Global Warming News

Archive for January, 2010

The Riversimple Urban Car will have a far smaller fuel cell than in current industry prototypes and thus needs less hydrogen to be stored on board and in fuelling stations.

It depends on what kind of car you are interested in but if you are into the smaller cars you will love this as it is no bigger than the smart car. For a car of its type it is actually quite speedy reaching at around a bout 50mph which is great for the people that live in the city.

The power actually comes from a 6kw fuel cell which is actually one of the smallest ever introduced into a car like this. it is very important to keep the weight down on this car as it allows the speed of the car to be heavily increased.

There is a bank of ultracapacitors to store this electricity, which in turn provides most of the accelerating power, allowing for a small fuel cell.

Design for the Riversimple cars will be placed online in an ‘open source’ environment, meaning any small manufacturer can lease the design, better suiting local environments and allowing for the car to be built almost anywhere in the world.

Something that is also very good to hear is that you can lease these vehicles and everything from the price of the fuel will be covered.

The head of Riversimple actually stated that we must push forward with the technology rather than get left behind. Of course we now realise that we much minimize the resource source of selling cars which is what these cars are trying to do.”

“The Riversimple Urban Car represents a major step towards practical 21st century personal transport and towards the fulfilment of my great-grandfather’s ambitions for accessible personal transport but this time combining his other passions: light weight and high efficiency,” said Piech.

The real question to ask is will they be upgrading things like used cars to make them greener? If you have recently gone out and purchased a  Audi TT Roadster then you are not going to be pleased when you cannot upgrade it to make it a bit greener.  New Audi are just one of the brands that needs to be looked into.

It is well worth looking out for newer points as there are sure to be more popping up soon.

London is of course the first place where everything kicked off but now there are other places who have started up the idea. Of course you may be aware that the next place going electric is going to be Brighton.

Brighton was chosen because it’s the home of Elektromotive, the company that developed and makes the Elektrobay roadside charging station and which has installed more than 100 in London since 2006. Four stations are already in place in Brighton and will be useable in time for their official launch on October 2nd.

The Elektrobay is actually able to charge up plug-in hybrid cars with all customers getting a key that actually unlocks the unit for roadside charging.

Moving to a place that is actually a lot smaller shows that the idea is actually really kicking off.

The problem at the moment is one; there aren’t enough places to charge up an electric car and two; because they’re still a bit rubbish. People won’t buy an electric car for both of these reasons.

However, once there is somewhere to charge up people will get them and that will in turn create demand for more research funding to make better cars.

So although there are actually not very many places where you can charge up your vehicle if you give it a bit of time we could be on to something here.

The real question that needs to be asked is will they be upgrading things like used cars to make them greener? If you have recently gone out and purchased a  Audi TT Roadster then you are not going to be pleased when you cannot upgrade it to make it a bit greener.  New Audi is just one of the brands that needs to be looked into for this.

Unfortunately this isn’t a new car but a fuel cell scooter from Japan, but the technology is moving forward.

This scooter which was of course revealed at the 41st Tokyo Motor Show turned out to be one of the biggest hits of the event. The company bringing this to us are called Intelligent Energy and in a joint venture with Suzuki they released the Suzuki Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter.

When the previous addition to this vehicle was released onto the show two years ago the people that attended were shocked so you can imagine would it felt like to see it put into a better looking vehicle that would be more realisic to drive.

The city-friendly Suzuki Burgman Fuel Cell Scooter is a demonstration of the potential for zero emissions motorcycles to significantly reduce emissions around the world. Of course if you do not know how it all works it is all powered by hydrogen which means it can be refueled rather quickly and has a great riding range.

The scooter uses the latest version of Intelligent Energy’s unique and proprietary PEM clean fuel cell engine, which are light, compact and well-suited to mass manufacture.
“The zero-emissions Burgman scooter is the latest product of the successful commercial relationship between Suzuki and Intelligent Energy”, commented Dr. Henri Winand, CEO at Intelligent Energy.

“Of course, these clean fuel cell engine powered motorcycles are not simply for motor shows, and can be widely available to everyone in the near future. With a mass market of about 40 million units per annum, there is a lot to go after. Intelligent Energy and Suzuki are actually going to start working even closer on making these vehicles even better and will be holding various tryouts soon

So there you have it, the possible future for the car. Let us just hope that it does come to the car industry in the near future and doesn’t end up as a New Audi Of course for the time being you could go for a current car like the Audi R8 or the Audi TT Roadster.

Most people have gas central heating in their homes and many are not aware that there is another type of fuel that can be used for central heating and that is oil. Oil is used in place of gas mainly in areas were the homes do not have access to a pipe line. This is more common than most people think especially in rural locations.

Many people choose to make their homes in remote locations in the countryside. These houses are very often far away from the next house meaning a gas line is out of the question, but they have to heat their house somehow. On top of this, countryside homes become colder in the winter than their city or town counterparts because they are very exposed. Therefore, oil is usually the fuel of choice when it comes to heating homes.

There are no differences in the way gas or oil central heating systems work; they both heat up water to warm the radiators except one uses a gas boiler and the other an oil fired boiler. The difference between the two and probably the disadvantage of oil central heating is the fact that it has to be delivered to your home instead of being piped in directly. Nevertheless, those people that do have oil based central heating systems get used to this and eventually don’t see it as a problem at all. Those who have never had an oil central heating system before would find the need to have an oil tank in their garden rather strange and having to phone up your oil provider to order more oil would also be something that you would not be used to.

Nevertheless, for those people living in rural spots, oil based central heating systems are the only sort they can have, so it offers the perfect alternative to other systems such as gas.

This winter is going to be ever so cold, so be certain that you have purchased your heating oil from boilerjuice for great deals.

There are a few things to think about before installing a solar power system.  With such a variety of roof solar panels on the market, it’s worthwhile to consider what some of these options have to offer.

All roof solar panels are built in such a way that the solar cells inside get as much exposure to sunlight as possible.  Solar cells, when hit by sunlight, produce DC electricity.  The correct number of solar cells, once wired together, can produce any amount of voltage.  After it’s generated, the DC electricity is sent to an inverter, which then converts it to AC electricity so that it’s able to be used in the home.  Any excess power can be sent to the power grid.  This turns back the user’s power meter correspondingly, and the power company credits the power produced.  Roof solar panels don’t generate electricity when the sun isn’t shining; there are a couple of options for dealing with this.  One solution is to have batteries, which are powered by the system throughout the day and then take over as the main power source at night. To know what type of solar power battery is the best to use, visit Solar Power Battery.

The inverter can also simply switch the home back over to the power grid once power stops coming from the solar panels.  The battery bank option does come with some initial cost, but it’s a more affordable solution in the long run. For more info about solar power inverters, go to Solar Power Inverter.

It’s important to choose the right roof solar panels.  Although any solar panel will produce electricity, some produce more efficiently than others.  With the same amount of sunlight exposure, two different roof solar panels can produce completely different amounts of power.  A system with efficient solar panels will be able to generate the same amount of power with fewer panels.

Durability is also important.  For one thing, the durability of the enclosure is crucial.  The solar cells inside the enclosures are very fragile and require protection from the elements.  Enclosures that aren’t well made will often allow moisture and objects through.  If cells are damaged repeatedly, the cost of replacing them can quickly add up.  The durability of the solar cells themselves is also important.

Solar cells differ in how they’re built and, as a result, the benefits they offer.  The two main styles of solar cells are monocrystalline cells and polycrystalline cells.  Of these two, the better one in terms of quality is the monocrystalline solar cell.  They output more current than polycrystalline cells, and tend to last longer.  For these reasons, monocrystalline cells are worth their slightly higher cost.  For further information about solar cells, please visit Solar Cell Efficiency.