"Martin Angove" wrote in message
...
In message ,
"IMM" wrote:


"Martin Angove" wrote in message
...
IMM,
Just a quickie, because this is turning into one of your
religious-type
arguments, but

a: the sun tracker you mention is in NEVADA, for Pete's sake, not
NEASDEN!

That was just one example, others are under R&D. The same sun actually
shines in England too.

Mmm... lower down, and behind a *lot* more cloud:


We *started* by discussing domestic scale arrangements in this
country. It needs DIRECT sunlight to work, hence their suggestion of
it
being useful in the desert.

There is direct sunlight in England too.

but not day-in day-out as you get in Nevada. If you want to create
"warmth" then fine, but if you want a reliable steam generator?


All large reflector-arrays I've seen to date
have been in similar situations. It is very hard to focus a completely
diffuse source, which is what the sun is throughout most of the year
in
this country.

It will point "exactly to where it should be at that particular time and
date.

Not much help if there's 5,000 feet of Cumulo Nimbus between the
collector and the Sun though, is there?

[...]


f: are you aware that the fuel consumption and emmissions figures for
Renault's dCi Diesel High Pressure Common Rail engines actually
*better*
those of Toyota's so-called "green" hybrid car?

Yes and that is why the hybrids have never caught on in Europe. But of
course there is a catch. Diesel produces particulates (soot) which is
cacogenic and blackens building. Horrible stuff, and diesel engines
pollute
the environment in the excessive noise they produce. Nasty engines.
Best
avoided, and I have had two turbo diesels.


(Cacogenic in Welsh might translate as "**** generating" :-)

A properly tuned Diesel produces far fewer particulates than some people
would have you believe. Modern engines are even better, and there are,
supposedly, some "clean exhaust" technologies on the drawing board,
though how they affect efficiency is anyone's guess. And our dCi engine
is *gorgeous* to drive and hardly any louder than our petrol cars
except for the first minute or so on a cold morning. We have previously
owned Citroen and Peugeot "bog standard" Diesels and loved them, but
this unit is much better.

If you think about it (Diesel being more efficient than hybrid), it
makes sense. A 1.5l dCi is quite a powerful engine really, and quite
capable of powering even medium-sized cars with good efficiency. The
hybrids tend to be based around similar sized units, but they introduce
a extra stages in the power use; conversion to electricity and back
again. This *must* be inefficient, so they are starting from a lower
point. They first have to close this gap before they can make the thing
more efficient than a standard setup.

As I see it there are two main areas they can do this: regenerative
braking and narrow powerband controls - i.e. decoupling the engine from
the drive system completely so that it can always run at its most
efficient. Neither is likely to make much difference to the overall
efficiency as far as I can see, certainly not for "normal" driving
styles, and the Toyota has the engine coupled to the drive system
anyway.

If you could charge batteries from the mains then localised emissions
*should* be better for a hybrid car, but total emissions may be worse
once you've taken electricity generation into account.

What about Diesel as a fuel? Is its environmental impact any different
to Petrol for its production? For use it *has* to be better with fewer
NO-types and CO and generally a much better miles-per-gallon. Even with
it being a couple of pennies more expensive per litre it still works out
*much* cheaper for us than running a petrol car.

Ok, it was in a Renault
brochure I read this, but it's scary. (We have a large - 1.9l -
Renault
dCi and it's fantastic. Last time I did the 400 mile round trip to see
the parents I averaged 61mpg, and I wasn't trying *very* hard to be
economical. The 1.9l dCi Scenic out-accellerates our 1.6l 16V Laguna
too).

I have had one Renault in my life and hated it. Poorly made and rattly.

Hardly a representative sample. I have now owned two. Both fine.
Especially the 2000 vintage Scenic with the dCi. My dad has many faults,
one of which is that he has owned nothing much *except* Renaults since
his first car; a second hand Renault 12 back in about 1974. In fact he
and mum between them have had

2 R12s
3 "original" R5s
1 "what's yours called" R5
1 R14
1 R21
3 R11s
1 R19
1 Megane hatchback
3 Scenics
2 Clios.

I agree about early Renaults (the 12s and the 5s) but since the "new" 5
and the 21, all dad's cars have had excellent build quality, and I've
driven a fair number of them.

But this is getting very OT so I'll stop there.

Hwyl!

M.

--
Martin Angove (it's Cornish for "Smith") - ARM/Digital SA110 RPC
See the Aber Valley -- http://www.tridwr.demon.co.uk/abervalley.html
... Take care of the pence and the Inland Revenue will take care of the
rest.


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