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#201
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Global Warming/Climate Change (was contrails)
It may be a little premature to decommission your home heating system
just yet. http://tinyurl.com/yj52vby |
#202
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Global Warming/Climate Change (was contrails)
delboy wrote:
If AGW is shown to be a scientific myth, I trust that the UK Government will withdraw Airport Passenger Duty (tax) and other 'green' taxes. Derek Copeland Some people in the US are no saying, if WE had instituted escalating fuel taxes 20 yrs ago, we would not now be dealing with gas-guzzlers, but instead choosing from more miserly fuel consumers like Them Thar folks in Europe.... Air Ticket taxes are disincentivizing air travel - but not so much as the "look Ma! she's nekkid" equipment now being installed.... Brian W |
#203
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Global Warming/Climate Change (was contrails)
Bruce Hoult wrote:
On Jan 11, 4:39 pm, Eric Greenwell wrote: "Only 19 percent of the ice cover was over 2 years old, the least in the satellite record and far below the 1981-2000 average of 52 percent." I don't know about you, but it seems clear to me that if ice was at the lowest level ever two years ago and has since staged a huge recovery, then saying that 81% of the the ice cover is less than two years old doesn't actually add any new information and certainly is not bad news. On the face of it, this looks like the opinion of a person with a 2 year time horizon, but there's more to it: if 81% of ice in some location disappeared at least 2 years ago, then we are not seeing catastrophic results from that. Or are we? :-) Brian W |
#204
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Global Warming/Climate Change (was contrails)
On Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:47:53 -0800, Tom Gardner wrote:
2) If everyone turns their thermostats one degree closer to the outside temperature, drives a smaller car, and switches off phone chargers when not in use, will an energy crisis be averted? My sister pointed out recently that British people tend to keep their houses warmer than we did/do in NZ, so turning down the thermostat is not a hardship - just put on a pullover over your T-shirt in winter. Smaller cars is a problem for us in the trailer towing fraternity. My main gripe with the current crop of electric and hybrid cars is that nobody mentions towing, that I've seen anyway. There's one exception: Aptera say NO TOWING up front. I guess the same goes for many of the rest but they're too chicken to mention it. Hungry chargers are just stupidly bad technology and should be banned. Chargers that use no power[1] when they're plugged in but not connected to anything have been around for at least 8 years, so there's no excuse for selling one that burns power when its under no load. Anyway, I just looked at four chargers I happened to have handy and here's what it shows they burn when plugged into the mains and disconnected from the things they charge: 18 month old Lenovo laptop PSU (65w o/p) 0 watts. my much older Thinkpad 560Z PSU (54w o/p) 1.9 watts. iPAQ 3630 PSU (10w o/p) 2.0 watts. 2001 Motorola T250 phone charger (2.5w o/p) 0 watts. [1] I recently bought myself a power meter for a tenner from Maplins. It which reads to 0.1 watts, so a reading of 0.0 should mean 50 mW consumption or less. These power meters are simple to use: they have a 13 amp plug on the back and a 13 amp socket on the front, so you just plug them in between the wall and the device you want to measure. -- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org | |
#205
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Global Warming/Climate Change (was contrails)
Bruce Hoult wrote:
On Jan 11, 4:39 pm, Eric Greenwell wrote: "Only 19 percent of the ice cover was over 2 years old, the least in the satellite record and far below the 1981-2000 average of 52 percent." I don't know about you, but it seems clear to me that if ice was at the lowest level ever two years ago and has since staged a huge recovery, then saying that 81% of the the ice cover is less than two years old doesn't actually add any new information and certainly is not bad news. It has not staged a "huge" recovery. 2009 is the _third lowest year_ in the 30 year satellite record. And the loss of multi-year ice is crucial: "The ice cover remained thin, leaving the ice cover vulnerable to melt in coming summers." That's from http://nsidc.org/news/press/20091005_minimumpr.html While you are on that page, take a look at fig. 3 to see the extent of the recovery. And finally, the examination of the ice from ships found the ice was less that the satellites were reporting: "Recently published research by Barber and colleagues shows that the ice cover was even more fragile at the end of the melt season than satellite data indicated, with regions of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas covered by small, rotten ice http://nsidc.org/cgi-bin/words/word.pl?rotten%20ice floes." There is no good news from the National Snow and Ice Center, regardless of the The Mail says. -- Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA * Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly |
#206
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Global Warming/Climate Change (was contrails)
Gary Evans wrote:
It may be a little premature to decommission your home heating system just yet. http://tinyurl.com/yj52vby Hi Gary - you need to read beyond the article, and look at their reference. Here is what I posted earlier--------------- And along those lines, be sure to read what the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, a source they reference, says regarding 2009: "Arctic sea ice extent remains low; 2009 sees third-lowest mark" "We still expect to see ice-free summers sometime in the next few decades.” "Arctic sea ice extent at end of December 2009 remained below normal" "The linear rate of decline for December is now 3.3% per decade." "Despite the cool summer, the ice remained thin and vulnerable at the sea ice minimum, with little of the older, thicker ice that used to characterize much of the Arctic." "Only 19 percent of the ice cover was over 2 years old, the least in the satellite record and far below the 1981-2000 average of 52 percent." Finally, look at fig. 3 on this page: http://nsidc.org/news/press/20091005_minimumpr.html No good news at the NSIDC, unfortunately, despite The Mail's spin on it. -- Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA * Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly |
#207
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Global Warming/Climate Change (was contrails)
On Jan 12, 1:56*am, Martin Gregorie
wrote: On Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:47:53 -0800, Tom Gardner wrote: 2) If everyone turns their thermostats one degree closer to the outside temperature, drives a smaller car, and switches off phone chargers when not in use, will an energy crisis be averted? My sister pointed out recently that British people tend to keep their houses warmer than we did/do in NZ, so turning down the thermostat is not a hardship - just put on a pullover over your T-shirt in winter. Smaller cars is a problem for us in the trailer towing fraternity. My main gripe with the current crop of electric and hybrid cars is that nobody mentions towing, that I've seen anyway. There's one exception: Aptera say NO TOWING up front. I guess the same goes for many of the rest but they're too chicken to mention it. It's interesting how 4x4s suddenly went from being reviled 'gas- guzzling destroyers of the planet' and 'Chelsea Tractors' to being the best thing since sliced bread, during the UK's recent return to the ice age! As far as I am aware, none of the current electric or hydrid vehicles have much in the way of towing capacity, which would be a big problem for glider pilots, even those who own electrically powered self launchers such as the Antares. It should be accepted that some vehicles do need to be gasoline or diesel powered for some applications. Derek Copeland |
#208
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Global Warming/Climate Change (was contrails)
On Jan 11, 7:54*pm, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Gary Evans wrote: It may be a little premature to decommission your home heating system just yet. http://tinyurl.com/yj52vby Hi Gary - you need to read beyond the article, and look at their reference. Here is what I posted earlier--------------- And along those lines, be sure to read what the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, a source they reference, says regarding 2009: "Arctic sea ice extent remains low; 2009 sees third-lowest mark" "We still expect to see ice-free summers sometime in the next few decades..” "Arctic sea ice extent at end of December 2009 remained below normal" "The linear rate of decline for December is now 3.3% per decade." "Despite the cool summer, the ice remained thin and vulnerable at the sea ice minimum, with little of the older, thicker ice that used to characterize much of the Arctic." "Only 19 percent of the ice cover was over 2 years old, the least in the satellite record and far below the 1981-2000 average of 52 percent." Finally, look at fig. 3 on this page: http://nsidc.org/news/press/20091005_minimumpr.html No good news at the NSIDC, unfortunately, despite The Mail's spin on it. -- Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA * Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly Eric, have you looked at all of the information on Rutan's web site? http://tinyurl.com/pfy9tk There is just so much conflicting information out there and both sides are soooo convinced that they have it right. There appears to be just as good an argument on either side but as I mentioned before religions require both faith and sacrifice. If you really think the ice is going away there are two choices. One is to try and convince everyone else that they must join the new religion of self-flagellation and some how turn this whole thing around by paying third world countries not to cut down any more trees. The other more direct action would be to measure exactly how high your house is above the sea level and act accordingly while prices are still up. You do live on high ground right? |
#209
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Global Warming/Climate Change (was contrails)
On Jan 11, 6:56*pm, Martin Gregorie
wrote: On Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:47:53 -0800, Tom Gardner wrote: 2) If everyone turns their thermostats one degree closer to the outside temperature, drives a smaller car, and switches off phone chargers when not in use, will an energy crisis be averted? My sister pointed out recently that British people tend to keep their houses warmer than we did/do in NZ, so turning down the thermostat is not a hardship - just put on a pullover over your T-shirt in winter. Smaller cars is a problem for us in the trailer towing fraternity. My main gripe with the current crop of electric and hybrid cars is that nobody mentions towing, that I've seen anyway. There's one exception: Aptera say NO TOWING up front. I guess the same goes for many of the rest but they're too chicken to mention it. Hungry chargers are just stupidly bad technology and should be banned. Chargers that use no power[1] when they're plugged in but not connected to anything have been around for at least 8 years, so there's no excuse for selling one that burns power when its under no load. Anyway, I just looked at four chargers I happened to have handy and here's what it shows they burn when plugged into the mains and disconnected from the things they charge: 18 month old Lenovo laptop PSU (65w o/p) * * * *0 * watts. my much older Thinkpad 560Z PSU (54w o/p) * * * 1.9 watts. iPAQ 3630 PSU (10w o/p) * * * * * * * * * * * * 2..0 watts. 2001 Motorola T250 phone charger (2.5w o/p) * * 0 * watts. [1] I recently bought myself a power meter for a tenner from Maplins. It * which reads to 0.1 watts, so a reading of 0.0 should mean 50 mW consumption or less. These power meters are simple to use: they have a 13 amp plug on the back and a 13 amp socket on the front, so you just plug them in between the wall and the device you want to measure. -- martin@ * | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org * * * | I suspect the concept of "powered trailers" will pop up more frequently. This is not an unproven concept since the mining industry has used it for years. If you use a load cell to measure the push-pull loads at the trailer hitch, the data can be used to control electric motors in the trailer wheels. If a glider trailer housed a large battery, possibly charged with a large solar panel on top and wheel motors, it could minimize the loads imposed on the towing vehicle by essentially powering itself. The wheel motors would also provide regenerative braking. The whole car-trailer combo then becomes a parallel hybrid which permits the use of a much smaller and less powerful car. The fuel savings while towing would be small compared to the fuel savings achieved by driving a small, fuel efficient yet tow capable car when not towing. The energy capacity of the trailer battery pack coupled to an inverter could also power things like power tools and polishers when parked at the airport. |
#210
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Global Warming/Climate Change (was contrails)
On Jan 12, 11:12*am, bildan wrote:
On Jan 11, 6:56*pm, Martin Gregorie wrote: On Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:47:53 -0800, Tom Gardner wrote: 2) If everyone turns their thermostats one degree closer to the outside temperature, drives a smaller car, and switches off phone chargers when not in use, will an energy crisis be averted? My sister pointed out recently that British people tend to keep their houses warmer than we did/do in NZ, so turning down the thermostat is not a hardship - just put on a pullover over your T-shirt in winter. Smaller cars is a problem for us in the trailer towing fraternity. My main gripe with the current crop of electric and hybrid cars is that nobody mentions towing, that I've seen anyway. There's one exception: Aptera say NO TOWING up front. I guess the same goes for many of the rest but they're too chicken to mention it. Hungry chargers are just stupidly bad technology and should be banned. Chargers that use no power[1] when they're plugged in but not connected to anything have been around for at least 8 years, so there's no excuse for selling one that burns power when its under no load. Anyway, I just looked at four chargers I happened to have handy and here's what it shows they burn when plugged into the mains and disconnected from the things they charge: 18 month old Lenovo laptop PSU (65w o/p) * * * *0 * watts. my much older Thinkpad 560Z PSU (54w o/p) * * * 1.9 watts. iPAQ 3630 PSU (10w o/p) * * * * * * * * * * * * 2.0 watts. 2001 Motorola T250 phone charger (2.5w o/p) * * 0 * watts. [1] I recently bought myself a power meter for a tenner from Maplins. It * which reads to 0.1 watts, so a reading of 0.0 should mean 50 mW consumption or less. These power meters are simple to use: they have a 13 amp plug on the back and a 13 amp socket on the front, so you just plug them in between the wall and the device you want to measure. -- martin@ * | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org * * * | I suspect the concept of "powered trailers" will pop up more frequently. *This is not an unproven concept since the mining industry has used it for years. If you use a load cell to measure the push-pull loads at the trailer hitch, the data can be used to control electric motors in the trailer wheels. *If a glider *trailer housed a large battery, possibly charged with a large solar panel on top and wheel motors, it could minimize the loads imposed on the towing vehicle by essentially powering itself. *The wheel motors would also provide regenerative braking. The whole car-trailer combo then becomes a parallel hybrid which permits the use of a much smaller and less powerful car. *The fuel savings while towing would be small compared to the fuel savings achieved by driving a small, fuel efficient yet tow capable car when not towing. The energy capacity of the trailer battery pack coupled to an inverter could also power things like power tools and polishers when parked at the airport. The problem with EVs isn't power, it's on-board energy storage. I have a friend who is a hybrid/EV enthusiast. He reckons the holy grail is 40 mile range. Okay, adequate for most people buying groceries or going to work, but completely useless for XC travel. We need 1 - 2 magnitudes of improvement in energy density and 3 or 4 in re-fueling time before you can reasonably talk about competing with existing gas/diesel for hauling pilot/plane/crew to a site several hundred miles distant. That, or we turn I80 into a giant sized nuclear powered HO slot car track :-). Back to trailers: From fuel consumption numbers, I can back out that my Komet trailer/glider has an effective fuel consumption of 120 miles to the gallon at 60 - 65 mph on level road, no wind. Figure about 6 hp. Two or three times that under acceleration or ascending steep grade. The point is: it's a small load. A decently capable EV could tow it without difficulty. -Evan Ludeman / T8 |
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