Electric car climate control

[Refugee]

Locally we had an array blow the drop cable off an 11KV power pole.
It took so long to get planning permission that the panels were NLA so the supplier just shipped the same number of new ones that were more powerful. It went bang.

[Terry]

Here's an even smaller one ...

https://goo.gl/maps/uoMAeAeyJcm

[Murphyv310]

I remain unconvinced.
I think an electric seat is no substitute for a cabin heater, I hate them and what they do to my rear end.
When I see a battery powered tractor pulling a 16 furrow plough through heavy clay soil for 10 hours a day without a break or a 30ft wide combine harvesting, then I will consider that there is a future for battery power.

That's rather "reducto ad absurdum", IMHO...

There are many steps on the way to change, and electric/hybrid driver-less cars & trucks are part of that process. We already have GPS-controlled, driver-less tractors.

There will come a time when combines & other heavy machinery will not be diesel, simply because they cannot be! Eventually, petrochemicals will become too scare or expensive (or both) to use for such tasks - necessity is the mother of invention - solutions will be found.

Hi Nick.
Yes indeed these changes are happening but only in developed countries. The problem in my mind is frightening, farming, building, goods delivery and other forms of transport at the present require a human driver, if we remove these jobs where are these people going to find work, not everyone can go to uni and land up with top jobs, so driving can be an important sector to employ people. Can you really see lorries and busses being driverless on the passes and unrecorded roads of Africa, South America and Asia? The whole world cannot embrace this change.
I have absolutely nothing against cleaning up the atmosphere for following generations, it has to be done but at times I wonder if we are going about things in a sensible way. To manufacture batteries we require huge amounts of energy, the carbon footprint of making batteries is very high.
https://www.industryweek.com/technology-...ive-carbon
So we are not solving the problem doing that, plus of course batteries need to be recharged, so the energy for that is drawn from the grid, gas is used and other fuels to run the power stations. wind just doesn't give enough power at best and at worst is a joke. Other sustainable sources are needed that are reliable, at the moment we don't have that, there is insufficient nuclear as well. The governments targets are unrealistic especially right now with political wrangling about the EU.
In some ways I see no real answer, we do need one and quickly but quick change brings its problems, employment or more like unemployment, living standards, freedom all come to mind.

[Refugee]

That Industry week report runs along the lines of my own thoughts.
To me the smoke stack on a coal power station is an exhaust pipe by proxy for electric cars.
There are two big problems beyond this to look at.
There are local extreme weather problems caused by movement of the earths magnetic poles.
There is general warming problems that were there all the time that have been masked by air borne soot.
Now that soot has largely been banned more sun is hitting the ground and the trend of warming will go on until it meets the trend that was present at the start of the bronze age. The soot has held the warming back for a very long time but no longer since they begun banning it in the 1950s.

[Crackle]

There will come a time when combines & other heavy machinery will not be diesel, simply because they cannot be! Eventually, petrochemicals will become too scare or expensive (or both) to use for such tasks - necessity is the mother of invention - solutions will be found.

Have you not heard of bio-fuel. Hopefully we wont always have to be beholding to the countries supplying petrochemicals.
But lorries are going to struggle to do with out Diesel engines. You will never be able to run an electric lorry all day doing 400 miles or more.
Mike

[Murphyv310]

There will come a time when combines & other heavy machinery will not be diesel, simply because they cannot be! Eventually, petrochemicals will become too scare or expensive (or both) to use for such tasks - necessity is the mother of invention - solutions will be found.

Have you not heard of bio-fuel. Hopefully we wont always have to be beholding to the countries supplying petrochemicals.
But lorries are going to struggle to do with out Diesel engines. You will never be able to run an electric lorry all day doing 400 miles or more.
Mike

Absolutely. I used to run my Audi 80 TDI pure veg oil, never had an issue. Both Diesel and petrol engines can run on a variety of fuels that don't rely on petrochemicals.

[Refugee]

Here's an even smaller one ...

https://goo.gl/maps/uoMAeAeyJcm

But did it blow the drop cable?

[Terry]

Oh dear, that pole looks a trifle overcooked!

[Refugee]

It looks like burnt toast to me.
They had to fix it with three single core armored cables.

[ppppenguin]

If they don't asses the local network properly before doing the installation it's hardly surprising that things go bang or catch fire. On the other hand, there's always a temptation to hook it up and see if it works. On the LV network (230V/400V) maintenance tends to be on the basis of "fix it only if it goes bang". It's commonplace to retrofit a 100A cutout in houses, regardless of the nature of the supply. The old PILC supply cables are amazingly tough and few people load up their supply that heavily or for very long. WIth possible exception of storage heaters. In central London and possibly elsewhere, underground LV joint boxes go bang quite regularly.

I don't know if that laissez faire approach on LV extends to some of the 11kV network.

3x separate red cables, one for each phase, is now the norm for underground 11kV.