[Tatsushige]

Sometimes you just want to smack the hell out of idiots..

This is one of them cases!

The Leaf in Winter: Some thoughts on electric cars.

http://www.british-gazette.co.uk/201...electric-cars/

Today’s article is and interesting and informative commentary upon the Nissan Leaf and electric cars in general by the Reverend Philip Foster MA.

1. The ratio of power to weight for the electric “fuel” compared to petrol is about 1:10. ie; the battery weight and volume is ten times that of a tank of fuel for the same mileage.

2. With a petrol vehicle power does not drop off as fuel is consumed, with an electric vehicle this is invariably the case.

3. With winter rather full on at the moment, consider a scenario of an electric vehicle at night up on the Yorkshire moors in a snow storm.

The voltage of the battery will have fallen because of the cold, reducing power available to the engine. No heating of any kind is possible in these circumstances as this would rapidly drain already reduced power in the battery, so inside temperature is dropping rapidly and the windscreen (and windows) frosting up inside and out.

Approaching a hill, power availability is becoming critical and will probably fail half way up. The vehicle is now “dead in the water”.

Recharging is impossible (nearest house is 20 miles) and even if possible would take some time. So unless the car has a fairly large portable generator (several kw) on board (plus petrol to run it) or a complete fully charged spare battery (costing £10,000) the driver is stranded and possibly unable even to use his mobile phone. Once stranded, the driver is in a very dangerous situation risking hypothermia. His only option is to abandon the vehicle and walk the twenty miles plus to civilization – an equally dangerous option.

Compare this with a petrol vehicle. Yes, it might indeed struggle in a snow storm, but power itself will not be reduced (arguably marginally increased due to a lower outside temperature for the exhaust), heat is “freely” available at all times from the waste heat of the engine.

(Even if the car is stuck he can keep warm for several hours using the engine on idle). Should he be unfortunate enough to run out of petrol, he will likely have a spare can in the boot and it‘s a matter of minutes to put in the extra gallon which could take him the necessary 30-40 miles to civilization.

4. Electric vehicle batteries, costing, as they do, £10,000 each, are easy targets for thieves. The idea of battery swopping at garages is equally a tempting target for thieves.

5. In an accident, these batteries present a huge hazard of fire and electrocution, water adding to the hazard from the latter.

To pay £25,000 for a mini runaround which is only usable around town in clement weather is a ridiculous waste of money. You will need a second vehicle for nearly everything else anyway. The claim that it only costs £2 to go 100 miles is like the claims made for solar and wind power. The cost of back up – in this case a second conventional vehicle far outweighs any supposed advantage of the fuel cost saving.

The Yorkshire moors scenario unfortunately can be reproduced even in London in a hard winter. On a crowded road when a Leaf runs out of power it‘s stuck. Traffic will back up behind it… other Leafs will run of of power waiting… there will be grid lock with “fallen‘ Leaves” littering the streets. Dežnitely the wrong kind of Leaves on the road!

6. Hybrid vehicles however, though expensive, do have merits. As with the diesel-electic units used on the railways, they can maximise the efficiency of the petrol/diesel engine used to generate the power for the electric motors. At the moment this has probably not been fully exploited. The Prius is not that fuel efficient suggesting there is some way to go yet with making this technology a serious competitor.

[Tatsushige]

Ride in Nissan Leaf Limo

The Nissan Leaf has finally reached ‘maturity’. No self-respecting car should be considered ‘ripe’ before getting a bespoke limo version. Also, judging by the video, the effort of transforming the Leaf into a limo has been an extremely successful one.

The rear part of the EV features one extra row of seats, courtesy of the extended wheelbase, which faces the rearmost row, allowing for easy communication among passengers. Add in the wood and leather trim, champagne cooler and ample space and, well, it’s genuinely great. Furthermore, the Leaf is absolutely perfect as a base for a limo.

Think about it for a second! What do limo passengers want? Space, comfort, silence and luxury? It seems that this Leaf limo has all of those, with a special note to the ‘sound’ part, as even the quietest of cars (Rolls Royce and the lot) still couldn’t match the silence of the Leaf’s electric motor, as it hums along seamlessly, dragging the elongated body along with it.

If we were given a choice of modern limos, we’d honestly pick the Leaf limo over any other (though, we would like it in black), because, as well as being green, it is an interesting quirk an it will make people smile (us included) and improve the quality of their day - something which is getting rarer and rarer in our modern society.

Take a ride in the Leaf limo, why don't you!

[Salty9]

Very few EV drivers would find themselves in the situation in the OP. Most would just go below their usual DOD.

[dragonsgate]

Well some of the points in the article are correct although as it goes on it seem as the author is trying to be cute by exaggeration. The one I jumped on right away was letting the car idle for heat while stranded. I have heard of motorist asphyxiating from exhaust fumes while sitting in an idling car. I would like to know what the heck he is doing running around in a snow storm in the first place. I have a four wheel drive vehicle and chains for each wheel plus so good winter clothing and I stay home when a big storm is brewing. Fire and batteries? What is the big deal? A few years ago close to where I live a guy’s ICE car caught fire and when he opened the hood he got hosed with flaming petrol because of a broken fuel injection line. As for theft there are crooks that will steal anything so why should batteries be different? As for a second vehicle many people could get along with just an electric. My wife and I take her mother shopping and to the Dr. every now and then and the three of us seem to fit better in the Dodge Intrepid than the two seater otherwise I would take it. If I had a Leaf or the like there would be no problem. As for savings I do not change oil as often in the petrol cars because I drive the EV around town most of the time. Even adding in the annual cost of my batteries a conservative estimate shows my Ev to be 75% cheaper to operate that my Dodge and if I compare my 70 Landcruiser it feels like I am getting money back. It was quite benevolent of the author to not pick on Hybrids but I imagine it was because he pretty much exhausted his knowledge of the subject. It is easiest to pick on something if you only are aware of one side of it. Has this guy actually studied the Ev and what it is capable of? Obviously not! I am constantly doing a mental comparison between electric vs gas and while temperature can effect performance range is still the big issue but over all I would still pick my EV. I have adapted quite well to my thirty mile range and have often wondered what I would do if I suddenly got 150 mile range. Would I still go to the Wall Mart 12 miles away or would I start going to the Wall Mart 30 miles away? Electric came before the ICE and is making a come back. The few drawbacks will be overcome and the EV will reign supreme. One last thing. I can’t remember was the Moon Rover gas or diesel?

[Woodsmith]

ICE fuel oils burn. Brake fluid burns even more easily.
Thieves steel catalysts from ICE exhaust pipes.
ICE cars break down.
An empty spare fuel can contains no fuel.
ICE cars are generally no use what so ever when you drive them into a lake.
If the ICE was in a motorbike it wouldn't have a roof rack for that large purchase at the furniture shop.
People die when they run their ICE in a closed garage.
An idiot is still an idiot whatever the fuel source of a random vehicle.

[david85]

I drove my car through rain and snow this last winter. Even did a slight amount of "plowing" with the front skid plate when our street wasn't cleared right away (I had to get to class so I got in and drove!).

It had terrible tires and poor ground clearance but with so much weight on the front it simply pushed through anyway.

I also did the calculation for how long it would take to use up the battery with only the heater running and it worked out to something like 15 hours if the battery was fully charged. On average it would reduce the range by roughly 15% if it was on all the time.

I stopped worrying about trying to convince others a long time ago. I have my car and thats all I really wanted.

[PhantomPholly]

Others more knowledgeable about these things on this forum have calculated that current generation batteries are about 30 times heavier than gas, not 10 times.

If you live in the north and drive an electric vehicle to its' limits, it would make sense to have an auxiliary natural gas heater for just such emergencies. An EV will power a blower fan an awful long time.

Blankets are good, too, as are nutrition bars which keep forever.

Just sayin'...

[Tatsushige]

This guy hit the nail on the head. And said to say this is my life also ..

A winter's tale: cold homes, poor lives in wealthy Japan.

The country is still rich, so why do the Japanese people live like they're not?

By GIANNI SIMONE

Question: What am I doing outside my home at 6 a.m. with a gas can, a pump, and stalactites under my nose?

Answer: I'm swearing.

I know, this is only half the answer, but at zero degrees Celsius my brain has the tendency to freeze up. Give me a minute to thaw out and I'll elaborate later . . .

According to some people, Japan is already living in the future. I beg to differ. While Japan is a technological giant and our rabbit-hutch houses are bursting with the latest electronic gadgets, the quality of life in this country could be much better if we enjoyed the same basic services people take for granted in the West. Even in Italy — where I come from — the seemingly never-ending recession rarely prevents many people from enjoying rather high living standards. After all, the average Italian lives in a well-built house, with plenty of space to stretch out and relax, and plenty of free time to actually enjoy it.

Japan, on the other hand, may still be the world's No. 3 economic power, but all too often its people seem to lead relatively poor lives, spending their whole day stressing out on the job, getting drunk afterwards, then going back to houses so small that the washing machine has to sit on the balcony or outside the front door.

Take house heating: In Italy, most houses have central heating; here, so-called "space heating" is the norm. This does not mean we are living in the Space Age, but rather the Stone Age.

Space heating — or, as I prefer to call it, "tactical heating" — entails warming up only the room where you spend most of the time — i.e. the living room — while leaving the rest of the house out in the cold. This, of course, cannot but cause some collateral damage, namely: 1) When you go to bed and slide under the ice-cold sheets, you suffer hypothermic shock and risk dying of exposure (anybody remember the movie "The Red Tent"?); and 2) When you have to answer the call of nature in the middle of the night, you have to haul on a coat.

Now you know why the Japanese had to invent the WC with a heated seat.

On the plus side, the entrance "hall" is so cold that it can be used (and, in many cases, is used) as a refrigerator to store fruit, vegetables and the like.

Tactical heating used to be organized around the infamous kotatsu, a piece of furniture that only the Japanese — those masters of thrift and simplicity — could have dreamt up.

As I'm sure most people know, a kotatsu is basically a low table with a small electric heater screwed to its underside and topped with a quilt. On cold winter evenings, denizens of the house would slip their legs under the table, cover their lower bodies with the quilt, and spend the night watching TV, eating tangerines and getting drunk. And, more often than not, someone would end up dozing off with their upper body exposed, only to wake up in the morning with nasal stalactites, a nasty cold and a throbbing head.

The kotatsu is still going strong among the Japanese (and those weird foreigners who either can't afford something better or have a mistaken idea of what "embracing Japan" actually means) but there are now trendier (though only slightly better) ways to keep warm.

Take the air conditioner, the weapon of choice for the majority of households in their battle against both the summer heat and winter chill. As well as consuming an awful lot of electricity, these devices are criminally inefficient in our barely insulated homes, turn our throats to sandpaper, and reduce those with dust allergies to sniveling wrecks.

Another popular heating tool among the horizontally inclined is the electric carpet, a seemingly innocuous beast that lulls its prey into a warm (probably drunk) torpor while lightly toasting them on one side with 130-160 milligauss of electromagnetic waves.

According to architectural adviser Keiji Ashizawa (interviewed on this subject by Japan Times columnist Jean Snow for ubertrendy website Neojaponisme), "Only in Hokkaido is there such a thing as the Law on Cold Residences, and the Government Housing Loan Corp. gives financial assistance to homes protected against the cold. They say that people from Hokkaido catch colds when they come to Tokyo, because they traditionally live in houses insulated and warmed through central heating."

For those who don't live in Hokkaido, the most effective piece of technology out there seems to be the kerosene heater — which, if you think about it, is the sensible choice if you live in a highly inflammable wooden prefab house. Which brings me neatly back to my story . . .

So what the hell am I doing outside my home at six in the morning?

Why, I'm filling the gas can, of course!

"And why didn't you do it the day before?" I'm sure you will ask.
Alright, let's check the videotape . . .

22:00, the day before: The stove goes beep-beep and the magic number 50 flashes on the screen, which means there's only 50 minutes' worth of kerosene left. I've just come back home from work and I'm dead tired. So I look at the clock, look at my wife, then look at the stove and say: "Let's switch this off and use the electric stove, so we have enough fuel for tomorrow morning." The Boss says nothing, which means she doesn't despise my idea.

5:45, today: I'm woken up by the Boss screaming and railing against Buddha, Confucius and, especially, me.

"I told you to put the kerosene in!!!"

"???"

"Now only 10 minutes are left . . . You know this stove sometimes pulls such tricks."

"Bloody tricks!" says I.

"OK, you go back to sleep," says She. "I'll manage somehow. . ."

This is obviously a trap. I used to fall for it, but not anymore. As soon as I hear those words I jump out of bed, scramble to get dressed and head out to fill the gas can.

Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise . . . and stink of kerosene.

Not only does the Japanese house often fail to protect us from the cold, but the place itself can even be dangerous for our health — and I'm not talking about earthquakes. Many buildings, in fact, are affected by so-called sick house syndrome. A "sick house" can trigger health problems such as allergies, atopic dermatitis and respiratory problems due to the emission of synthetic chemical materials (e.g. formaldehyde, asbestos) that until a few years ago were used liberally in construction.

Sick building syndrome, as it is also known, is not only a Japanese problem, but it seems that abroad the health hazards are mainly due to natural causes, such as mold, algae, bacteria, etc., while in Japan the problems tend to be man-made.

Another thing that leaves me scratching my head are those huge gas cylinders chained to the side of my house. As I live in Kanagawa, I don't enjoy the relative convenience of Tokyo Gas and have to rely on propane. This means that each family gets a couple of long, fat cylinders the moment they move into a new house.

These cylinders are literally chained to the wall, checked periodically and replaced once they run empty. The gas guy assured me they are safe, and that even if they exploded our house would not be damaged. Still, they look like a couple of bombs to me.

But what really left me speechless the first time I saw it was communal sewer cleaning. I'm sure (I hope) that the many of you lucky enough to live in less backward areas have never heard about it, but in some places (mine included) you are expected to join your neighbors once a year to get down and dirty in the local sewer. Not only is this a disgusting thing to have to do, but something surely stinks if all the local taxes we pay don't at least cover this most basic of services.

And how about uchimizu, the summer custom of sprinkling water in the street to cool the area? My friends back in Italy saw it on YouTube and asked me why they don't just go around with a tanker truck fitted with sprinklers.

Of course they missed its real meaning, the amused obāsan who lives near my house told me. Why, such customs as uchimizu and sewer cleaning bring out our national values, as they combine utilitarian, courteous and dutiful ends. Take that, you selfish gaijin!

Returning to heating, after years of trying to survive the Japanese winter I've found a couple of simple ways to keep my blood from freezing solid while deploying tactical heating in the home. The first is putting on several layers of clothes until I begin to resemble a less cute version of Bibendum, the Michelin Man. I usually opt for a T-shirt/wool underwear/pajama/tracksuit/hooded sweatshirt combo. Plus two pairs of socks, of course.

Another winner is putting an insulating sheet — the one that looks like thick aluminum foil — in your bed between the sheets and the mattress. That really works miracles, I guarantee.

Now I can finally enjoy reading in bed again — although my hands still go numb after a while.

My favorite books recently are Antony Beevor's histories, especially "Stalingrad" and its sequel, "Berlin: The Downfall 1945." Reading about all those frostbitten soldiers crossing the steppes at 30 degrees below helps to convince me that here in Japan we don't have it so bad after all.

[PStechPaul]

Very interesting! I have used kerosene space heaters and many of them are made in Japan and some may have been developed there, such as the first ones I bought from Kero-Sun almost 35 years ago. They are very efficient and safe if used properly.

I am fortunate to have a large supply of dead wood on my 2.5 acre property and I have a good size woodstove that keeps most of my house comfortable. I also use an electric blanket and I've become used to dealing with some parts of my house being cold.

IMHO the obvious way to increase the comfort level and standard of living for individuals is to reduce per-capita expenditure on natural resources, particularly energy, by sharing resources and responsibility and expenses. I am a great fan of cooperative or communal living as are practiced in many intentional communities, which can be found on www.ic.org. I think it is also healthier for people to live and interact with many other individuals and families, but it does take a lot of individual commitment and acceptance of the resulting lifestyle.

But that's perhaps another topic that is quite a bit removed from electric vehicles, although the intent of reducing waste and improving efficiency and protecting our environment are prime motivators for EVs.

Thanks for a glimpse at some of the daily lives of people in another culture.

[david85]

5:45, today: I'm woken up by the Boss screaming and railing against Buddha, Confucius and, especially, me.

Caught this while skimming over, and had to go back to read the whole thing.

LMAO!!

In this part of canada, houses are not even be built with 2x4 exterior walls anymore. Its not a structural issue but has to do with the amount of insulation needed to satisfy the "R" rating. Everything uses 2x6 exterior walls now. Newer standards will supposedly require builders to bridge the insulating gap caused by the studs themselves