I attached a generator with some supercaps and an inverter to a stationary bicycle a few years ago, and even though I mostly use it as a way to feel less guilty watching Youtube videos, it does give me a quite literal feel for some of the items on the lower end of the scale. - Anything even even halfway approaching a toaster or something with a heater in it is essentially impossible (yes, I know about that one video)…
Where I am at least, people using less power because power because power need to profit more, is wild . They literally had record profits the last few years, rather than being forced to lay down solar. I think power should be a global endeavor, not some local for profit business with complete regulatory capture that makes competition illegal. Yes I'm angry, because I pay more in electric than most anywhere in the wor…
Does that use a lot of energy?
141–150 of 226 posts
Re: Does that use a lot of energy?
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Whenever you do the real world calculation for what an electric cars CO2 profile looks like it turns out to be the same as a gasoline car unless your country is majority nuclear. Not at all true: https://www.carboncounter.com/ US-specific but you can even pick a state and it will use the generation mix of that state
You charge your car at night. At night the sun doesn't shine. The mix is mostly coal or if you're lucky mostly gas. This is the type of bullshit I mean by doing real world calculations.
Re: Does that use a lot of energy?
#143This is only "true" if the energy stored in the vehicle's battery got there without any relevant conversion inefficiency; If those joules came from a gas-fired plant, overall efficiency is only about 35-40%: comparable to a typical internal combustion powered-automobile or actually worse than a diesel automobile.
Re: Does that use a lot of energy?
#144I attached a generator with some supercaps and an inverter to a stationary bicycle a few years ago, and even though I mostly use it as a way to feel less guilty watching Youtube videos, it does give me a quite literal feel for some of the items on the lower end of the scale. - Anything even even halfway approaching a toaster or something with a heater in it is essentially impossible (yes, I know about that one video)…
Did you try charging an e-bike with your contraption? I don't know what you can take of this, maybe you can see it as advance pedaling, or to get a feel for energy conversion losses. Anyways, it is the kind of harmlessly stupid idea that I would want to try just because I could.
Re: Does that use a lot of energy?
#145The presentation is nice, but some of the conversions are questionable. For instance: The cost section, wherein 1kWh in the US is figured as having a cost of 9.7 cents. In reality, it's not that way at all. Unless we're fortunate enough to live in an area where we can walk over to the neighborhood generating station and carry home buckets of freshly-baked electricity to use at home, then we must also pay for delivery…
The electric shower also seemed pretty optimistic. I live in an area with about 50°F/10°C ground temperature and my 14.4 kW water heater can just keep a relatively efficient shower head flowing at a comfortable temperature.
Re: Does that use a lot of energy?
#146Re: Does that use a lot of energy?
#147My electricity provider has a rough breakdown. Which I was kind of incventivized to look at because of money. Heating is the big one. The electricity bills are seasonal. Next. I can do my laundry at night because the electricity is cheaper.. oh wait I can’t. That’s apparently unsafe. So I have to do it in the evening. Okay. I’m not going to move my whole small freetime evening around to save a buck on the half-evenin…
Re: Does that use a lot of energy?
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
When one gets in the weeds on EVs or ICE cars two things become shockingly clear: internal combustion is hilariously inefficient YET gasoline is hilariously energy dense. Most people's intuition is wrong on both of these points but then they cancel each other out. Edit: another important point is that the "cost" to acquire gasoline is only the very end of the process. The energy has already been gathered, stored, and…
Every single ICE car driving down the highway is throwing away enough waste heat to heat a small apartment building on a freezing cold day.
Re: Does that use a lot of energy?
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where I am at least, people using less power because power because power need to profit more, is wild . They literally had record profits the last few years, rather than being forced to lay down solar. I think power should be a global endeavor, not some local for profit business with complete regulatory capture that makes competition illegal. Yes I'm angry, because I pay more in electric than most anywhere in the wor…
Energy security is national security. Cheap electricity means you can do things that made "no sense" with expensive electricity. (e.g. smelt aluminum) Cheap electricity means you can underbid regions that have expensive electricity... As Technology Connections said, "Panels that cover your electrical needs for the next 25+ years? In the Midwest, we call that a good deal!"
Re: Does that use a lot of energy?
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
is that a sustained 20TW? Absolutely crazy that we're generating 60kwh per person daily. Where does it all go?
Lots of it is lost to heat with legacy fossil generation.