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Diesel people just don't get it.

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Main Forum' started by OlsonBW, Apr 4, 2009.

  1. OlsonBW

    OlsonBW New Member

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    People come on this website posting about VW and other cars with diesel engines trying to convince us that diesel is better than gas and gas/electric hybrids. The thing is, they just don't get it.

    It's not about gas, gas/electric, diesel, or even hydrogen. It's about a stepping stone away from ANY form of liquid fuels that we have to go to a pump to buy.

    Hybrids are about taking us a step closer to all electric vehicles.

    We aren't going to need ANY kind of electric fuels in the future. We shouldn't want them as any kind of liquid (or solid) fuels means product and product means mass and mass is infinite while the sun, by all reported expectations, is going to be around a long, long time. At least as far as humans can understand time, which is relative based on what planet you are on.

    It's only a matter of time before recharging batteries is going to take seconds instead of hours or minutes. And it is only a matter of time before the range on electric only vehicles is going to be over 600 miles.

    Imagine a day where solar panels are 3 cents on the dollar and it doesn't take a loan to buy them or have them installed. Imagine a day where batteries to run your house through the non-sunlit hours and cars 24 hours will be small enough and powerful enough so that you only need something the size of a case of motor oil.

    For those of you hating the idea of ugly solar panels being on top of your roof. Don't worry. A day is coming where the windows in your house will also be your solar panels. As for your roof? Most likely there will be thermal collectors built into the roof collecting heat and transferring it to your hot water pipes where instant on electric water heaters will heat up the remaining 30 or 40 degrees (even in deep winter) letting you have hot showers or baths.

    Imagine driving home in your whisper quiet car (except those with powerful noise systems a.k.a. radios currently ...) and parking in your garage or on the street near your house. Imagine your car wirelessly talking to your house and wirelessly recharging.

    Imagine not having electric bills anymore because solar panels and high density/super fast charging batteries will store enough power even in the cloudiest and rainiest places on earth to not need an electric company anymore.

    Imagine how quaint it will seem when countries around the world dug up coal to burn it to create electricity.

    Those days aren't coming soon enough but they are coming. And not only will you not be needing to go to a fuel station (now known as a gas station) to buy fuel. The idea of doing so will be as nostalgic as the corner service station where men would run out of the station to check your oil, check the air pressure in your tires, and cars had bias ply tires.

    It's not about hybrids vs diesels vs hydrogen. It's about moving away from all of any fuel that you purchase. It's about moving to electric vehicles that are recharged at your house with solar power. A day will come when most people won't even remember having to "fill up" their cars with anything as they will seem to always be fully charged.

    Am I one of those left wing environmentalists?

    No. I'm a fat, lazy, cheep (but not cheep enough to shop at Wallmart) Americans who doesn't want to have to go somewhere to buy fuel anymore. Oh, and I'm tired of hearing about how Exxon had another record profit while also trying to keep from having to pay for the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska...
     
  2. Bob64

    Bob64 Sapphire of the Blue Sky

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    Solar is powered off a physical energy source too :p
    Fusion in the sun. Granted, it should last a few billion years longer :)
     
  3. Fraser

    Fraser New Member

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    OlsonBW, I agree wholeheartedly. Some of your specifics may not turn out, but the concept of using free solar (receptors and collectors aside) thrills me. I'm in favor of nuclear power to help the electrical system, but I'd prefer single-user abilities.
     
  4. OlsonBW

    OlsonBW New Member

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    You would still be buying fuel from someone requiring power lines. Imagine being able to get rid of all power and phone lines (and light polution - I wish!!!) along with fuel stations.
     
  5. OlsonBW

    OlsonBW New Member

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    Hey, I'm from the future just letting you know how things will be. lol
     
  6. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    True, but what are we going to use when it stops? :rolleyes:

    Tom
     
  7. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    We have to use today's tools to build the future. But it is a shame to see not just diesel but gas-only advocates trying to rebuild yesterday's technology.

    Bob Wilson
     
  8. a priori

    a priori Canonus Curiosus

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    Buggy whip, Bob.

    Why bother shouting them down when we can simply wave as we pass by their federally-funded dealerships?
     
  9. Fraser

    Fraser New Member

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    You're active and in apparent good health. But some of the rest of us don't expect to live long enough to experience the dark sun.
     
  10. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    Move. There are plenty of suns out there, and more are being made from the hydrogen gas clouds.

    By that time, whatever intelligence exists will have little memory of the nearly prehistoric species called 'homo sapiens'.
     
  11. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    In theory, hydrogen 'fuel' should weigh less than any battery or other electric storage, and should be manufacturable at home with the same solar panels used to charge batteries. Unlike fossil fuels, it really could be just a liquid/solid form of renewable electricity. Most people forget that hydrogen is not an energy source, any more than copper and aluminum are sources of electricity. Hydrogen is just a transmission or storage medium.

    Plenty of technical problems remain ...
     
  12. Ogo

    Ogo Prius Owner since 2008

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    Well, if you invent a way to do cold fusion reactor/power plant, which can be used in a car, then hydrogen can be an energy source and we will nominate you for a Nobel prize, too. :rockon:

    Ogo
     
  13. OlsonBW

    OlsonBW New Member

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    True but there are two issues. One it doesn't grow on trees. Meaning that if I go out into my yard I'm not going to find a hydrogen source. There is water and air but neither contain hydrogen in a form that we can put into our cars. And there is nothing anyone is talking about that will allow each and every person to manufacture their own without having another power source to create it.

    Give a man (or woman) a fish and they eat today. Teach a man (or woman) to fish and they can feed themselves forever.

    Give someone a tank of (fill in the blank) fuel and they drive for a tankful. Teach them how to use solar energy and they can drive forever.
     
  14. bestmapman

    bestmapman 04, 07 ,08, 09, 10, 16, 21 Prime

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    The big problem with EV's are the batteries. These are mini toxic disasters. Now imagine a world full of them.

    So what is the future. If it is electric vehicles, I hope they are not battery powered. What a disaster that would be.
     
  15. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    Hey bestmapman, did someone hack your account or something? I'm
    really surprised by such a statement when you know perfectly
    well how benign and recyclable NiMH is, which at this point is
    still one of the major contenders for EV-powering robustness
    despite the higher energy density of Li-xxx.
    .
    _H*
     
  16. FL_Prius_Driver

    FL_Prius_Driver Senior Member

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    Actually, the source is in the trees. It's water. Until recently, hydrolysis of water into hydrogen and oxygen was a very inefficient process, making direct use of electricity a much better use of solar power than Hydrogen.

    However, MIT has recently invented a large scale method of using cobalt and phosphorous catalysts to make hydrolysis very efficient. This opens up a very powerful extension of solar plants since this invention provides a way of storing solar power plant output during the day for use at night and making hydrogen fuel for situations where direct use of electricity may not be the optimum answer (e.g. aircraft).

    Note that this is a very large scale process just starting to be developed. The electric car is still the best transportation answer to be deployed.
     
  17. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Build a man a fire and you warm him for a day. Set a man on fire and you warm him for the rest of his life.

    Tom
     
  18. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Very important work for things that can't work with batteries, such as airplanes and rockets.

    Tom
     
  19. donee

    donee New Member

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    Hi Tom,

    Hopefully this will work out:

    Emc2 Fusion Development Corporation

    Ie mini-fusion/fision non-radioactive generators.
     
  20. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    Ah, the "Mr. Fusion home energy source." :)

    Tom