🔒 Locked

Our one source of energy, the ultimate discovery: Electricity!

Started by Mithrandir Sep 2, 2003 at 3:12 AM 50 replies 3.6k views

Original Post

Sep 2, 2003 at 3:12 AM

Okay, that was enough of an OMD reunion (does anyone even get that?) Anyway, I''ve been pondering the inevitable purchase of a new automobile, and I''ve decided to embrace my true hippie communist side, and buy a Hybrid Electric Automobile. I really can''t get over how cool these things are; they turn off the engines when they are idle, they transform kinetic energy back into electricity when braking, and get around 50 miles per gallon, and upwards of 500 miles per tank. How freaking cool! I''ve been looking into the Toyota Prius:

It''s $21k, which would make a nice addition to my now-due college loans, but I figure it''s got to be worth it. Does anyone have any experience with electric hybrid cars, and/or other suggestions? interesting note: This car gets around 10 more mpg while city driving than highway driving, which makes thermodynamic sense, considering that air drag increases non-linearly with speed, thereby reducing efficiency. That says to me that the Prius has an unbelievably efficient conservation-of-energy.

Zorodius

Sep 2, 2003 at 4:14 AM

Why don''t you just buy a car that runs on love, you hippie. Can you do that? Can you buy a car that runs on love?

No, you can''t, because love doesn''t make cars run. Gasoline does. That''s why the dinosaurs died. So we could run our cars on them.

If you buy a gas-efficient, environmentally sane hybrid electric car, you are a terrorist.

Taoist

Sep 2, 2003 at 4:19 AM

Go for it man! Let me know what they are like.

"Think critically about what you are told. Do not accept the world of authority unthinkingly." - The Science of Discworld 2

Taoist aka Sailorstick

neurokaotix

Sep 2, 2003 at 4:21 AM

Yeah... I guess Mithrandir is sort of a big hippie...

James Simmons
MindEngine Development
http://medev.sourceforge.net

Nervo

Sep 2, 2003 at 4:35 AM

I looked into the Honda Civic hybrid earlier this year when I bought a second car. From an economic standpoint, I'm not sure if I would have had any gains over buying the gas version Civic that I bought anyway. Not taking maintenance costs into consideration and refueling, the Hybrid civic has an MSRP of about 21K. The 2 door civic LX for cost me 16K. I normally keep a car five years with a $20 refuel once a week. Lets falsely assume that the hybrid civic has zero expenses in refueling and mine has 5K for five years of fueling, it will come out the same in the end. Now the environmental impact is intuitively less severe and revenue is being shifted from oil companies to auto manufacturers instead. All in all, for me to consider buying a hybrid I need two things to happen:

1- The technology needs to be refined over a span years for me to feel comfortable with it.

2- The prices need to come down to being close to or even below the cost of purchasing a gasoline driven auto.

I look forward to these things occuring, sooner than later.

[edited by - nervo on September 2, 2003 5:37:31 AM]

Crispy

Sep 2, 2003 at 4:35 AM

quote:
Original post by Zorodius
Why don''t you just buy a car that runs on love, you hippie. Can you do that? Can you buy a car that runs on love?

No, you can''t, because love doesn''t make cars run. Gasoline does. That''s why the dinosaurs died. So we could run our cars on them.

If you buy a gas-efficient, environmentally sane hybrid electric car, you are a terrorist.

The dinosaurs are alive. Just like Elvis.

flangazor

Sep 2, 2003 at 4:42 AM

Did you know CIVIC is 207 in Roman Numerals?

To americans, it might be insignificant. To Europeans, however, the number 207 has significance as the model number for Peugout''s competing car in the class of the Civic! (at least, I think its the same class.. maybe the 307 is.)

I read that in the paper''s puzzle section today. I thought it was nifty.

Mark Duffill

Sep 2, 2003 at 4:50 AM

What we all really need are cars like they have in the Flintstones...

Senses777

Sep 2, 2003 at 5:17 AM

That''s right. Thanks to Ed Begley Jr.''s electric motor, the
most evil propulsion system ever conceived!

Cestps

Sep 2, 2003 at 5:23 AM

quote:
Original post by flangazor
Did you know CIVIC is 207 in Roman Numerals?

No, it isn''t. 207 is CCVII in Roman Numerals. CIVIC doesn''t even make sense.

flangazor

Sep 2, 2003 at 5:40 AM

STUPID PAPER LIED TO ME!

Irrelevant

Sep 2, 2003 at 8:46 AM

0wned.
Zorodius made me laugh.
I drive a big 89 blazer. $50 to fill up the tank. I think I need one of those hybrid cars too.
Or just water-proof my engine components and make it run on hydrogen.

BradDaBug

Sep 2, 2003 at 9:08 AM

My dad has plans and instructions he got from in the '70s on how to build a hybrid car (yes, this is not a new idea). It used the body from a little car that you can't find today since the car turned into kind of a collector's item. It used the starter from a jet engine as the electric motor.

The copyright may have expired. If so I may scan the whole thing in and post it someplace.

Edit: Oh, wait, I forgot to include my point. Build your own hybrid car!

[edited by - BradDaBug on September 2, 2003 10:09:31 AM]

Myopic Rhino

Sep 2, 2003 at 9:27 AM

quote:
Original post by Mithrandir
interesting note: This car gets around 10 more mpg while city driving than highway driving, which makes thermodynamic sense, considering that air drag increases non-linearly with speed, thereby reducing efficiency. That says to me that the Prius has an unbelievably efficient conservation-of-energy.

I would suspect that it''s more due to the fact that the car is more efficient at not wasting gas when you''re not moving, and because you brake more often in the city.

I''d definitely like to get a hybrid myself, if only to do my part in reducing our reliance on oil companies.

Yann L

Sep 2, 2003 at 9:27 AM

I personally have no experience with hybrid cars, but I would certainly be interested in hearing about yours Mith, should you opt to buy one.

Since I''m doing lots of long distance travel, I don''t know if a hybrid car would be well suited to my needs. I''d probably be more inclined to buy a hydrogen car (combustion or fuelcell), once those are available to the mass market. And once the H₂ refilling infrastructure has deployed a little more.

Cedric

Sep 2, 2003 at 9:56 AM

quote:
Original post by Irrelevant
Zorodius made me laugh.

Really? He made me cry...

Anyway, I think that the truly hippy thing to do would be not to buy a car at all, but if you must, I think it would be great of you to do that. But it does cost quite a big pile of money.

quote:
I would suspect that it''s more due to the fact that the car is more efficient at not wasting gas when you''re not moving, and because you brake more often in the city.

That''s what I''ve heard. Normal cars are designed to be efficient on long trips, without a stop. Correct me if I''m wrong, but I think that their peak efficiency is around 90 km/h.

Cédric

BradDaBug

Sep 2, 2003 at 10:10 AM

Let's start the People of GameDev's Socialist Programme to Get Mith a Hybrid Automobile (aka PGSPGMHA)! It'd be for the sake of science and the enviroment! We could give Mith money to get a hybrid so he could tell us all about it!

That is, if Mith doesn't mind.

[edited by - BradDaBug on September 2, 2003 11:10:34 AM]

quasar3d

Sep 2, 2003 at 12:34 PM

great idea.

Ok, that were my 2 cents. now he only needs 20.999.98 cents

My Site

5010

Sep 2, 2003 at 12:40 PM

I was initally considering the hybrid, but I instead I plan to move into an area that has mass-transit and keep my truck for occasional road trips and hauling stuff. It doesn't do the economy or ecology any good to live in the 'burbs and commute.

I read a few years ago that there is a rise in oil production meeting the rise in consumption.

The article (which I doubt I could find without a lot of searching) mentioned that at around 2005 the consumption rate will surpass the ability of production (based on known fields at the time and a trend that newer discoveries are harder to extract). This seems like a pessamistic prediction to me, but who knows.

The point is, there will come a day when we may be saying "remember when gas was less than $2/gal"?

Too bad fuel cell autos aren't ready.

[edited by - 5010 on September 2, 2003 1:41:12 PM]

Conner McCloud

Sep 2, 2003 at 1:03 PM

quote:
Original post by Cestps
No, it isn''t. 207 is CCVII in Roman Numerals. CIVIC doesn''t even make sense.

CIVIC isn''t anything, but you can rearrange them into CCVII rather easily. Hopefully, I got this out there before flangazor started his attack on the newspapers.

CM

Topic Locked

This topic has been locked by a moderator. New replies are not allowed.