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Early Retirement Extreme Forums » Transportation Questions

1. 

   bigato
   

   Master
   Joined: Mar '11
   Posts: 914

   Costing 7k euros and being able to run 200km spending one euro on fuel (yeah, you read it right), the AirPod is moved by compressed air. It reaches up to 80km/h, can transport up to three persons and a baby, and generates no polution. You could compress the air using electricity (maybe not absolutely clean depending on how it is produced) or, you could even use an wind turbine or water fall to move your air compressor! A car can't get any better than this.

   http://www.mdi.lu/english/airpod.php
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RBl1LFUQ4c

   Posted 11 months ago #
2. 

   mikeBOS
   

   Master
   Joined: Nov '10
   Posts: 554

   I don't know bigato, you Brazillians seem to be doing alright running your cars off of sugar. If an alcohol powered car were built to be that small it would probably get terrific mileage as well.

   I was researching fossil fuel alternatives lately and threw together a blog post on my conclusions.

   Posted 11 months ago #
3. 

   J_
   

   Master
   Joined: Nov '11
   Posts: 353

   @ bigato thanks for sharing
   @mikeBOS thanks for the very elaborate and instructive blogpost.

   I wonder why we hang all so much to having a car available. I use one for a side-business/investment until I will sell that side-business/investment in two years. I have lived without one, it makes you inventive. I have travelled for months in Canada and Australia on public transport. But I digress.

   The main topic is energy. This week I installed myself for only $ 532 a photovoltaic system of only one panel which gives at least 200kW per year. My yearly consumption is about 800 kW. So for at least a period of twenty years I cover a quarter of my electric energy needs!

   (the solar panel factories guarantee that over 25 year it will still deliver current, with the remark that after so much years it will diminish its power to 80%. I know that it will be difficult to enforce such a guarantee but It gives me an idea of the stability of a solar panel)

   Posted 11 months ago #
4. 

   bigato
   

   Master
   Joined: Mar '11
   Posts: 914

   I saw you post, Mike.
   Let's do some quick comparison. One economic scooter can do 45km/l on gas. As a rule of thumb, we can calculate that alcohol can deliver 70% of the mileage than the same volume of gas. I believe the weight of a scooter is a good measure to compare against. But still, the price is much higher than the car moved by compressed air, charged by electricity.

   Off course it will also depend on the price of electricity. Mine is one of the more expensive in the world, so expensive that having a cheap lenovo notebook instead of a desktop makes me save the price of the new notebook in less and 18 months, just in energy savings.

   But to me, the beauty of the thing is in its simplicity. It's just air, it produces no pollution, and you could power it from a waterfall or wind turbine! But I still may try to build a custom tricycle powered by alcohol some day.

   The thing with sugar alcohol, is that it depletes the land on its production. It's renewable but it's not sustainable. I saw the cultivations, it's very ugly. Kilometers and kilometers of a single specie and not a single weed. The earth becomes a red dust, that seems the very picture of death. A red desert. Ugly thing.

   But the true source of unsustainability is our lifestyle. The cars, the cultivations, the pollution, they are all consequences of the way people live.

   Posted 11 months ago #
5. 

   KevinW
   

   Master
   Joined: Aug '10
   Posts: 576

   But to me, the beauty of the thing is in its simplicity. It's just air, it produces no pollution, and you could power it from a waterfall or wind turbine!

   Yeah, that's the biggest selling point for me too. Very few moving parts to break. And maintenance is probably very straightforward, the kind of thing a novice could do by looking at it with their eyes and applying common sense, unlike modern automobiles which require many specialized skills and tools.

   I guess if you run out of compressed air, due to a leak or negligence, you're even more SOL than in an electric or CNG car.

   Anyway I'll be watching this one to see what comes of it.

   Posted 11 months ago #
6. 

   dragoncar
   

   Expert
   Joined: Oct '10
   Posts: 1,287

   

   Posted 11 months ago #
7. 

   KevinW
   

   Master
   Joined: Aug '10
   Posts: 576

   Ha! Their website says the air cylinder stores max 18 bar ~= 260 psi, and my hand pump goes up to 160, so I guess in principle a hand pump could get you to limp home. But getting out and pushing would probably be less work.

   Posted 11 months ago #

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