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.
Meet the ERE car (and it's not a bicycle!)
@ 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)
@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)
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.
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.