Posted on 06/30/2004 12:18:44 PM PDT by xzins
Well, schnizzle my nizzle!
I've been driving for 10 years and in that time I've probably driven about 200,000 miles.
I have never been in an accident (other than a couple of rear-endings, both caused by people whom apparently thought their contribution to safety only needed to be a larger vehicle), so I'll drive whatever I want without worrying about my safety.
That's in Northern VA, which, after LA, has the nation's worst traffic (and drivers).
And those people whom you are complaining about..the ones that pop out from behind large vehicles and such..what do you suppose THEIR attitude about safety is?
I figured it out. A BTU-hour is only valid in the context of describing how powerful a heater or air conditioner is, not how efficient it is.
I think you are referring to BTU / hour.
watt-hour ==== BTU (energy)
watt ===== BTU / hour (power)
Although a ground source heat pump might be a little difficult to employ in a vehicle :-)
Poor energy/density ratio.
Even in a CNG state? I know that most people don't want LNG around their house.
Yes, I am..I've never used the term BTU / hour much so I thought it was hypenated like a watt-hour.
Does that matter if someone's home has natural gas and so they can refill their vehicle with natural gas every night?
It's not like they'd have to go out of their way to a natural gas filling station.
Watt-hour is actually Watts X Hours (Power * Time = Energy)
BTU / Hour is BTU divided by time thus Power.
The pressure from your gas meter is measured in inches of water, it would take a very long time to fill your tank and a great volume to run very far.
In any state; propane has much more energy per unit weight and gasoline even more.
The pressure can be dealt with by using a compressor, then the problem becomes how much gas can be drawn out of a residential gas line. I can make some estimates:
My furnace (a small furnace) is 64,000 BTUs (per hour). A gallon of gasoline is 125,000 BTUs. So drawing natural gas out of the line at the rate that my furnace uses it would yield about the equivalent to one gallon of gasoline every two hours.
The natural gas supply line isn't sized to supply just the furnace, however. I'm not sure how much extra capacity there is, but if it's safely capable of supplying 4x the amount of gas that the furnace needs, then that leaves 192,000 BTUs per hour to use for refilling the vehicle.
That would mean that the equivalent of one gallon of gas could be added to the vehicle in 39 minutes, which isn't so bad, especially if the vehicle is parked there overnight.
I figure that if this sort of thing becomes more common, that will be less of a problem to deal with. Certainly no more trouble than adding a deck to your house, in terms of permits.
I rented a Geo Metro a few years back (well probably 10 years). It was an awful car. I hated the thing. It was tiny (2 doors) and it didn't drive well. It just felt like it was going to fall apart. It had no acceleration, and it really pooped out going uphill.
We have a Prius, and it drives better than my Mom's Lexxus. It's also about the same size on the interior. The Prius is not a huge sedan, but it isn't tiny either. It's very quiet and smooth, so when you are inside it feels like a much more expensive car. I'm not wild about the interior/exterior looks of our model, but I think they've improved on the looks since we got ours.
I'm not wild about the interior/exterior looks of our model...i>
But I bet the Geo got great gas milage...
I've got a Subaru. They're ugly. I don't care, it's reasonably safe and comfortable to drive, reliable, has AWD for snowy winters, and my very tall husband actually fits in it without hitting his knees on the dash (like he did in my Civic - which was the reason I got rid of it after we got married). Oh, and my dogs like the back wagon area a lot better than sitting on regular seats. Ugliness, shmugliness. The Millenium Falcon was ugly, too. "She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts".
Well, I figure beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so my husband thought thinks our Prius is cute.
I didn't stop him from buying it because of looks. If I felt like it was unsafe, I would have stopped him. Also, if the car didn't handle well. The Prius is safe, and it drives wonderfully.
I don't know what the gas mileage was on the Geo Metro. I just didn't feel safe in that car. Plus it drove very poorly. It was also very, very small. A tall person would not fit in that car. My dad is very tall, and he thinks the Prius is comfortable.
I like small cars that have good handling. There's no excuse for a vehicle like the Geo Metro (which in later incarnations was a rebadged Toyota Corolla) to have poor handling, other than excessive cost-cutting by the automaker.
You are right about one thing. Wind direction is a major measurable component of high mileage; around 10% of it! It also helps to stay in the "sweet spot" of speed for the Toyota Prius, between 55 and 65 mph. Over two years my average mileage is around 47 MPG.
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