 yr no claims discount like I have, Road tax fund may be almost free on some cars, but yearly MOT safety check is not, thats 50 upwards dependant on repairs. Add in depreciation, and cost of replacing batteries every 6 to 8 years, dependant on level of useage, at about estimated £8,000 a set, or battery rental in some of £80 per month..... [Thats more than I spend on petrol some months?... ] So who has the finances to afford all that?...
Plus, I have done the maths, and this is NOT factoring in any running costs. If I scrap my perfectly good vehicle at this time the cost and environmental cost of that scrapping, the reduced life of that vehicle, far outweighs all of the cost of a new enviro-friendly one.... Mine already does almost zero carbon dioxides monoxides or trioxides, in fact, on a polluted road, my cars exhaust is cleanser than the air that goes in the engine....
Now, with all the above, bring it on, I am wholeheartedly ion favour of an alternative to the petro-chemical engine. But if that means leaving half my family and luggage at the side of the road, you are going to need a forklift to get me away from my current car. Which coincidently gets 30 mpg with a full load on board....
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Feb 28, 2014 14:31:05 GMT
I cant see what is wrong with a one-for-all mentality. Especially if you only have space and or finances for one vehicle.... I can only drive one at a time. The Volvo FH16 is the works truck , it is happy pulling 44 tons, but I cant fit that on my drive... and trust me I tried?... its just too big for the road I live on. Edit..:[Disclaimer, all figures stated are "off the top of my head", as in, something I think I already know, but were correct last time I looked, and I DID look recently, but I, as always, reserve the right to be a bit out as technology overtakes me.]People without drives, those that live in apartments, may only have one parking spot allocated per household. Those who live in estates where parking is restricted may only have one or two spaces per household. So where does the small one or two seater fit as a second car in that?... My own vehicle, apart from work, where indeed I may have to have a vehicle that can do 300 mile there and back, if it hasnt got the whole family in, its got a weeks shopping for that family... so all of its use is outside the abilities of a low powered reduced space vehicle. And where in some places, a one hour commute to work is about normal, that up to three hours daily if you plan ahead and consider that often you will be delayed, the electric car is perfectly useless ... unless you can do that commute without any heat, lights, or any form of radio.... so useless in winter. So, for the ones who CAN use a reduced range reduced load reduced passenger trips, you are aiming the vehicle at Minorities. My own Mum is likely to be doing a 200 mile trip at least once per month. She owns a small car, four/five seat, a mobile home which she uses for holidays, and a push-bike for local trips, as a pensioner, she gets about a bit, but she neither has the room, finances, or want for an electric thing, as it wont work for her. So apart from those who's commute is about 50 miles or less, who live on their own, have no friends, and dont go anywhere, just who wants this vehicle?... And for those who do have and love-and-will-never-change, the ones I meet who are like that are also highly likely to hug a tree with no prior warning. Unless, as you say, they have the ability to own finance run and store a fleet of various other vehicles..... And just who wants a garden full of different cars for different days?... The space in my garden is for kids to play in. My kids.... and their likkle dog..... Insurance, between 200 to 500 a year per vehicle with a full 10 yr no claims discount like I have, Road tax fund may be almost free on some cars, but yearly MOT safety check is not, thats 50 upwards dependant on repairs. Add in depreciation, and cost of replacing batteries every 6 to 8 years, dependant on level of useage, at about estimated £8,000 a set, or battery rental in some of £80 per month..... [Thats more than I spend on petrol some months?... ] So who has the finances to afford all that?... Plus, I have done the maths, and this is NOT factoring in any running costs. If I scrap my perfectly good vehicle at this time the cost and environmental cost of that scrapping, the reduced life of that vehicle, far outweighs all of the cost of a new enviro-friendly one.... Mine already does almost zero carbon dioxides monoxides or trioxides, in fact, on a polluted road, my cars exhaust is cleanser than the air that goes in the engine.... Now, with all the above, bring it on, I am wholeheartedly ion favour of an alternative to the petro-chemical engine. But if that means leaving half my family and luggage at the side of the road, you are going to need a forklift to get me away from my current car. Which coincidently gets 30 mpg with a full load on board.... well, she needs to immediately stop using the push bike to have a proper one size fits all mentality. I can certainly understand the "what I have works, and I can't justify a gratuitous upgrade" we have that with my wife's truck. it only gets 17 MPG, and she certainly almost never uses either its cargo or towing capabilities any more - but at the same time, it costs less than $100 a month in fuel to drive so if we were to get her a car with twice the mileage rating, we would have to get it for less than $50.00 a month to break even. however, at the same time, America's common demographic is multiple car families, except for the most urban households - where the norm is no car families. they have to have at least two cars, or they are making a huge number of shuttle trips back and forth getting both adults to their jobs and shopping; and the kids to all their time wasters. the whole point of it is that people should get as much car as they need for the regular pursuit of their lives; rather than get enough car for the once in a lifetime jaunt, that they may never take; while being way more car than they will ever need for their normal lives. yes, if you live in Los Angeles, where you are lucky if your commute is less than an hour, one-way, then you need more than a hundred miles range. or if you drive to the coast/mountains on holiday every month. but consider: in America, this is considered an appropriate vehicle for a single male who commutes 20-30 miles one way to work.
|
|