Posted on 01/31/2011 7:40:40 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Edited on 01/31/2011 7:44:41 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
I counted my blessings. The situation could have been worse, I realized: My fellow commuters and I could have been trying to make it home in electric cars, like the ones President Obama is constantly promoting, most recently in his State of the Union address.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Can we all say “how UNEXPECTED” this all is to liberals...
Great news for the two electric car owning idiots in town, it’s forecast to be -19 F Wed. morning. /sarc.
I remember a guy from the mid ‘90s who had one of those electric car conversions. He had about a 10 mile commute. One cold AM I saw him crawl through an intersection at about 15-20 mph in a 45 zone. He couldn’t get that car over 20 mph. At least it was a multi-lane boulevard. I have to wonder how much he lost from the cold battery and what was probably a minimal heater/defroster but it was obvious that whatever juice was left over was barely sufficient for a suburban road.
Shocking news.
In the UK the windmills were stilled during the recent cold wave. There was no wind just when UK electricity demand was peaking
Solar and wind do not provide base load electricity (look it up) That is what coal does and the jug eared Kenyan does everything he can to put up obstacles to coal.
MO, who’s backside is as big as a barn, is the food police. Now Hussein is praising electric cars, yet his slew of black presidential SUVs run on gas. I couldn’t make a round trip to the grocery store with one battery charge even in warm weather, so I’ll thank him to not come preaching to me.
I'm shocked.
That Physics thing ought to be against the law.
In the summer time (before all these green technologies kick in, and the Earth cools to a balmy 72 degrees), most people would like to have a way of keeping cool. Sure, it doesn't have to be cold enough to make igloos, but it should be cool enough to manage a drive into the office without sweating and sticking to your seat. Otherwise, we're going to have some smelly offices.
In addition to air coolers of some kind, it rains in many locations, and windshield wipers are needed. In heavy rains, wipers must be set on high, to whisk the water away quickly.
Finally, it might occasionally be nice to be able to turn a radio or stereo on while one is driving. For news, weather, a little music perhaps, or God forbid, a talk show. These aren't essential to travel, I know, but they are very useful and appreciated by travelers.
Unfortunately, they too, all require additional power from an electric car. Precious power most likely not factored into the overall MPG for the car itself.
During his campaign, he promised to shut down the coal mines, yet the United Mine Workers of America's home page was all about supporting him for POTUS. Mind boggling.
Global warming arrived just in time to save the day!!
Electrifying
On the positive side, I enjoyed the humor, but there are probably many who will have a negative reaction to the joke.
General Motors is going to lose its shirt on that stupid $40,000 piece of junk called “The Volt”, it and POTUS Obama conjured up!!! And....GE will go the same way. Anyone that listens to anything Obama rants about industry, energy and economic growth is either dumb, a fool or smoking too much reefer!!!
Don’t worry... High speed rail will pick up the slack!
Sheesh! Bunch of self centered hogs! Just keep a plastic Obama on your dash boards and keep those hope and change thoughts. Obama will pull a charge out of his stash and send it into your Volt and up your legs, all the while those high sped rail commuters will be moving along and that will keep your spirits up!
Why don’t they try out their electric plug-in schemes with once-a-week-needed riding lawn mowers and eliminate that small segment of the evil oil/gasoline dependency? Or a solar powered once-a-week-needed battery operated riding lawn mower? Just think of the money the consumer could save on gas and the benefit to green technology. That mower should cost less than half the price of a gas powered one. Why aren’t THESE easy to dictate fuel economy standards implemented by our savoirs at the EPA?
http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm#Temperature Effects on Batteries
Temperature Effects on Batteries
Battery capacity (how many amp-hours it can hold) is reduced as temperature goes down, and increased as temperature goes up. This is why your car battery dies on a cold winter morning, even though it worked fine the previous afternoon. If your batteries spend part of the year shivering in the cold, the reduced capacity has to be taken into account when sizing the system batteries. The standard rating for batteries is at room temperature - 25 degrees C (about 77 F). At approximately -22 degrees F (-27 C), battery AH capacity drops to 50%. At freezing, capacity is reduced by 20%. Capacity is increased at higher temperatures - at 122 degrees F, battery capacity would be about 12% higher.
Battery charging voltage also changes with temperature. It will vary from about 2.74 volts per cell (16.4 volts) at -40 C to 2.3 volts per cell (13.8 volts) at 50 C. This is why you should have temperature compensation on your charger or charge control if your batteries are outside and/or subject to wide temperature variations. Some charge controls have temperature compensation built in (such as Morningstar) - this works fine if the controller is subject to the same temperatures as the batteries. However, if your batteries are outside, and the controller is inside, it does not work that well. Adding another complication is that large battery banks make up a large thermal mass.
Thermal mass means that because they have so much mass, they will change internal temperature much slower than the surrounding air temperature. A large insulated battery bank may vary as little as 10 degrees over 24 hours internally, even though the air temperature varies from 20 to 70 degrees. For this reason, external (add-on) temperature sensors should be attached to one of the POSITIVE plate terminals, and bundled up a little with some type of insulation on the terminal. The sensor will then read very close to the actual internal battery temperature.
Even though battery capacity at high temperatures is higher, battery life is shortened. Battery capacity is reduced by 50% at -22 degrees F - but battery LIFE increases by about 60%. Battery life is reduced at higher temperatures - for every 15 degrees F over 77, battery life is cut in half. This holds true for ANY type of Lead-Acid battery, whether sealed, gelled, AGM, industrial or whatever. This is actually not as bad as it seems, as the battery will tend to average out the good and bad times. Click on the small graph to see a full size chart of temperature vs capacity.
One last note on temperatures - in some places that have extremely cold or hot conditions, batteries may be sold locally that are NOT standard electrolyte (acid) strengths. The electrolyte may be stronger (for cold) or weaker (for very hot) climates. In such cases, the specific gravity and the voltages may vary from what we show.
Here’s one benefit, the guys with the 1,000 Watt stereos in their cars won’t be thumping for long.
How far can you go in your electric car?
300 miles, or 20 miles with the stereo on.
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