kgwilson

Politicians talk of baseload power & think that it means supply at peak demand. Baseload power doesn't mean anything other than that's what a coal fired power station runs at. Coal fired (& Nuclear) power stations have to run at maximum output to get peak efficiency. They can't just be turned up when peak demand is there or down when demand is low. Baseload is a myth. It is peak demand that needs to be catered for. Battery storage can do this.

Most of the current EV models available have V2L (vehicle to load). Mine does so I can take an electric jug, cooker or toaster with me & use it anywhere. It will also be useful during power cuts at home. There are some standards which allow a vehicle to be part of the household electricity system. These are V2H (vehicle to home & V2G (vehicle to grid). Basically this allows a car to be used as a household battery charged by your solar panels. The standard requires specific wiring with load sharing technology etc. In coming years I think this will become common as there is already fairly high uptake of solar systems with batteries due to the very low rates for sending your solar generation to the grid, typically 5-7 cents/kWH when they are charging 50-60 cents/kWH at peak times. My EV has a 64 kWH battery which is enough to power my whole house for 9 days at my current usage figures. Governments and power companies are doing all they can to avoid these things as they can't make money out of it.

Resistance to change no matter what that change is is normal so no-one should feel bad about it. From my perspective I have been involved in change management for 50 years so new technologies excite and challenge me. Electric vehicles have been around since the early 1900s. They died because of the inability to get any range from the battery technology of the day. This has all changed now & it has been the vision of Elon Musk that has championed that change. In the 1970s interest was again sparked by the early oil crisis but disappeared quietly till the late 90s. This was largely due to the realisation that cars were reducing air quality in large cities. Toyota produced the first Prius hybrid in 2000 but then in 2006 Tesla was born & the EV revolution has been on an exponential path ever since. From only a few thousand sold world wide in 2012, 10 years later in 2022 more than 22 million were sold world wide and there are now hundreds of brands and models to chose from and this does not include hybrids. There is plenty of resistance to this change and this is understandable. When cars first took over from horses the resistance was just the same. Most people will have heard of the requirement to have a man walking ahead of the motor car waving a red flag. Sounds nuts but it happened. The transition will take time but it is inevitable. We will run out of fossil fuel. Latest estimates are in 45 years. I'll be well dead but will die happy that I was part of the process to try to keep us going in to the future.

Just so you know, I own a 2023 MG4 Essence 64. I made the EV switch in September after looking for more than a year. It suits my lifestyle. It won't suit everyone. I've done 5000 km so far and one 1100km round trip. I cannot imagine returning to internal combustion but that's me, no-one else.

These are the statistics from the US in 2021. From US insurer AutoinsuranceEZ Per 100,000 sales Petrol car fires 1529.9 Hybrid car fires 3475.4 Pure EV fires 25.1 The right wing press in the UK, much of it owned by Murdoch has been spreading a huge amount of false information about Electric Vehicles for several years now. This has finally led to the "Fully Charged Show" setting up an offshoot to get the actual facts out in the public eye. They have set up an on line site for debunking myths and there are many, even some as off the wall as "EVs are too heavy & they will destroy all the roads" and "tyres won't last" etc. It is called "Stop Burning Stuff" Stop BS for short. They don't advocate getting rid of ICE vehicles although that is inevitable when known oil reserves run out but stick to myth busting with verifiable facts. OME the issues you raise are all covered here. Look it up if you are interested.

Good quality CBs incorporate RCDs these days. I just installed one for my EVSE device that draws 32 amps. They are called RCCBs (residual current circuit breaker) and it protects you from electrocution and the device you are using from meltdown or burnout etc.

Well, I finally made the decision and bought my first Electric Car. I have been looking at the particular car since it was released in the UK a year ago so I put my name down for a test drive when they arrived in Australia in August. So far the car has won 15 major awards including Car of the Year 2023 in the UK where it beat every other entrant including ICE & hybrids. I was a bit dubious about the brand but after looking at the multitude of Youtube reviews and the test drive I was convinced. It is a MG 4 Essence 64. One motoring reviewer found the dramatic change from all of the revived MG brand cars difficult to work out. His experience found that while they were generally cheap the dynamic driving experience ranged from below average to positively woeful. The MG4 was so dramatically different it was as if it was a totally different brand. Designed by the Royal Academy of Arts in London and engineered by SAIC (ex MG) Engineering at Longbridge UK it is a ground up EV design with rear wheel drive and 50-50 weight distribution with what they have called a "modular scalable platform" meaning the battery is scalable for different size vehicles and can be changed quickly. I planned to buy the sub 40k bottom of the range version but ended up with the top of the range mid size battery version. Build quality and features better than many luxury brands including Mercedes Benz according to some motoring journalists. My experience so far is I can't get over how good it is. So many features that I am still learning about, fantastic handling and great range. I installed a 7.4 kW charger in my garage and it charges from near empty to full at the off peak rate overnight easily. Running cost is the equivalent of paying about 14 cents a litre for petrol. It also has power to load so I have an adaptor and it will deliver up to 32 Amps of power for any 230 volt appliance or mutitude of appliances. I'll use this during power cuts and also camping or picnics etc. I'll never go back to ICE.

Many legal documents can now be signed on line. Once you have an appropriate digital ID verified you get an email with a link to a secure site that you log in to with a 2 step process. I do all my financial stuff, certifications, Suerannuation & taxation returns etc this way.

No such publication as "Doing Time". I like it though.

We had a thermette like that when I was a kid in the 50s. We never went on picnics without it.

A short film entitled Slaughterbots" was released 4 years ago and it shows what existing technology is capable of producing. It is scary but would be really useful if there were several thousands targetting all of the Russian Kremlin occupiers with political and military leaders. It was featured on the BBC and describes the near future. The web page is autonomousweapons.org and is a plea from a large group of AI experts to try to get such things banned. I don't think they will succeed.

I take it you have never cooked with induction heat. I have had a Bosch Induction cooktop for 15 years now. Energy is transferred instantly to the cooking utensil so the base of the pan actually becomes the element. It uses about 10% less power than standard resistive elements, and is 3 times more efficient than gas. Induction produces no harmful by products as gas does which include methane, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide depending on the type of gas used. It heats faster than gas and is even more controllable. The only downside is that you cannot use non ferrous pots and pans. I have demonstrated this to many people by bringing 500ml of water to the boil in 20 seconds from cold using a "Power" setting where the energy from 2 of the induction elements is concentrated in to one.

Buy cheap no name or even named batteries and you will never get the performance of quality name brand batteries. There are good batteries though for a reasonable price. I tried the Aldi brand Activ Energy and they are well priced and actually topped the Canstar Blue best rated batteries review ahead of Duracell, Varta and Energiser though they don't have a full range including button batteries. The AA, AAA, D & 15 volt alkaline batteries from Activ Energy all perform as well as the other top batteries.

The latest round of new EVs from China are now down in the Corolla price range and even the smallest batteries are now getting around 350km. Both the new MG4 & BYD Dolphin small battery options are under 40k before incentives. New battery technologies are developing so quickly it is almost impossible to keep up. A lot though have massive energy density but very low longevity & this is the biggest hurdle. Sodium batteries though are now entering the EV market.

They are generally over patriotic but it is implanted in them from an early age. I watched some of the Oshkosh air shows and the overly patriotic commentary as well as all american music blasting from the PA system was almost sickening. They played the national anthem many times and they all stand with hand on heart. In the suburbs you see US flags flying from houses everywhere. They go on about their freedom all the time but have the highest incarceration rate in the world and the worst gun violence anywhere. A large percentade of the population knows nothing about anywhere else in the world.

Trump has been indicted yet again along with 18 others including Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, this time in Georgia for one of the most blatant attempts to change the vote there. He is going to be quite busy fronting court in the next year or 2. There has been a lot of comment on whether Trump is Authoritarian of Fascist. This comment from Robert Reich US professor, author, lawyer and political commentator points clearly in one direction.

John Dickenson, the father of modern Hang Gliding has died. His original design was a flat kite but he adopted the rogallo design and his kites & then gliders first free flown by Bill Moyes became the standard. https://www.fai.org/news/john-dickenson-1934-2023-rip?type=node&id=24473&fbclid=IwAR2x8hLidTQIHEmyX_oFi2ePoh5Aio7Df4sHyrjEA9tZXwSSYGucPyK7vTM

That article hits the nail dead centre. These monster Utes are useless at everything except being able to tow 4.5 tonnes so caravans have grown to suit. Since the pandeminc I have noticed a big increase in large off road style caravans being towed by these monsters. The government needs to start taxing these things with extra import dutes to compensate for their massive emmissions compared to the normal ute. The thing is that even normal Utes have grown drmatically in the last 10 years. Hilux, Triton Ranger & B50s plus the Chinese additions are all much larger than they used to be. I watched a youtube clip of the US House Transportation committee questioning the Transport Secretary Pete Butigieg on the move to transition to electric cars on an infrastructure bill. The questioning revolved around whether a fridge consumes as much power as an electric car. The answer is obvious and Butigieg was clear in his assertion that the existing infrastructure needs to be upgraded as a matter of urgency & if it is, the goals can easily be achieved. The politicians rambled on and just refused to accept that and decided the US infrastructure would not cope & fossil fuels will be required way beyond the climate deadlines. Of course it is all about money & taxing more to get this done will lose them votes and/or power. US industry though is in a dramatic reimagination phase and investment & venture capital is going in to electric technolgies and energy storage. Telsa is by far the largest car manufacturer in the world by market capitalisation and is still ahead of all of its rivals despite the high cost. The ICE vehicle insustry can clearly see the writing on the wall and is appealing to the sector of the market that it can squeeze easily, cashed up Boguns and whatever you call people who are right wing climate change deniers who need to show off their egos because of other inadequacies in their lives.

Absolutely fantasic achievements from some brilliant scientific, engineering and chemical minds but none will be of any use when the destruction of our environment occurs from our obsession with endless economic growth and wealth.

Once again the donald demonstrates to anyone with an IQ above 30 that he is the biggest most incompetent, ill informed, biggotted, narcisistic, nasty nutjob ever to be promoted by 30 or 40 million of his > IQ 30 contempories.

Ukraine retaliated with several Himars strikes on Russian positions in Donetsk and South East Ukraine. The most devastating though was on a large Russian base in Crimea which is also on a major highway. the initial explosian was heard 30km away and ammunition continued to detonate throughout the day so they were not able to put the fire out. The highway was closed & several villages had to be evacuated. The fate of personnel at the base is unknown at this stage.

I just watched the ABC doco on Putin. Very much an American viewpoint but it gives an interesting comment on Putins character and ruthlessness throughout 5 US presidencys. Biden was there throughout and the only one to (finally) draw a line in the sand. Clinton didn't want to rock the boat, Bush was just a fool, Obama didn't want to rock the boat and Trump was/is a complete idiot.

Why would the Russians allow anything as they have shown absolutely no compliance with any international agreement since their invasion & have committed more war crimes than you can count. Putin has been declared a terrorist and will be arrested if he steps foot in any signatory country. The plant is not producing power and the control rods have been inserted so it is in a holding pattern but still poses massive dangers should anything go wrong. The Ukrainians still manage the plant but the Russians control it and could easily detonate some of their explosives they have there in order to generate a radioactive leak. That is a threat they aim to keep.

Americans seem so ingrained with their religious culture they have to mention their god in every exclamation of concern insterspersed with the odd S & F bomb. Their god must be pretty liberal, unlike them though.

The best thing that can happen is happening. Continued ineptitude, infighting and jockeying for position with corruption at every level. Poorly trained troops and poor leadership are not helping them either. The only major issue IMO is that if there is a shit fight & Putin is pushed out, someone even worse may take the reins.