Featured 54.5 mpg target is off the table, U.S. regulators say

Sure that is easy sale, but its state regulators that have kept infrastructure down, and oil lobby is hitting the regulators. As mentioned oil lobbiests lost in connetecut so infrastructure is being built. If more people switch to propane and electric, it would bust the lobby, and gas lines would get built.

 

I actually think it's too early even to say what the mix of purchases will look like in 2025. Imagine if gas prices go up a great deal in 2020, and stay there. We might not see as many large SUVs.
Yes, I'm OK with higher gas taxes.

 

if record SUV sales continue through 2020, those SUV's will average about 60,000 travel miles in the interim. That's less than ⅓ the way thru their life expectancy. They won't be going away 5 years later - they'll still be guzzling on down the road. Let's not be too quick to forget what GM did when gas prices remained low during the late 90's/early 2000's. They purchased the Hummer line so that they could build ever bigger land barges. That's because it's easier profit for them.
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we have towns that don't even have gas lines. propane and electric are way too expensive for heat, nobody switches to them.

 

not around here. i don't know the btu's, but i'm paying around $2.50 for oil (heat and hot water) and $3.50 for propane. (dryer and gas fireplace) i would have to double-check with my wife, she pays the bills, and they fluctuate quite a bit. stove/oven is electric.

 

what does 'excluding taxes' mean? she just came in, $3.76 for propane (we own the tanks) and $2.20 for oil a few months ago.

ma shows $2.20 for oil and $2.90 for propane. maybe i'm getting hosed on propane or taxes are higher?

how many btu's in a gallon of each fuel? i have a kinetic energy high efficiency boiler, but forget the percentage.

 

A micro-turbine driving a high-speed alternator would be an interesting burner since the excess electricity could off-load some of the house load. Nice thing about a micro-turbine, very simple hardware.

Bob Wilson

 

wind turbine?

 

sounds like i'll be sticking with earl.

 

Capstone Turbine Corporation (CPST)

Bob Wilson

 

yea - they're pretty darn efficient, according to one of our own PC members - EE Phill. As proof of concept, he used a capstone (costly buggers!) to power his own portable Chademo - tapped right into the traction pack so if need be, it'd act like a PHEV;


IIRC, he built his own GenII PHEV as well - with ~ 40 miles range. And in his spare time, he mod's the portable EVSE that comes with most plugin's so that they not only charge on 120v - but 208v & 240v as well.
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Excellent! Found a source: 2012 Nissan Leaf Gets Unofficial Jet-Powered Range Extender, Quick Charger

I have a number of questions such as BSFC.

Bob Wilson

 

Just purchased our downsize home, which does use propane. A huge difference from our former natural gas home. $2.79/gallon now, prebuy will be under $2 next month.

A fairly botched new pipeline project is underway now in Vermont, and people and various groups fought them every step of the way. There are strong lobbying groups out there organized to fight any fuel other than solar and wind, just because. Many of them simply do not understand the difference between feasible electric generation and clean, inexpensive fuel for heat. The very same groups that want to put 400 foot high windmills up and down the Green Mountains.

It's been interesting to say the least to watch people lobby and fight for tax credits and destroy the mountainsides at the same time as lower-income people struggle to heat their homes by burning oil and wood. I had a long talk one evening with someone that fought against the NG pipeline. His bottom line was this. If the NG pipeline went through, it would leave the group with little to fight against. Pretty sad ideology when cleaner and solutions take a back seat to personal gain and political power. But I've seen this ideology behind the scenes of most every group like this. They have a list of priorities a mile long. Clean energy is very near the bottom of that list.

 

I think we have gotten far afield of cafe. I'll answer your question then bring it back. The capstone generator he is using claims 26% efficiency from propane to electricity. Most of the time this electricity will be stored rather than used right away so you have additional charging losses. I think efficiency is what you were thinking of, and bsfc is a step to get there, but really isn't that important here. Larger turbines are more efficient.

But the reason for the frankenbeast of a propane turbine trailer for a BEV is BEV purity, and that means that some will be pushed toward bev's instead of phevs like the i3-rex and volt. You can easily bring the thing to stranded bevs, and let them move it to their destination (well if they only had trailer hitches). The price is about 10x more than the rex in the i3, but hey you get a bev that can't burn gas.

cafe gives bevs more bonuses than phevs, and california the leading state for sales gives bevs extra financial incentives for the buyer and manufacturer.
The CAFE Numbers Game: Making Sense of the New Fuel-Economy Regulations - Feature - Car and Driver

Separate that rex from the car and for starts california will give the buyer an extra $1000 and a HOV sticker. Then cafe will count the car 2x in the manufacturers calculation instead of 1.6x. Remember for cafe it uses the old 2 cycle so hybrids and plug-ins don't need to accelerate fast or use heat or airconditioning. For the electric portion they get a 6.667x bonus on mpge too.

 

Toxic Coal ash vs nuke waste ... tough call;
Group forms to fight San Onofre nuclear waste plan | SanDiegoUnionTribune.com
We have some 1,600 tons of radioactive waste sitting on the beach off San onofre ... and now some nimrods want to bury it there right there in a theoretical tsunami hit Zone ... no plans for effectively monitoring the eventual breakdown of the steel casks that this radioactive mess would be implanted in - but it'd still be hot - long after the steel completely disintegrates ib its salty environment. I wonder how many people were laughing when this crackpot hair-brain notion was proposed - as one would presume the guy suggesting it was making some kind of a perverted joke. Nuke; it's a cleaner mess than coal .... until it isn't.
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Actually thread drift is often a by product of everyone cursing the spot where the dead horse was dragged away. But I was able to find the Capstone BSFC and efficiency data.

Their big claim to fame is using the waste heat at the facility. Then their efficiency shoots up. In contrast, the BMW i3-REx does nothing to reuse the waste heat ... nor does that Generac 16kW unit. Something for another day.

Bob Wilson