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* Posts by Rickenbacker

6 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Aug 2011

Look inside ELON MUSK'S CAR! Tesla S wundervehicle has voom

Rickenbacker
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Headmaster

Re: "The 125kW Superchargers work much more rapidly than the existing charging infrastructure.."

I've got a Nissan Leaf 1st gen. and I can do a full charge at home (assuming the battery is almost empty) in ~5.5 hours. But then, I'm not using a three-pin socket, and I would guesstimate that most Leaf drivers don't either. Instead I use a 16 A EV charger. Gen. 2 Leafs can home charge at 32 A obviously halving the charge time.

But then, the whole statement is comparing apples and oranges. Nissan Leaf quick chargers are widespread (look at ecotricity's website) and can charge a Nissan Leaf from 0 to 80% in half an hour. Having said that, the battery capacity of a Leaf is lower than that of a Tesla.

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UK.gov blows a fuse at smart meter stall, sets new 2020 deadline

Rickenbacker
FAIL

Luddites

Judging by the content of many of the comments so far, I'm guessing most of you wear tin foil hats as well. What a bunch of Luddites.

Are smart meters the solution to world hunger and will they bring world peace as well? Of course not. Having said that, there are some genuinely interesting possibilities arising from replacing existing meters with smart meters. There are of course also potential misuse of data and other security issues that need to be considered carefully.

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Heatmiser PRT-TS Wi-Fi RF thermostat

Rickenbacker
IT Angle

How many wires are needed?

The article mentions two versions, one requiring 2 wires and another requiring 3 wires. The Heatmiser website says that "Providing your have at least three wires, excluding earth, then you can upgrade your existing thermostat to our DT-TS or PRT-TS WiFi Thermostat." Three wires + earth is four by my reconning. They go on to say that "4 wires are required for our PRTHW-TS WiFi model."

Having just opened my old (1989 or thereabouts) thermostat, I can only see three wires INCLUDING earth.

Confused in Finchampstead...

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IBM PC daddy: 'The PC era is over'

Rickenbacker
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Megaphone

Read the blog first

He is not saying the PC is dead, he says that "while PCs will continue to be much-used devices, they’re no longer at the leading edge of computing"

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Acoustic trauma: How wind farms make you sick

Rickenbacker
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Megaphone

I'm a Dane, I will speak...

"Danes pay some of Europe's highest energy tariffs": True, but not necessarily because of wind power. Denmark charges VAT on energy at 25% (UK charges a reduced 5% rate) and has had a Co2 tax on energy, any energy, not just electricity, for many years. A source would be good, but I can't be bothered to find it right now, but on windy days wind power drives the price of all electricity down.

"Denmark's ruling Left Party": Sort of makes the article better that the lefties are reducing subsidies, doesn't it? Well, the "Left" party is actually a centre-right party which for historical reasons is called the left party (because they used to be to the left of the "Right" party, which has now become the conservative party and which today is probably slightly to the left of the Left party. I know, its complicated...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venstre_%28Denmark%29

"The subsidy cuts are almost certainly the main reason behind Dong's move out of onshore wind": I know the journalist wrote "move out of ONSHORE", but if subsidy cuts is a problem for DONG, why are they still at it?

http://www.dongenergy.com/anholt/EN/Projektet1/Pages/default.aspx

The reason DONG is turning against onshore farms is that they can build much larger farms offshore. Denmark doesn't lend itself to big onshore farms, there are just too many houses dotted around, so most "farms" consist of no more than 5 wind turbines (see my other post about the rules governing the placement of onshore wind turbines).

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Rickenbacker
Alert

Lived in Denmark close to a small Wind farm

Noise? hardly any, in fact only when there was no wind in my own garden, the wind turbines were on a hill and where therefore still able to run. No, the noise didn't bother me.

Flicker? Yes, for about 1 hour or so for 3 days during winter (when the shadows where the longest) and only on winter days that were not overcast.

Do I like wind turbines? Yes

Do I think you should be able to put up wind turbines anywhere you like? No

All that is required (from a potential noise/flicker point of view) is to have some sensible rules. In Denmark, the developers have to create an "Assessment of Environmental Impact" report. There are rules as to how close to houses the turbines are allowed to be and they are based on the noise patterns of the wind turbines that are to be put up. The report has pictures of the surrounding landscape with wind turbines rendered onto the pictures so you will be able to see what the impact on the area will be from various locations.

Source: My dad created some of these reports.

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