Eschew Obfuscation comments

"Electric Vehicle Battery Costs Per Mile" by Max Dunn

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:15:46 -0700

Toyota is contracting with BatteryMD to provide replacement batteries for the RAV4-EV. The cost is supposedly $15,000.

"Cost of a Solar Nation" by Max Dunn

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:34:27 -0700

Interestingly, someone mentioned to me today that he had heard that a square 100 miles on a side would provide enough electricity for the entire U.S.

The Scientific American article actually calculates about 80 miles on a side would do the trick. It is amazing to me that we could power our country with such a relatively little area of solar power!

"Cost of a Solar Nation" by Max Dunn

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:25:34 -0700

You got me on the math details – I tried to slide that one in without explanation. :-)

The $5.4T is world-wide expense, while the $420B is only for the U.S. Since the U.S. uses 22mbd versus 86mbd for the rest of the world, we use about 25% of its oil. So that is where this unexplained factor came from. I updated the post to make this more clear.

"Cost of a Solar Nation" by J.R.

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 12:00:39 -0700

Have you heard we could generate enough electricity for the whole US from a solar array in the desert built on a square parcel of land 100 miles on each side? Also, I heard that transmission losses from coast to coast were less than 10%, so it might actually be feasible to do all the generation in the Southwest.

"Cost of a Solar Nation" by J.R.

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 11:58:44 -0700

You’re loosing me with the math. $420B in subsidies is less than 10% of the $5.4T necessary for oil exploration. What do you mean by “one third” and “25%?”

Also, while I overwhelmingly support this idea, it might not be a fair $ comparison since the $5.4T is probably factored into the cost of the oil produced – thus it is not entirely an additional cost like the solar subsidy.

"Electric Vehicle Battery Costs Per Mile" by Max Dunn

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:49:09 -0700

There is now a company that is providing replacement batteries for the RAV4-EV and charges $14,000, so this close to the $12,000 cost I estimated above.

Lion Electric Vehicle Lithium Upgrade

"Ruby on Rails Advanced Page Caching" by feedogator

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:09:11 -0700

thanks

"Solar vs Coal: Who Wins?" by Max Dunn

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:07:51 -0700

Another way of looking at this is that solar only needs to come down to $2,500 per kW in order to be competitive with coal. Since some thin-film solar cells are approaching $1,000kW, it shouldn’t be long before complete solar plants will be cheaper than coal.

"Typo Google Sitemap fix" by mmo

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 15:05:57 -0700

I think thats a pretty smart way of submitting a sitemap but it seems Like G no longer needs you to submit this as their web spiders have gotten so advanced they seem to know how to best crawl without it.

"Electric Vehicle Battery Costs Per Mile" by Max Dunn

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 23:11:10 -0700

Another indication that the latest batteries should last 10 years and 150,000 miles comes from a report in the April 2008 edition of Forbes. This article reported that GM engineers are testing lithium-ion batteries to prove that they can meet this standard for the Chevrolet Volt.

"CUSD Teachers' Raises" by Max Dunn

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:17:13 -0700

Doris brings up a good point – teachers can make a big difference. However, how do we know if a teacher is doing a good job?

Just looking at STAR scores won’t do it because there are many great teachers working with disadvantaged kids, and it is likely there are also mediocre teachers working in districts with highly advantaged kids. So is there a way to measure teacher performance? And is teacher performance tied to their pay rate?

"CUSD Teachers' Raises" by Doris

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:00:13 -0700

Have you ever thought about why Cupertino schools are ranked so high? Why the district is considered to be among the top school districts? I attended Cupertino schools, know how much money people pay to move to Cupertino for the schools. It is the teachers. They make the difference. People pay around a million dollars these days for an average house. In surrounding districts such as San Jose, Sunnyvale, Mountain View…similar homes are not worth as much. The Superintendent received a $19,000 raise this school year. Who teaches the students?

"Electric Vehicle Battery Costs Per Mile" by Max Dunn

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 07:28:11 -0800

Here is another data point on RAV4-EV batteries. Marcos Peixoto reported on the RAV4-EV mailing list that:

There are only 4 units of our EV95 traction batteries in stock, nationwide. 1 in Chicago and 3 at a distribution center. The Toyota P/N is G9280-42012. The list price is around $4,700 for each.

This $4,700 price is probably what Toyota was charging back when they were making the RAV4-EV and reflected their cost back then, even though this is a lot lower than we can get today.

"Trouble In Tibet: Rumors and Facts" by Who Lie about Xizang (Tibet) Violence and How!

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 09:54:04 -0800

Who Lie about Xizang (Tibet) Violence and How! http://anti-cnn.com/

"Differences between RewriteRule in .htaccess and httpd.conf" by Greg

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 14:00:30 -0800

Thanks much! Fixed my problem!

"Only Locally Grown Food After Peak Oil?" by JJ

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:46:51 -0800

That chart is highly alarming. We really have to conserve now. Who invented energy anyway? We should go back just like the olden times.

"Installing MySQL Ruby Gem on Mac OS X 10.4" by Roger Pack

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 20:21:11 -0800

Thank you much! Worked, but since I had installed mysql via MacPorts, the gem command was ruby extconf.rb—with-mysql-config=/opt/local/bin/mysql_config5

Thanks.

"Zapino Battery Report - 1000 miles" by JJ

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:28:28 -0800

That is quite good statistics. I hope all works well in the battery area because that is quite crucial in the longevity of any machine’s system.

"Farting Along With Air Cars" by J.R.

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 18:10:31 -0800

Yes, okay. I tried to find flaws in your logic or math, but alas I must accept that the compressor cost and time may be the Achilles heel of the air car concept. It will need to be replaced eventually, and that represents a cost similar to replacing batteries in an electric car. I still think it warrants further R&D investigation to find better ways of compressing air, but I don’t suppose it will be a viable choice for transportation in the near future. Darn! :-(

"Farting Along With Air Cars" by Max Dunn

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 11:47:49 -0800

Thanks for your comments J.R. It is always healthy to get critical feedback. :-)

In regards to battery cost, in a previous post, I calculated the battery cost of an electric vehicle to be about $0.08 per mile. If we figure that the air compressor will cost $8,000 and that it will last for 10,000 hours of use, then the compressor cost would be $0.12 per mile! (Assuming that every hour the compressor is running adds 6.67 miles worth of compressed air – 50 miles / 7.5 hours.)

Of course, the big unknown is how long the compressor will last. I tried to find this out by looking at used compressors and how many hours they had been run. The highest I could find for a 5000 psi compressor was only a couple of thousand hours. This doesn’t mean that they won’t last substantially longer, but it is hard imagining that they could go much past 10,000 hours.

Another disadvantage of a compressor is that they are loud. I don’t think I would want a compressor running all night in my garage!

"Farting Along With Air Cars" by J.R.

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:51:06 -0800

Thanks for the thorough analysis as usual Max. You list three problems with air cars, but I disagree that they are really disadvantages. First, the 50 mile range is more than enough for the average commute in America which is l6 miles (ABC News). Second, the inefficiency of storing energy as compressed air is more than offset by the savings over batteries. Unlike batteries, gas cylinders do not wear out, and since the battery replacement represents the vast majority of the per mile cost of driving an electric car, compressed air can be half as efficient (46% you mention vs. 80% for batteries) and still more be much more economical. Finally, perhaps we can be optimistic about the benefits of real R&D on compressed air cars – more efficient engines may be possible (hinted at in Tata PR – heating the gas), as well as better/cheaper compressors.

"Farting Along With Air Cars" by JJ

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:11:55 -0800

Hahahaha. I would like to get to talk to your wife. She sounds so witty! Hahaha. I can’t stop laughing. Anyway, I’d like to see how these cars will work. I get none of your technical terms but all sounds so interesting.

"Will Canadian Oil Sands Save Us?" by JJ

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:52:02 -0800

No matter how tedious the process is, oil is oil is oil. And oil is vital for all of us so there. Canada just might save us all.

"Scooters in the Bike Lane?" by VerdaElektro

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 23:05:25 -0800

I have been riding my Zapino since Thanksgiving 2007 and only drive in the bike lane when my scooter is running on survival mode. This happens when I go further than I should. Otherwise I ride in the lanes with the big bikes. 95% of the time I can keep up just fine but mostly when I cross overpasses do cars get a little close and a bit impatient. On the whole, I ride my scooter the way I used to ride my Moto Guzzi V1000 G5 in college—I am constantly scanning and I take up my location in the lane.

That said I do feel vulnerable riding a scooter that barely keeps up with gas powered vehicles. I wear a Kawasaki Ninja Green jacket with armor and I kick at cars that try to take the same space I am in. Well, maybe that last behavior is not such a good one.

"Zapino Charging" by VerdaElektro

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:51:19 -0800

I just started a Yahoo! group: Zapino Electric Scooter Riders. Please check it out and join.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zapinoriders

"Saudi's Admit Peak Production?" by JJ

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:53:14 -0800

I have read somewhere that the oil in the middle east is about to run out. this is why they are choosing to not overproduce so that they would not run out of resources quickly.

"What is Web 3.0?" by JJ

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:27:23 -0800

Does this mean that Web 3.0 is in the works? That would be amazing! All programs could crossover and use the others’ applications! Can’t wait.

"Scooters in the Bike Lane?" by Bill Keller

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:52:07 -0800

My every day vehicle is an SUV with poor visibility out of the rear side corners and I am always worrying about motorcycles lane splitting and my not seeing them. I think I have seen the type of scooter you are describing and I would hope the police in my town are okay letting you stay in the bike lane!

"Boring, boring, boring" by www.summerlinphotography.com

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 07:34:08 -0800

I have a bit of my own “downside” to people curious about cruises to Mexico. I was friends with a man who was a country singer and he performed on some cruise ships. I accompanied him a few times after his divorce. TALK ABOUT BORING!!!! These cruises are set up so that when you finally hit shore at the destination (Ensenada-Cozumel-Mazatlan-whichever) you are truly limited to in the amount of time you are permitted to spend on shore. Cruises do not want you spending all your money on shore but rather you spend money in the Casino, Bars, Clubsm Beauty Salon, and Boutique shops on the ship. For the most part the boutiques do not have the “best looking” or current designs (frumpy)in women’s fashions so it is a bit ridiculous. I would liek to think I am half-way saavy when it comes to purchasing women’s clothing or getting my nails or hair done. Guys if a woman becomes restless or bored on a confined ship, we will usually resort to shopping. Funny thing I saw was passengers who were sea sick. Actually it was sad to walk past them out on the deck trying to revive themselves with fresh air and patches behind their ears or wearing seasick prevention wrist bands. I think too as people began to drink more throughout the trip and soak up the sun, their is the possibility to aggravate it worse if you become dehydrated. IIf you have never been on a ship, you should know that no matter what size room or occupancy you get and no matter what deck - the rooms are SMALLEr than you imagined. These rooms are on a ship, not a resort. Windows are small too. So make sure you LIKE WHO YOU ARE SHARING A ROOM WITH. Remember this is just on small cruises. I can not speak for overseas.

If you get bored easily, bring lots of money is all I can say. If I were you, I would get on an airplane, fly to Mexico and stay in a house, condo or cottage on the beach. You will have more freedom, the ocean at your feet and the freedom to come and go for a weekend or a week. I have bought beautiful pieces of jewelry, delicous tacos and had my hair braided ON THE BEACH and all for a very fair price! You get a alot of information from them, plus you get to know these people as they hang out near your beach area and are great for information. Take a taxi everywhere!

Hope this helps.

Jenine DiConti (an experienced traveler)

"Independent Summary For Policymakers (ISPM)" by Lester

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 07:10:35 -0800

It’s sad that there should be much difficulties in settling issues for the environment. Im thinking it should be as easy as just doing what is right, little by little on your own.

"Electric Vehicle Battery Costs Per Mile" by Ajit

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:06:53 -0800

Well, this is just sad news. I have been under the impression that we’d get to save the world more now at the eve of electric cars.

"What is a "Moped"?" by Ajit

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:41:41 -0800

I never knew this definition! I was just reading your post earlier! So technically, you are allowed on the bike lane, because it is a bicycle after all, not a motorcycle!

"Scooters in the Bike Lane?" by Ajit

Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:18:19 -0800

I think scooters should be allowed in the bike lane because putting them on the main street would prove quite an obstruction to the cars and will be more dangerous for the moped riders. The riders should however respect the bikers in the lane and ride at the moderate speed with them.

"Scooters in the Bike Lane?" by J.R.

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:18:09 -0800

I would agree that mopeds or electric scooters should be allowed to ride in the bike lane. And I think “reasonable” speed is best considered relative to other riders. I go 40 mph on my bike down some hills, but if you sped past me on your scooter at 40 mph while I was doing 20 on the flats, I’d want a wide berth – not “sharing” the lane. Bicyclists routinely pass each other at 10 mph difference, so that should be comfortable. Anything more than that, and I’d suggest the scooter should leave the bike lane (joining motor traffic) 100+ feet around a bicyclist – or just slow down to ensure a smooth and safe pass.

"Zapino Excursion" by Max Dunn

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:10:24 -0800

Just a follow-up note on the “overheating” issue I mentioned here. It turns out that sometimes when you first turn on the Zapino, it sometimes gets stuck into this “slow mode”. This often happen the first thing in the morning, so it isn’t an overheating issue. To fix it, I simply turn off the key and back on again – sometimes several times – and then everything is fine.

"Rails Conference Picture" by Alicia

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:01:35 -0800

That looks like a fun picture. im more sorry now that i was not able to attend the conference. Im sure I would have made wonderful friends there.

"Ruby on Rails Advanced Page Caching" by mattc

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:55:35 -0800

we use ajax to handle this. That way, you can page cache the main page, and use rails for the customized portions that need rails and access to the cookies. All you need to do is add a onload hook to the body page to load your customized bits

"Bike Riding for Errands" by Viktor

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:05:59 -0800

I could not agree with you more. It should give me the daily cardio i need, riding my bike to work. Though I wish the air could be warmer, but windy. That’s the perfect bike weather.

"Ready, Fire, Aim" by Viktor

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:03:44 -0800

You should push through with this. Im sure techies like me love the idea. This would also ease backing up files much more and making them quite secure.

"Bike Riding for Errands" by Humus

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 01:23:33 -0800

No, bike won’t do for errands, especially if you’re buying lots of stuff. There’d be no room to put your purchases.

"Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) Cure and Theory" by Viktor

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 06:11:30 -0800

You should try echinacea. Are you into herbal medications? It is believed to boost whatever functions vitamin c has. so, this may help you even more. try to look it up, good luck!

"Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) Cure and Theory" by Humus

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:38:09 -0800

Maybe I should start taking Vit. C regularly, too. I have trouble sleeping again once I wake up at around 3 or 4 a.m. No matter how late I sleep at night I’d still wake up and I have trouble going back to sleep afterwards.

"Cantarell Field Decline" by Humus

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 09:51:15 -0800

It is important that we look for alternative sources of energy. Those that are cheaper and more environment friendly.

"Skinny versus Healthy" by Eliana

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 22:29:01 -0800

I agree. And if they’re really young, they shouldn’t be too self concious. They’re also never too young to eat healthy and learn how to take care of their bodies. For recipes, you should try the puree recipes of the the wife of Jerry Seinfeld.

"Skinny versus Healthy" by Estela

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:02:29 -0800

I do agree with you, Max. That’s the best advice: to eat healthy. Being thin doesn’t been your healthy. Same goes if you’re a little beefy. It all depends on how you take care of yourself.

"Skinny versus Healthy" by Georgina

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:04:33 -0800

I think there’s no matter how skinny or too fat the body is, as long as you know how to carry it and you feel comfortable with it, maybe it’s not a huge issue.

"Hydrogen Powered Vehicles are Not Viable" by Max Dunn

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 07:17:26 -0800

I agree that hydrogen shouldn’t be considered. But you want to know why there is a big push for hydrogen? Oil companies! They realize they are running out of oil and so their business is threatened. If we go straight to electric vehicles, they will have nothing to sell us. But if we go to hydrogen vehicles, then they will be able to use a lot of their existing infrastructure to produce, store, transport and sell hydrogen.

"Hydrogen Powered Vehicles are Not Viable" by Estela

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 23:22:10 -0800

I don’t think hydrogen should be considered as an alternative fuel for vehicles. Like what you’ve pointed out, hydrogen is difficult to produce, cannot be stored for a long period of time and very expensive. Car owners will not even think of buying it. Yes, it’s a clean alternative but maybe we can think of other ways to lessen the pollution fossil fuels produce.

"Cantarell Field Decline" by Hualing

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:37:41 -0800

Good grief! Now, we really have to lower our gasoline usage, and soon. The government should take initiative to look up renewable and alternative fuel sources to put a stop to this.

"Hydrogen Powered Vehicles are Not Viable" by Max Dunn

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:25:52 -0800

It is true that electric energy production does use fossil fuels. But it is a lot less than gas cars, in California by about 6 times! (See Electric Vehicles Produce a Lot Less CO2) They also require less fossil fuels than a hydrogen car. But the great thing about electric cars is that our power companies are continuing to switch to cleaner and more efficient sources of electricity including wind and solar. And we can eliminate all fossil fuel used for our electric cars by installing solar electric panels on our houses.

"Hydrogen Powered Vehicles are Not Viable" by Hualing

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:08:49 -0800

I agree with you. I’d go for electric powered batteries. Though they burn fossil fuels because of the electric charging, the gas they emit while running is less dangerous.

"Battery Electric Vehicle User Experiences" by Luck

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:42:51 -0800

Using electric vehicle is definitely environment-friendly. Hoping that one day we all uses this type of car to avoid global warming.

"Battery Electric Vehicle User Experiences" by Tim

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:50:03 -0800

That is great news, that they have good feedback. Electric vehicles should be the new standard of the future. Environment-friendly, that is definitely a plus, too!

"Battery Electric Vehicle User Experiences" by Max Dunn

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:15:28 -0800

RAV4-EV’s are great cars. However, they are don’t come up for sale very often. If your are interested in buying one, the best thing to do is to save a search in eBay for it.

"Battery Electric Vehicle User Experiences" by Toniqua

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:34:45 -0800

I’ve always wanted to own a RAV4. The design is sleek and functional. It’s indeed a remarkable car.

"Getting Started With Flickr on Rails" by saurabh purnaye

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 23:29:20 -0800

Thanks for the info..

"Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G)" by Max Dunn

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:14:33 -0800

When a battery is only lightly discharged, it’s life is extended, sometimes greatly. For instance in a typical battery, discharging to 80% gives 500 cycles, discharging to 50% gives 1000 cycles, gives 5000 cycles. Put another way, a 10kWh battery pack would produce a total lifetime energy output of 4,000kWh at 80% depth of discharge (DoD), 5,000kWh at a 50% DoD, and 10,000kWh at 10%.

1 Battery Life

"Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G)" by Max Dunn

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:48:31 -0800

There are several barriers to making V2G happen:

There needs to be an aggregator for this power, since the ISO won’t want to deal with individuals
The ISO regulation signal needs to be transmitted to each car
We have to figure out a way to meter the power, no matter where the car is (home, work, shopping)
The cars needs some more electronics installed to invert the battery power to A/C and transmit it back onto the line
The ISO needs to update their software so they can deal with a zero power nominal level

"Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G)" by J.R.

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:44:18 -0800

This is very interesting stuff. So what are the barriers to making this happen? Is it difficult to engineer a way for the individual batteries to start outputting when necessary (I wouldn’t think so)? Or is it simply chicken and egg – there are no battery banks available, so there’s no energy program to encourageit.

Also, I’d be interested in seeing your math for this. How do you get $390 month? And how does this impact the cost of the batteries – like your earlier analysis?

"Can Battery Backups Make Money?" by Max Dunn

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:16:58 -0800

Flywheels

It turns out the flywheels might be a viable way of storing energy for a house battery backup system.

They can be up to 90% efficient, can have capacities up to 133kWh, and have long lifetimes with little maintenance.

However, while some commercial and industrial flywheel storage systems are available today, there doesn’t appear to be any for sale to individual users, and the initial cost is about 50% higher1 than a battery system, although the total cost is lower over time.

1 Pentadyne VSS Brochure

"Can Battery Backups Make Money?" by Max Dunn

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:30:25 -0800

Carl,

Wow, paying $0.33 kWh is a lot! If you could put up solar panels, they would probably pay for themselves in 10 years. But I am guessing in your condo, this is not an option, so let’s go back to battery backups.

The first question is whether you want a system that will tie into your house power circuit and come on automatically when the power goes out. These are certainly the most convenient, and people that use them say that they often don’t even know that the power went out, until they look at their neighbor’s houses that are dark.

The downside to these systems is that they are more expensive and require an electrician to install, which adds another $1000 or so to the price.

If that is what you are looking for, then a Gridpoint, Gaia or Xantrex system would fill your needs.

For a lower cost system that doesn’t require an electrician, you could look into a UPS like the Xantrex PowerHub 1800 This lists for $900. Batteries are extra and the run time isn’t very long, but two of these each with the extra battery might be able to fill your needs and the total cost including batteries would likely be less than $4,000. This system also has the advantage that it can be connected to solar or wind generators to recharge the batteries.

You could also look into Sentinel systems. You can get a 7.2kWh system with batteries for about $4000. Most of these need to be hardwired into your home electrical system, but I recall seeing one that offered a plug outlet.

Good luck with this, and let me know what you end up doing.

"Can Battery Backups Make Money?" by Carl

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 05:57:32 -0800

I’m in the USVI where the cost of electricity it $.33 KvH. I can live with that - but the government-owned power system goes off line 3-4 times per mon th in good weather (max = 1 day) and it can be really bad during hurricane season. How about your initial premise - which was not to save money, but to provide a “backup generator” capacity? We cannot have any large generator in our condo. (2500 = max) So…..I’ve looked at Gridpoint and Gaia systems—both 10 KwH total capacities. To cover my fridge, small a/c unit and bedroom (including tv, lights and computer stuff) I draw a max of 2 KwH, with actual usage closer to 1. But the systems are $12,000. Any thought or observations would be GREATLY appreciated !!!!

"Can Battery Backups Make Money?" by J.R.

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 15:37:42 -0800

It’s great to see the numbers – thanks for calculating it thru. Here’s another one for you – how about a giant flywheel in your garage? I love the answer for storing water – I’m just imagining 20 swimming pools on your roof!

"Can Battery Backups Make Money?" by Max Dunn

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:24:26 -0800

Hydrogen

Using hydrogen to store energy is only 20%-25% efficient [1]. This is about 3 times less efficient than storing the electricity in batteries [2].

[1] Does a Hydrogen Economy Make Sense?

[2] Wind-to-Wheel Energy Assessment

"Can Battery Backups Make Money?" by Max Dunn

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:58:20 -0800

Air

Storing 10kWh of energy as compressed air would take only about a 300 liter tank [1], but the efficiency of compressing the air and getting it out will likely be less than 25% [2] and even in ideal situations, still less than 40% [3].

[1] Compressed Air Thermodynamics of the MDI Air Car

[2] Physics of isothermal compressed air storage

[3] Thermodynamic Analysis of Compressed Air Vehicle Propulsion

"Can Battery Backups Make Money?" by Max Dunn

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:01:31 -0800

Good question, let’s look at other ways of storing energy. First, let’s look at water.

Water

To determine the amount of electricity water can produce, you can use this equation from reference [1]:

watts = (Height [ft] * Flow [USGM]) / 9

or to change to kWh and solve for Gallons:

Gallons = 540,000 * kWh / Height

So if you have tank on your roof that is 10 feet high and you want to produce 10kWh of electricity you would need to 540,000 gallons of water. For comparison, the average swimming pool holds 25,000 gallons so this would be equivalent to over 20 swimming pools!

However, this is probably the most cost-effective way of storing energy being 70% to 85% efficient [2].

[1] Micro Hydro Equations

[2] Pumped-storage hydroelectricity

"Can Battery Backups Make Money?" by J.R.

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 21:44:15 -0800

Are there more efficient or less costly ways of storing energy? How about if you use the cheap night electricity to pump water to a tank on your roof, then let it generate electricity on its way back down. Or run an air compressor at night to pressurize a 50 gallon drum. Or create hydrogen thru electrolysis?

"Hot Tub Energy: Electric vs Gas" by J.R.

Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:45:23 -0800

Great analysis! Now if only the manufacturers would give us a gas fired option. Or a retrofit kit. By the way, my top tier electricity (>300% baseline) is about $0.22/kWh – so about $60/month.

"Primitive Electrical Distribution in the US" by hms

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:57:22 -0800

Unfortunately, underground cables, switches, and other equipment is 2-3 more times expensive to install than overhead. In addition, inspection & maintenance is more difficult and dangerous. Outage and less serious system issues are harder to monitor and locate. Finally, conditions underground are different, but not always better than above ground – moisture in particular can wreak havoc on expensive UG cable. So the issue is not crystal clear – there are tradeoffs (everyone agrees that the view would be improved if those ugly wires were underground). However, I doubt Californians, who already have the highest electricity rates in the country, would be willing to see their rates go up significantly (probably 50% or more) to underground conductors.

"When to Buy an Electric Car?" by Max Dunn

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:57:46 -0800

Thanks for your comments Jeffrey, they were very insightful.

Have you seen the new car the Tata Nano from India for $2,500? While it gets over 50 MPG, many people are worried that it will just lead to an explosion of people driving.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Nano

It is interesting that you reference the movie “The End of Suburbia”, because I have been wondering if the suburbs will be sustainable once oil becomes more scarce.

"When to Buy an Electric Car?" by Jeffrey Haight

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 01:43:43 -0800

Max, thanks for your blog on electric cars. I gave up my car about a year ago and I’m still alive believe it or not! I’ve been using public transportation, e.g. buses, subways, and trains to do most of my traveling. I also bum rides from time to time for special trips. I’ve also been using my bike a lot more. I live in the suburbs of NYC, just over the George Washington Bridge. It’s actually been really nice taking public transportation. It’s where I do most of my reading nowadays. My favorite books have been the ones that fit in my jacket pocket.

I feel that we should be concentrating more on improving ‘Public Transportation’ and Changing Our Ways’ e.g. scaling back on consumption of all ‘stuff’ so that we can leave less and less of a footprint overall, versus creating a better mouse trap or vehicle. Creating a ‘better’ car is just a small step. We should be making a big step instead given the short time we have left to make a serious change before we pass the ‘point of no return’ regarding the degradation of the environment.

Unless we come up with a way to take things from the earth which will grow back, i.e. renewable materials unlike oil, coal, and the materials that go into new technology, cars, and the rest of the ‘stuff’ in this world, we will be nowhere closer to a real working solution that we can rely on for the long term. If we do continue to make ‘stuff’ that uses energy and resources, we must make stuff that uses energy provided by our planet from solar, WIND, water, and in combination with natural forces like kinetic energy.

However, simply not needing energy as much is the best way I can think of not to use it or need it! Let’s try to live more deliberately, intelligently, and simply. Let’s get local and improve and invest in our local communities so that we don’t want to leave them as often to go to better ones two towns away.

Let’s encourage more and better railway systems and other public transportation so that we can get out of our towns to see the rest of the world. Let’s put pressure on our representatives to make these changes.

In short, now is the time that we must think 10 steps into the future, and not 1 step by creating an electric car which will be powered by the next natural material to peak: coal.

See http://www.endofsuburbia.com/ for a great movie on why the suburbs cannot survive. We must scale back.

Jeff

"Automatically starting Apache with chkconfig" by spadefinger

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:01:53 -0800

Thank you.

"Cheap Solar Panels to Save the World" by Max Dunn

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 21:37:36 -0800

Here is some information about their efficiency:

Nanosolar’s technology is reportedly capable of achieving higher efficiency rates (up to 19.5%) than are achieved with other thin-film technologies. However, these efficiency rates have only been seen under laboratory conditions so far. Mass produced CIGS solar cells usually have efficiency rates of 12%-15% – making them about half as efficient as their silicon PV counterparts.

http://anz.theoildrum.com/node/3477

"Solar vs Coal: Who Wins?" by Max Dunn

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:36:33 -0800

If coal had to cleanup its emissions, it would likely double the cost of its power. Then solar would have a much better chance of being able to compete. However, telling almost everyone in the world (including everyone in the Third World) that they are going to pay double for electricity probably wouldn’t go over very well.

"Solar vs Coal: Who Wins?" by Max Dunn

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:29:34 -0800

I was using 25M kWh/yr (as from reference #2) and rounded up, which accounts for part of the difference in our costs for solar power. However, the biggest difference is that I used a 30-year lifetime while you used a 40-year lifetime. Do you have any references to support a 40-year lifetime for solar panels?

"Solar vs Coal: Who Wins?" by J.R.

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 17:14:24 -0800

Very interesting analysis. Here’s a slightly different calculation, however. If the solar plant generates 30M kWh/yr (from your footnote 1) and lasts for 40 years (my #), then it will produce 1200M kWh over it’s lifetime. Since it cost $100M to build, isn’t that 12kWhr per dollar, or $0.083/kWh? That’s pretty damn close to the cost of coal! Now consider the cost of exhaust scrubbers and labor costs to run a coal plant. Solar’s a pretty clear winner now don’t you think?

"Single malt whiskey recommendations" by Max Dunn

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 14:49:13 -0800

Many people swear by a splash of water, but definitely don’t put ice in it because it numbs the flavor.

"Single malt whiskey recommendations" by marc

Mon, 24 Dec 2007 05:24:47 -0800

Can you mix single malt scotch with anything;

"Presidential Candidate Discussion" by Max Dunn

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 07:54:36 -0800

We can continue to discuss who is the best candidate, but I already know who is going to win the presidency … John Edwards!

Hillary won’t get the nomination because she is, well, Hillary. Obama won’t get it, and I am sad to say this but he won’t get it because he is black. While to those of us in urban centers this isn’t a factor, there are still large parts of the U.S. that aren’t ready for an African-American president. (See the results of this focus group )

So this leaves Edwards getting the Democratic nomination. As for the Republicans, it doesn’t really matter who is running. Bush has mucked things up so much and alienated so many people, including many Republicans, that any Republican candidate doesn’t stand a chance in this election because people will want a change.

Another factor that will provide an interesting twist to this election is that either Ron Paul or Bloomberg will run as a third-party candidate. This will pull more votes from the Republican side and further cement the Democratic win.

Now that the presidential election has been decided, it doesn’t really matter anymore who we think would be the best president. We just need to get used to saying: “Hail to the Chief, John Edwards!”

"The True Cost of Carbon Offsets" by Max Dunn

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 08:19:03 -0800

To answer beccanel2 question, there currently isn’t any investment tax credits for clean coal technology. However, there is a $2 billion Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI) to advance clean coal technology that is currently underway. This program is focused on pollutants like sulfur and mercury as well as CO2 reduction:

http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/powersystems/cleancoal/

"The True Cost of Carbon Offsets" by Max Dunn

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 08:13:39 -0800

Here is a page on the DOE web-site that mentions that current carbon scrubbing techniques for coal-fired power plants costs $150/ton.

http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/sequestration/capture/index.html

It also mentions that these techniques would add 2.5c to 4c/kWh to the cost of electricity which is a lot considering the average wholesale price of electricity is about 5c/kWh.

"The True Cost of Carbon Offsets" by beccanell2@aol.com

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 13:40:11 -0800

Using solar energy to replace coal-based energy is great, but 50% of US electricity is coal-based, so if we want to make a real dent, then we have to scrub. If a US utility installs carbon scrubbing equipment today,what kind of investment tax credits does it specifically get on that equipment? What additional new investment tax credits would put it on a level footing with solar equipment, whose capital cost is heavily subsidized by the government?

"Blogging" by Jody

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 12:41:24 -0800

Hi – I just found your blog. I’m researching the zapino scooter and was glad to find your review. Are you still happy with it?

"Differences between RewriteRule in .htaccess and httpd.conf" by Peter

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 12:34:55 -0800

Yep works good. Just spent 2 hours trying to figure out this issue!

"Presidential Candidate Discussion" by Max Dunn

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 09:42:12 -0800

Most candidates do have a track record of public service, so it is easy enough to look back at their previous promises, actions, behaviors and votes. These indicators will provide a much better guide to what they will be like in the future than anything they are saying now. So maybe it is best to throw out all campaign rhetoric and debates entirely and base our decision solely on their past record.

"Presidential Candidate Discussion" by J.R. Tozer

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:37:10 -0800

Ok, excellent point – we need a leader who is much more than just four or five agreeable positions. For example, I wouldn’t vote for someone dishonest, dogmatic, unintelligent, or uncharismatic no matter what positions he holds. He would be an ineffective leader ill equipped to carry the country forward through uncertain challenges.

So how do we judge the candidates intelligence, charisma, etc.? I feel that watching interviews and debates reveals something about them. What else is there? (I wish historical voting records were easier to review, but it is not possible to know why they voted one way or another – too much pork, waiting for a better bill, etc.)

BTW, I view your example in point two as a distraction – another divisive issue that isn’t as important as it seems – certainly not something to swing my vote. And as I recall, there was progress towards a more tolerant policy as a result of Clinton’s efforts. More than that was not politically feasible at the time. I imagine there may be other more important campaign promises broken than that one.

"Presidential Candidate Discussion" by Max Dunn

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 07:51:52 -0800

Ok, fair enough – these issues are important to you. However, rather than debating whose issues are more important, why don’t we first discuss how the issues we feel strongly about affect our choice of candidate.

There are two factors that come into play here: 1) do we consider other qualities of the candidate other than just their support of our issues and 2) how do we know that they will keep their campaign promises?

In regard to point #1, other events could occur during the candidates term that would take precedence over our current important issues. For instance, maybe Saudi Arabia decides to withhold oil from the US and allies with China who sends troops to Saudi Arabia to insure their supply of oil. If this happened, the candidate that would pull troops out of Iraq and focus on the environment might not be the best person to handle this type of crisis.

Point #2 is also important to consider because many candidates break their campaign promises. For instance, Bill Clinton was solidly for integrating gays into the military while he was campaigning, but then broke this promise even before he became president.

So, do we support a candidate solely on their campaign pledges to support the issues that are important to us, or do we look for other qualities as well?

"Presidential Candidate Discussion" by J.R. Tozer

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:48:15 -0800

Interesting perspective. While I agree that reducing the size, power, and complexity of government is desirable, I have to disagree about it’s relative importance. Much much more important to me is that we stop military agression and start providing leadership on global warming and alternative energy.

I’d argue that the direct monetary costs of the war in Iraq would FAR exceed the savings from reasonable/feasible cuts to government. And beyond that we have the economic consequences like risk-lifted oil prices, deficit spending inflation, etc. And the political consequences of being perceived around the world as a bully (especially by terror recruiting efforts).

And while the size of our government will inevitably fluctuate over the coming decades irrespective of the next president, our ability to affect global warming and achieve energy independence requires action today. I’d rather pursue smaller government when we have less pressing problems.

"Installing MySQL Ruby Gem on Mac OS X 10.4" by papyromancer

Sat, 17 Nov 2007 09:48:44 -0800

I finally got this working with some help from your blog, and over this way—> http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/249986

"Presidential Candidate Discussion" by Max Dunn

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:07:24 -0800

Ok, let’s talk about what are the most pressing issues. I would argue that historically, the less a president did the better off all of us were. In almost all cases, when presidents succeeded in passing some big agenda, history later showed it to be folly.

But if I had to pick one issue that would actually help the country more than any other, I would say it would be to reduce the power, size and complexity of government, which I consider even more important than the Iraq war, environment, peak oil, social security and health insurance. So unless a candidate is committed to that issue, I would rather see someone ineffectual in office so that don’t actually increase the reach of government.

"Presidential Candidate Discussion" by J.R. Tozer

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:57:04 -0800

On Ron Paul… His own words from your first link: “I object to forcing taxpayers who believe harvesting embryos is immoral to pay for it.”

To me, this suggests he’s against it whether it is federally OR STATE funded – the logic would apply to both taxing agencies. Further, the idea that medical research should only be privately funded ignores the fact that much of it is basic in nature and won’t provide any financial incentive for the free market to pursue – drug companies research drugs – who’s going to research diet and obesity for example – there’s not financial incentive – no patent protection for knowledge everyone can use freely.

But remember, while I consider this issue to be important, it is just noise when compared with the bigger issues of peace, spending, the environment, etc. I think Americans (myself included until now perhaps) are too influenced by ideological and divisive single-issues. It prevents us from cooperating to find the most competent candidate and solving the most pressing issues.

"Presidential Candidate Discussion" by Max Dunn

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:56:06 -0800

Ron Paul is not against stem cell research in particular. He is against federal funding of any research: http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul252.html http://www.ronpaul2008.com/articles/80/rights-of-taxpayers-is-missing-element/

"Presidential Candidate Discussion" by J.R. Tozer

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 12:54:30 -0800

A few weeks ago, I decided I needed to figure out which candidate to support – so I could be more pro-active this year (I’m really fed up with our govn’t – both republicans and democrats). Hilary is not my top choice, and I hope she does not get the nomination.

I’d be curious what conclusions you’ve drawn about the candidates. Here’s mine: Initially, I reviewed lots of websites that have tried to objectively distill each candidates positions on major issues. I created a matrix, but found it pretty useless actually. Mostly because the issues are all weighted so very differently. For example, I felt good about Ron Paul until I saw he’s against Stem Cell Research, a nonsensical position from my perspective. I liked John Edwards until I discovered he’s for capital punishment. But are these issues really even relevant when we have things like energy independence and war mongering?

There are even websites that ask you what you think of the issues and then match you up with a candidate. Surprisingly, I lined up with Kusinich or Ron Paul, and they are opposites in many important ways. I guess I’d like to have a hybrid of the two, but that does not exist. Thus, I don’t think the quizzes are really valid.

So I changed my approach to reflect the most important issues to me. It’s an interesting exercise, and I’d be curious what your six most important challenges/characteristics are. Stop reading and think what they are. I came up with 5 issues and 1 presidential characteristic I’d like to use to make my decision. They are detailed on the attached spreadsheet, and at the moment, I’m leaning towards John Edwards. He seems to be intelligent and open/honest in debates and in interviews (with Bill Maher and Jon Stewart). He is the strongest green advocate and for getting out of Iraq. Lately, I have heard people saying he is leaning too far to the left, but I don’t know what evidence there is for that – have you seen it?

I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I’m getting close. If it’s not John Edwards, it’ll probably be Barack, but I fear he really is to left, and will create lots of new programs and spending obligations. I don’t like Hilary – she seems to be a hawk and I think she’s slimy. What do you think?

"Ruby on Rails Advanced Page Caching" by David

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:41:31 -0800

On ror have a post about caching web pages.

""Lipstick Jihad" by Azadeh Moaveni" by John

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 12:15:29 -0800

hi!, i know it’s a long time since you posted this, but i was just wondering if you can give me chapter summary of Lipstick jihad. I would really appreciate it !

Thanks for reading

"SVN Connection problem" by Daniel Sim Lind

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 05:27:18 -0800

No sooner written than it came right! Mat Schaffer is correct. Your success was probably a co-incidence.

"SVN Connection problem" by Daniel Sim Lind

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 05:25:01 -0800

This is happening for me too. It seems to come and go and isn’t connecting to my IP address as far as I can tell. I am accessing via the plugin/install mechanism within ruby on a windows machine. Got rspec trunk through fine and then moments latter I can’t get the rspec for rails trunk. I get the message: svn: Connection closed unexpectedly. I guess I’ll keep retrying it.

"The True Cost of Carbon Offsets" by Max Dunn

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:33:40 -0800

I am reading an interesting book called “Cool It” by Bjorn Lomborg that starts with the assumption that AGW (Anthropogenic Global Warming) is real and then discusses what to do about it. He says that in the UK the marginal costs of removing one ton of CO2 is $23. So I think Allistair is right that my $150/ton is the upper-limit and that there are cheaper ways that can be used at first to start removing CO2.

"The True Cost of Carbon Offsets" by Alistair Morley

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 03:32:59 -0800

This was an interesting entry; it’s hard to get base figures on fixed and variable costs of carbon sequestration at generation. I’d just add these should form “upper limit” estimates which we would expect to fall with technology advancement. It would be nice to have ballpark estimates on the efficiency of “exotic” solutions like pyrolysis and iron-seeding the oceans.

Though I remain a policy sceptic on AGW (accepting for sake of argument IPCC estimates, abatement costs do not seem to offer good cost-benefit ratios compared to other global welfare options), all sides to the debate could learn from the sober assesments here.

"Installing MySQL Ruby Gem on Mac OS X 10.4" by Max Dunn

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:39:14 -0700

You should be in the same directory as the mysql.c file. It sounds like your installation wasn’t complete since it was missing this file. You could try searching for it using “locate mysql.c” and if not found, then reinstall the mysql gem.