Forum Post: Letter/e-mail sent to the president.
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 1, 2011, 3:45 p.m. EST by DKAtoday
(33802)
from Coon Rapids, MN
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Lets make a major positive change happen. Lets immediately reduce our reliance on fossil fuel and on bio-fuel ( bio-fuel is not truly green energy anyway as it also pollutes ). Lets go ahead and greatly increase our oil reserves. Lets chop the cost of gas at the pumps ( remember when it was a quarter per gallon? Big Oil says that the current cost is only due to their being unable to keep up with demand ). Lets make small business less challenging to be profitable. Lets make it a whole lot cheaper to run transportation programs ( such as school or metro transit, emergency vehicles, military etc. ). Lets seriously reduce carbon emissions. How? Get together with every auto manufacturer in ( or operating in ) the USA and include the environmental protection agency the senate and congress and invite the Public to attend through the media and/or on-line. Then talk to them about gas/electric hybrids. Yes I know that these vehicles are being made, but they are not even half as good as they could ( should ) be today. These hybrids should be getting more use out of their electric motors. They could be so much more efficient using technology that we already have and are just not using very well. The following is just one example of how they ( gas/electric hybrids )could be beyond 100% more efficient today. Take one of the leaders in this technology today either the Honda Insight or the Toyota Prius. Remove the four cylinder gas motor. Immediate cost reduction, current engines are a gas engine mated to an electric motor and sharing the same transmission. Now the entire motive power then becomes the electric motor. Instal a 50cc single cylinder gas powered generator to supply electricity to the electric motor and to the storage batteries. The generator would only run when the batteries need charging. To reduce the usage of the 50cc generator the vehicle could also incorporate one or more generators that are turned by either the drive shaft or by the turning of the wheels when the vehicle is in motion these additional generators would supply electricity to the drive motor as well as to the storage cells whenever the vehicle is in motion. Current hybrids only make use of the braking system to generate extra electricity. Top it off with a standard electrical cord to plug in when not in use to maintain the charge on the batteries. These vehicles could be made today and they would not have to be restricted to cars, they could and should be (even the ones we have now ) installed in every vehicle on the road - cars, pick-up trucks, vans, buses, semi's, trains, etc. Whoever makes this kind of hybrid will be phenomenally successful as well as be a major environmental and societal Hero. Think of the money being poured into the purchase of gasoline today, much of that money could be saved and put to better use. Sometime down the line the 50cc generator could be hydrogen powered. As for Big Oil, there will always be markets for oil and it's byproducts it just does not have to include transportation fuel.
The president gets sent more shit like this than any one else. He is being bombarded with this stuff. This is poorly written, rambles all over the place, and will not even be read further than two lines in. You want politicians to listen to you? Well guess what, there are people all around you that also want to be heard. And politicians LOVE listening to groups. So propose platforms, and rally people who agree with them to help form a group within OWS with your own way of doing things.
Then watch this, and write a letter on behalf of everyone in the group. Have everyone sign it. And you will be heard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWhLSORCwW0
Start working on your platform's webpage and forum. Maybe I'll join up, I like what I'm hearing.
It is the message that matters.
The number of people in your group matters more to most politicians. Politicians are representatives -- they believe what they believe and you're not going to change their mind any more easily than an average joe on the street no matter how well crafted the argument.
You have to show weight of numbers -- "I have a voter bloc behind me, listen up if you want to get re-elected!"
You have to stay on topic -- focus on your agenda. What are the steps your group needs to take to get where they want to be? At this point we need constitutional amendments, AKA peaceful revolution. So it's not a small order. We're talking about changing the way our democracy functions -- instant runoff voting, getting money out, ending gerrymandering, and ending corporate personhood. WOW. It's a lot to do.
We must organize a massive network of voting blocs all aiming to really give the Republicans something to cry about. They're going to find out what it's like to have something 'rammed down their throat.'
That is, if we can get our shit together and stop squabbling with each other so damned much. The way to do that is to form a popular front.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_front#Popular_fronts_in_non-Communist_countries
Thanks for the in-put.
Global Dimming BBC Documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLfBXRPoHRc
besides being a perpetual motion machine, the rest of it is already done... has been done since the 30's in locomotives and current in the Chevy volt. Get your physics right and someone might listen to you.
kestrel: 35 miles on the battery and only an additional 375 mile when adding in the generator. Fuel Tank Capacity (Approx.) 9.3 gal = aprox. 40 mpg ( big deal )
From Chev advertisement: Volt is unique among electric vehicles because you have two sources of energy. You have an electric source–a battery–that allows you to drive gas–free for an EPA–estimated 35 miles. And there's also an onboard gas generator that produces electricity so you can go up to a total of 375 additional miles on a full tank of gas4. So if you want to drive using only electricity, you can. If you want to drive using electricity and gas, you can do that too.
It may be starting to be done but is nowhere as good as it should be, right now today. Where are the trucks and vans?
PACCAR (Kenworth / Peterbuilt) makes city delivery trucks with a similar technology. I have seen them being driven around by Coca-cola deliveries.
The question is just how much energy can you store in the battery and how can that equate to transportation. You can go farther with less weight but then you have to have a smaller battery which limits your range. Since I work on components for electric vehicles around the world, I can tell you that the real answer is in E-scooters.... most effective vehicle around and the only one that can do the full time electric thing. Scooters have 5% the weight and can still carry 10% of the battery capacity. With cars / trucks, you run into physics limitation in energy flux out of the batteries.
Which is exactly why you make use of mechanically turned generators to supply motive power and charge while the vehicle is in motion. Also use a fuel efficient gas generator ( 40 mpg? ), a 50cc single cylinder generator should be able to run for over 100 mpg output even if it is used full time for motive power.
We already have this... it is called a scooter! The 5hp that you get out of a 50CC engine won't drive anything bigger, you end up with the same problem the volt has, you can't generate power at the rate which the batteries are depleted so you have either run at low efficiency off the motor or be dead on the side of the road while it recharges.
Missing something in your equation? That is exactly why you incorporate the additional mechanically turned generators.
No, unless you are getting around the law of conservation of energy, you can't create energy within the system. the only energy inputs are the original battery charge and the burning of the fuel. The companies already us PMSM motors to recapture the free kinetic energy. additional generators only steal from the engine and return 70-80% to the battery.
You need to rethink your energy input to output. The vehicle is moving why should it cost you any output to turn extra generators off of the wheel rotation or drive shaft? Generators do not take much effort ( strength ) to spin. Add to that an expanding clutch converter ( a mini cvt ) to the generator drive and you can increase the output.
"Generators do not take much effort ( strength ) to spin" You need to take some high school physics classes or at least read the high school physics book before talking about generators. ;)
Trough, electric cars can be improved by for example storing kinetic energy that is wasted while braking and use it for acceleration.
Kinetic energy recovery is being used. Could it be better? Electric generation storage and distribution can certainly be better.
A hybrid gas/electric car for example the Chev leaf should be able to do better than 40mpg. I mean why bother with the hybrid when you can already get the same mileage with a Ford Focus gas engine or a slight increase to 50mpg with a Volkswagen diesel? The truth of the matter is that car manufacturing is closely tied to oil manufacturing in a you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours kind of symbiotic ( parasitic? ) relationship.
"loyalty to the law" :D lol Please stop, you only disgrace yourself. You really need to learn science before discussing it. Your example does not contradict the law of thermodynamics just like any other example that exist as of today. You probably were watching the trolling videos on youtube that tell you not to believe the law, right? Try actually doing any of that before go into debate.
Disgrace myself? I don't think so. No I think your comments show you to be for whatever reason totally biased against weening our selves off of oil addiction.
240% efficiency? That's the funniest thing I seen today... :D
If you connect another generator, the car will deaccelerate twice faster. It's a law of thermodynamics called conservation of energy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_energy
"How much can a generator generate?" - Automobile generators are ~60% efficient, so you will get 40% less the energy then you used to spin the generator.
"I mean the car is moving already" - As soon as you connect the generator with a load, the car will start deaccelerating. And after complete stop, the energy you generated will be more then twice less then the energy you put in to accelerate it in the first place. They draw so much energy, that they can actually be used as an alternative to the braking system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_generator#Vehicle-mounted_generators
I think you unfairly limit the possibilities by your loyalty to the law of conservation. Which by the way is only a theory and not a proven fact. By not considering possible engineering contributions to the process you prematurely dismiss possible change/innovation.
Example:
You want to lift 100 lbs. a) pick it up.
b) attach a rope to the 100 lbs. toss the rope over a beam and pull on the rope.
c)attach a rope to the 100 lbs., attach a pulley to the beam, thread the rope through the pulley, pull on the rope.
d)attach a rope to the 100 lbs., attach a block & tackle to the beam, thread the rope through the block & tackle, pull on the rope.
Is that on a one to one spin ratio? Could not that output be ( literally ) geared-up? Then also if you were to use four inertia actuated generators ( four wheels ), would you still get a combined return of 60% or 240% ?
I agree that oil companies are opposing development in electric cars and they can be improved a lot. But when people starting to talk about taking more energy from generator then you put in with the motor that is spinning the generator, sorry, I have to call BS. If you ever hold a generator in you hands and tried spinning it with and without load you would notice a significant difference.
So do you disagree that placing additional generators in the loop by having them turned by the wheels rotation would be a helpful boost to the overall electrical contribution? I mean the car is moving already by the electric motors motive power, don't ( can't ) extra electrical inputs actuated by the moving inertia help? I mean what is the limit to a generators electrical output to begin with? How much can a generator generate? What are the variables and how can they be put to useful work? Don't just poop on something because you don't like the person or way the idea is presented. Try to contribute something positive.
Lets give out free lolipops too.