Can It Be this SIMPLE? (the Off-Topic continuation)

[Melanie]

The answer to all of that Alain is No... but...

There's only one of me, yet I own two cars, one is a small car, the other a large gas-guzzling 4x4 Diesel. If I could get one for a sensible price (instead of the riddiculous prices dealers charge), I'd probably buy a Hummer just because I'd be the only kid on the block with one (the other problem with the Hummer is that Americans have forgotten how to make cars and their build quality is attrocious - GM take notice if you read this forum!).

Which car I chose to drive depends on my mood and where I'm going. If around town I might take the small car, or I just might take the 4x4 because manufacturers spend millions on designing fenders which I consider an under-utilised accessory, and I've found they're great for creating gaps in parking where none previously existed provided there's enough horsepower behind them.

Why should I, as an individual, be asked to economise on energy and minimise pollution when more than half the world doesn't care?

I do my bit... I turn the lights off in the Bedroom when I go to bed (saving 200W), but I keep the air-con running (burning 3kW) because I want to be comfortable. I junked the 28" (300W) widescreen, for a 32" (100W) LCD - saving 200W, a good move but offset by the fact that manufacturing the LCD produced three times as much greenhouse gasses than the glass tubed one.

Do you consciously buy product A because it's 'greener' than product B although it's inferior? Let's get real. I don't want to drive a 'Smart' or today's FIAT 500 or Citroen 2CV equivallent.

When at the end of my days my Grandchildren ask (no, I'm not married and have no children as yet - this is hypotheical) "Grandma what did you do when you were younger?", I want to tell them that "I drove up down motorways at 140mph, burnt fuel at 11/gallon in sound-proofed air-conditioned comfort whilst listening to my favourite music at 110dB". I want to tell them that I was a CONSUMER, I worked hard and in turn made my life comfortable.

[Acetronics2]

Hi, Mel

" I want to tell them .... I worked hard and in turn made my life comfortable. "

That's not - exactly - what I understood from two or three years reading carefully your posts on this forum ...

" bearable " sounds better to me.

Might I take off a couple of your " memories " as examples ??? ...

Now, we should redirect this interesting discussion to " off topic " section , ... may be ...

Alain

[Mike_Lynch]

Out of context quote

. . .When at the end of my days my Grandchildren ask "Grandma what did you do when you were younger?", I want to tell them that "I drove up down motorways . . . . whilst listening to my favourite music at 110dB". . . . .

Are you sure you won’t be telling them
“Eeehhh, What did you say? Speak Up I can’t hear you when you mumble ”

M.L. (Ducking for cover)

[Melanie]

Off-Topic coninues here...

The technicalities of Mikes Barbie Dragster continues in Mel PIC Basic Pro section...

I'm actively looking for one of those Victorian ear trumpets in readiness for the times when I'm old and grey and have even more attitude than today...

Spooky Alain... you saving up my posts for some kind of future biography? *smiles*

[Acetronics2]

Spooky Alain... you saving up my posts for some kind of future biography? *smiles*

Who ??? me ??? you should know there's some kind of gentleman in me ... and, for the little girl inside you, I will never cross the line ... I've never written for the "SUN" and never will .


Back to cars, I've also a pair ( Thanks ...) one drinks 8 l/100 km and the other ... exactly the same .
One is an Opel Corsa 1400cc 60 HP, the other is a Honda Accord 2.0 l 155 HP ... don't you feel a waste somewhere ???

WASTE ... that's the correct word I looked for.

Alain

[Mike_Lynch]

Melanie,
I hope you’re considerate enough of others to do that 110dB thing with the windows up.
Unlike the “kid *” in the convertible Mustang who pulled up 50 ft. ahead and 3 lanes to the left
of me the other day. I couldn’t hear my radio over his! ! ! ( * Kid, yea he was younger than me
probably just over ½ my age, I’m borderline Old Fart I guess, not quite at the “Wrinkler” stage yet)

Reminds me of what my roommate and I would do in a neighborhood I used to rent in.
When the nextdoor neighbor kids had visitors and they would turn the Car Stereos up too loud,
playing “Hip-Hop” & what I guess was early “Gangster-Rap” we would take one of the speakers
from my stereo in the house, place it in the front window, drop in a CD of I think it was
“William Tell 1812 Overature” (is that the one with cannon fire?) and crank out around 300 Watts.
First couple of times we did that the local Police crused the neighbor trying to find out what had “Blown Up”. 8-)
My old roommate & I, we’re just old Rock & Rollers.

[Melanie]

I'm of the opinion that if motor car manufacturers linked the volume control of the ICE (In Car Entertainment) to the speedo, they could in turn lose 100kg (OK it's 2kg but I'm making a point) of soundproofing from under the hood, resulting in cheaper vehicles, improved fuel consumption, fewer emissions and overall be nice to the planet... remember you heard it here first!

Bah, who needs Unleaded, Catalytic Converters and alternative energy sources when you've got lateral thinking....

[keithdoxey]

I'm of the opinion that if motor car manufacturers linked the volume control of the ICE (In Car Entertainment) to the speedo,

They do in some cars and it is really annoying.

I have had a couple of hire cars that have been like that and have been cruising along with the radio cranked up high enough to drown out my awful singing and then had to slow down for a roundabout. The volume drops right down low then as you speed up again the radio gets louder to compensate for the increased road noise but doesnt go back to where you had it set previously

“Gangster-Rap”

Everyone always mis-spells that particular genre.... they miss out the "C" that should be 4th from the end

[Luciano]

I want to tell them that I was a CONSUMER...

Me too!



Luciano

[f_lez]

I do my bit... I turn the lights off in the Bedroom when I go to bed (saving 200W), but I keep the air-con running (burning 3kW)

200w for a bedroom!

My bedroom is 12ft*12ft and was light by a 60w bulb, now it has a 15w energy efficient bulb that has equiv 70watt light output!

Those must be subsidised because our local netto store (netto.co.uk) sells them for 47p/$0.25, I buy two every trip and a have a cupboard full, they last about a year even though they claim longer.

As for air-con, MOVE! think of the savings.....(I know its not always possible)

We've just had a really hot summer for us, hitting 36c for about a week, I did the unthinkable and went out and bought a pedestal fan....

Even my car does not have air-con, Air-con is another planet killer, its hot, so you use energy to pump out more heat into the local area, cooking everyone else, making them turn on their air-con...........

You sit in traffic in a car, turn on the air-con, pump out hot air to all the cars stuck in traffic around you, who turn on air-con....

whoever invented air-con, well.........

Now transportation, I drive a big car, 2.1ltr turbo diesel, old but efficient at about 40mpg.(Citroen XM)(AFAIK never sold stateside) and pay about $370 a year tax just for ownership, its less for smaller engines/cars.

Best fuel for it is oil seed rape (canola oil?) but corn oil and sunflower oil are good also but if you run it on that it smells like french fries, oddly corn oil makes it smell like popcorn...

If I did that, I would get up-to a $4000 fine, my car impounded and possibly crushed for evading the paying of road fuel tax, unless I register as an experimental fuel producer and voluntarily keep record of what I burn and pay the required tax, which should be bio-fuel rate of £0.27/$0.50 a ltr, unfortunately our tax office do not officially recognise plant oil / waste cooking oil as a bio fuel(!) and so want standard road fuel tax rate of $0.43/$0.90 a ltr tax. (plant oils have nearly a 0 carbon footprint, IE they are only releasing the carbon that they previously absorbed)

[Mike_Lynch]

whoever invented air-con, well.........

Isn’t air conditioning an offshoot of refrigeration?

Without refrigeration we (I) would have to make a lot more trips to the store to buy Fresh Meat,
Dairy, Produce Products (burning more Gas). Trucks would have to bring the products to market
more often, (Burning More Gas). Products which come from producers FAR away would never
make it to market before spoiling. There would be NO Ice-Cream, Frozen Yogurt.
(NO Ice-Cream may just trigger the downfall of civilization as we know it.)
Look at all the products in your cupboard / pantry that say “refrigerate after opening” on the label.
Would you want to purchase those in “one time use” package sizes, resulting in more waste in the
landfills and requiring the burning of more gas to haul to the dump? No Ice for your soda, no cold beer,
(NO COLD BEER would be worse than no Ice-cream) Look in your refrigerator / ice box and
think about all the things that you wouldn’t be able to have or keep for more than a day or so.

[f_lez]

]There would be NO Ice-Cream, Frozen Yogurt.
(NO Ice-Cream may just trigger the downfall of civilization as we know it.)

Look at all the products in your cupboard / pantry that say “refrigerate after opening” on the label.

(NO COLD BEER would be worse than no Ice-cream) Look in your refrigerator / ice box and
think about all the things that you wouldn’t be able to have or keep for more than a day or so.

My granny never had a fridge, we had a celler, it was cooler down their and thats where she kept things that needed to be cooler.

I can see that without ice cream etc etc but thats because we are used to having it, at the expense of the planet.

Ice cream is the new planet killer (tm)

I just think we are not doing it right, we should not be trying to modify our environment to the extent that we curerently are, the knock on effect is damn big and its going to come back and bite future generations.

I have a refrigerator, and only a month ago I was discussing with the wife about moving it from out the kitchen into the back yard so its no longer working like an indoor heat pump, then maybe I can turn down the fan on my desk....


Its little things like this what can help.


Everything we seem to 'invent' seems to be just another fuel hungry monster, the computer, emm, about 100 watts for an old one, the newer ones even more, cell phones, not great, but whats the power consumption of the infrastructure running them, all those transmitters, computers, routers etc etc, add on the last 10 years explosion of the internet, all those isp's and the servers running night and day.

We need more power every day, its a spiral, at least we may get more power stations but the only option now is nuclear....

I did hear that the nuclear generators on submarines cant do a chenobyl because they dont contain enough explosive material, so why do we build big dangerous ones instead of a hundred smaller safe ones???


If it was not for the chilled vodka, how would I sleep at night........

[Mike_Lynch]

Nuclear Powered Refrigeration . . .

Now THAT is a subject, which just screams for SERIOUS R&D money to be thrown at it.
Did we just solve global warming? . . . OK, so where IS Osama Bin Ladens hideout?

[Acetronics2]

Hi, F Lez

< I have a refrigerator, and only a month ago I was discussing with the wife about moving it from out the kitchen into the back yard so its no longer working like an indoor heat pump >

Sorry, but it is really a false assertion ...

The heat you pump in the room ( entering the fridge ) ... you bring it to the backside of the fridge ... so, IN THE ROOM !!! , just adding the compressor running electric energy.

Globally ... you heat your room !!!

So, ... a split system is the solution for summer, and a conventional one for the winter .

Alain

[f_lez]

Hi, F Lez
Sorry, but it is really a false assertion ...

The heat you pump in the room ( entering the fridge ) ... you bring it to the backside of the fridge ... so, IN THE ROOM !!! , just adding the compressor running electric energy.


Alain

but if its a 150w motor, its a 150 watt of heat going into the air, minus electrical energy thats converted to noise.

If its hot, I dont want that extra heat inside the house....

[Archangel]

Nuclear Powered Refrigeration . . .

. . OK, so where IS Osama Bin Ladens hideout?

Check the 12th Green in Palm Springs. He probably has a house right there.

[sayzer]

Is there a particular topic here or we are just shooting for free and adding couple of quotes?

[Melanie]

This is free-for-all thread, the PIC controlled dragster is on the other one.

Like all good pub/club conversations (this one sadly doesn't serve alcohol or Turkish coffee), it starts with the price of gas and ends up fixing global warming, whether Pluto has enough mass to be called a planet or a skinny dog, and finally revealing Osama Bin Ladens hideout.

[Mike_Lynch]

Sayzer,
I think it rather turned into a free shot zone after being replicated into the OFF TOPIC
Area. What’s on your mind? I’m generally attempting to stay within the confines of
Energy Conservation, but did digress into the “loud music and cars” which was preceded by
a question about alternate energy development in countries other than the USA.

Like Melanie said, (Thanks Melanie, Nearly fell out of my chair laughing at that one.
So, Pluto is a skinny dog now, is that OFFICIAL or is that just Walt’s version of the story?)

[Mike_Lynch]

How many people could realistically Telecommute for the majority of their workweek ?
Myself being primarily a Field Technician of sorts don’t see it happening. . .

Client on the phone: “You want ME to unplug the system from the wall, take a SCREWDRIVER and do WHAT?”

One “US” PC manufacturer Headquartered in TEXAS, tried that for a while, they may still, I don’t know,
I once worked for a company who contracted a LOT of their Field Service Warranty Work.
Remote Control repair of PC systems, requiring component replacement, generally doesn’t work well.

The AVERAGE End User of a PC can't (or just will not) count the Pins on a DB25 Connector.

If you are at all technically adept and you are calling a PC company’s help desk for technical support,
the first thing you should say is “Put the SCRIPT Down, Get Me Tier Two!”

[Melanie]

I think two thousand cartoon fans met in Czechoslovakia (or in the country formerly known as) earlier this week and decided that Pluto was a dog.

Oh, tech support, you mean this kind of thing... (warning - don't click if you're afraid of a little bad language!), but if you work with clients you probably get a version of this at least once a day.

http://www.daujones.com/sounds/helpdesk.mp3