Electric cars: have you got one?

Yep, we are all gonna die!

 

What we do is we all get racing pigeons and take them with us wherever we go and however we travel then UK Gov knows where we are at all times.




PS. Or, mobile phones replace car keys and have an app which adds up the miles and pays tax through Apple Pay. etc., direct to Whitehall.

PPS. If the mother-in-law kidnaps the driver to take her Christmas shopping it might be considered unfair, but this tax collection scheme is less messy than keeping a racing pigeon.

 

The bottom line
Most people who work hard juggling jobs catching the 5:20am bus to a job they dont like with no hope of owning a property and struggling to find a place to rent and being clobbered by taxes will never have the luxury of owning an EV or even a car. Whilst many will have saving the planet on their minds somewhere on their radar the main concern is day to day living.

 

Those the things that switch off when it’s windy?

 

To be fair, that’s actually true.

 

The wind turbines will take care of the pigeons.

 

Or the cat will get the racing pigeon, and both are "chipped", in the moggy's case more firmly than the pigeon.

Cut out the middle creatures and we'll all have our chips soon.

 

For now

 

Torchy the Torch Boy.




AXA UK warns of solar panel fire risk
With solar panels blamed for three significant fires across the UK last year, and many more attributed to the renewable energy source,
In 2024, fires directly attributed to solar panels included a Lidl warehouse in Peterborough, a seven-storey block of flats in Lewisham and a school in Cramlington. The blaze at Shanklea Primary School prompted Northumberland County Council to disconnect solar panels at 80 other schools and numerous public buildings due to safety concerns.

AXA UK supports its customers in the transition to renewable energy sources and has published new guidance for commercial customers to help them manage the risks associated with photovoltaic systems - those that are powered by solar panels. These include fire due to poor installation or incorrect equipment, damage from weather-related incidents and overloading roof structures with too much weight.

 

About twenty years ago someone posted that "windmills are killing our birds!" Proof? They counted dead birds near windmills. Okay, how many dead birds did you count that were NOT near wind mills? If you can produce a spike I'd be interested.

BTW, the wind mills in question were south of Chicago, glacial plains great for windmills. Not much for birds to roost on with that much height, they must have "thought" they were seeing an ideal roost. Well above cats' reach.

The poster declined to do a valid survey of dead birds within 100 miles of the windmills. Pity, would have kept her from posting silly-billy on the internet.

 

20years on, and you will find proof now.
I could never understand why a bird would be stupid enough to fly into the blades of a wind turbine, rotating at what, 10rpm? Surely it could just fly over it, or even through the gaps in the blades!

Turns out that I'm the stupid one. They don't fly face-on and die. Its when they approach end-on that they don't see the danger.

Last year we went down to the southern tip of Spain on a birding trip, during the autumn mass migration (Europe to Africa). Its a spectacular sight as very large birds like white storks, vultures & eagles gather in the sky & head to the African coast.

Its also a great place for wind turbines, but the company that operate them have people watching the sky for bird activity. When they spot flocks of these large birds moving towards danger, they shutdown individual turbines until the danger has passed.

BTW: being an [retired] engineer, this set me thinking; how do you stop a windmill turning?
The answer is you tilt the angle of the blades.
You do not stand on the brake pedal (it would make terrible mess).

 

What I mean is that you're already paying a far higher cost than petrol or diesel for electricity charged on HPCs along the road, so adding another layer of tax on it is just insane. Even if the data comes from the car, you are still adding to that.

All the best

Andreas

 

It's a one-off. Wind turbines obvs use energy and cause GHG emissions for manufacturing/construction. They pay that back in a year or two. The next 23 years of their life they reduce GHG.

All the best

Andreas

 

Without being political (...I don't have your power vP) let me say that the whole CO2 thing has became a battle: Science vs pseudo science.

But there are 2 environmental issues with dirty fossil guzzlers that are [hopefully] not so contentious.

I'm talking about local environmental issues; the first is pollution of the atmosphere due to NOx & particulates. The second is noise pollution.

The first is having an impact on the physical health of everyone, the second is having an impact on the mental health of those unfortunate enough to be exposed to it, day in, day out.

Up until 3 years ago (actually to the day ...happy anniversary!) we lived in a family house that backed onto a busy dual carriageway, where we raised our 3 boys.

While we can now open windows to let in cleanish air, back then we would see the buildup of little black specs on the inside windowsill. The buildup was greater on the ground floor than the 1st, & greater on the 1st than the second floor. What this exposure to pollution may mean for our kids life expectancy, I do not know.

I'm really too old school to talk in terms of my mental health, but using 1960s terminology: the noise from the traffic drove me 'kin bonkers!

In the early days it was mainly motorbikes & tired old trucks. But more recently it was [still] motorbikes & the 'Subaru boys'.

Now I know some of you are going to say that you love the sound of a roaring engine. Well done! If you live in a quiet street, let's swap houses.
Actually, no need. Our new house is in a super quiet area (all hail the god of pension pots)

But my point is, we can push the CO2 debate to one side. As far as local pollution is concerned, EV goes a long way towards fixing these 2 problems.

 

I know you're kidding, but those are actually arguments often made by people who want to delay the transition. So here's a serious response.

We don't actually. A simple back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that the extra electricity that will be required for all road transport in the UK to be electric is not substantial and will still result in less electricity being used in the country than 20 or so years ago. To power 30,000,000 cars to drive 6,000 miles per year you need about 60 TWh of electricity. Let's add 20% for system and charger losses, so 72TWh. The UK consumed 285 TWh in 2024 and 398 TWh in 2005, so you're adding 25%/18%ish of that). So adding this still leaves substantial headroom to electrify goods transport, before we even get back to 2005 power consumption. United Kingdom - Countries & Regions - IEA

Many people don't realize how amazingly efficient BEVs are, compared to ICEVs.

As an aside, electrification with renewables will benefit the UK macro-economically, as it will reduce the need to pay for oil imports (yes the UK is a net importer: United Kingdom - Countries & Regions - IEA), so the current account deficit will decline. Oil is almost only used in road transport. Every BEV reduces import needs of oil by 3.66bbl of oil per year, or USD219 @USD60/bbl. For 30 million cars, that's £6.6bn, or 2.5bn if you assume 38% of oil is imported, so about 9% of the current account deficit.

There are no more operating coal-fired power stations operating in the UK, BTW. Lights are still on.

All the best

Andreas

 

On complimentary tech.

Adam have a look at Thermal battery using phase change materials for your mate and his tech playhouse.

Put an number of installation for a major water company on remote sites a few years back - most cost effective way to run was found to be time shift on grid consumption. Initially it was to provide hot water for hand wash/shower but expanded to do frost/anti condensation in panel rooms and last iteration was to extend winter range of ev vans by providing alternative cab heating.

Thermino ePlus - Sunamp UK

Ross