Why Electric Motors Are 3X - 4X More Efficient Than Internal Combustion

Aug 15, 2008 175 Replies

Edison's DC power scheme had to make a virtue out of a necessity. For his DC generators to supply loads, they had to be close to them. Westinghouse's AC system supplied the entire Chicago World's Fair from a single, central station. Edison would have needed to space 27 generator across the grounds to provide the same coverage(why he lost the bid). With a DC electrical power system, you were within walking distance of the power station that supplied your home. Without fancy power electronics to create buck/boost convertors, the voltage at your socket was the generator terminal voltage, less ohmic drops in the transmission line.

Edison could sell you the waste heat from his steam turbines (you hope they were turbines, reciprocating pistons could be felt for hundreds of yards through the soles of your feet), but NIMBYism meant no power connection. Westinghouse could supply your house from halfway across the continent. I am sure that there are utilities in large cities that supply heat and light, in the core areas, but the return is too small to lay the pipes in areas of low density housing.

We don't have many diesel cars here, and the new ones are clean. The problem is trucks. In a lot of US highways, half of the traffic is big trucks, which translated to most of the fuel burned. America runs on diesel transport.

It's ironic that, until recently in many US cities, a major source of dangerous particulates was public transport. Things look a little better lately.

Diesel costs more than premium gasoline here lately.

John

"Rob Dekker" wrote in news:cmnqk.18623$ snipped-for-privacy@nlpi067.nbdc.sbc.com:

[snip]

IIRC, during the Carboniferous period, insects were able to reach such huge size (such as the infamous dragonflies with wingspans of nearly 3 feet) becasue the percentage of oxygen in the air was very high - at that ime, there were also supposedly more fires due to the resulting ease of combusion (e.g. from lightening), although I don't recall whetehr that last point was based on evidence or theory. One thing I don't recall ever reading or hearing concerns ozone - lower-level ozone is considered a pollutant, because it irritates human and animal respiratory membranes, but upper-level ozone shields the earth from much UV radiation/light. One would assume that a higher oxygen level should lead to a higher ozone level, but I don't know whether that assumuption is correct (still looking).

HTH

- Kris

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good point. efficiency won't include running steam pipes along with the power lines.

Diesels are FAR better in this respect.

You can buy SPORT model diesels in Europe now. The torque gives them that low end advantage.

UK driving programme Top Gear put a sport model Gasoline and diesel car of the same model round their track and the diesel won.

Graham

I like that ! I reckon that's a keeper.

Graham

Good point.

Certain Scandinavian countries in particular make use of this 'waste heat' for district heating.

I can see a potential move to local district co-gen (as opposed to GW central plants) being very attractive.

Graham

IIRC doesn't that have a particularly nasty thermal inversion layer that traps the 'smog'.

Unfair comparison.

Graham

to

Power oversteer is fun. If you can't drive, get a little-old-lady fwd car that sorta goes where you point it.

John

If you INSIST in living in cities then how do you plan to get around town without serious infrastructure pre-planning. Which is not typically how cities arise, nor easily fixed after the event.

And if you think is Los Angeles is bad try Mumbai/Bombay.

Graham

CLASSIC ! Another keeper.

Graham

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All Eeyore needs is a fancy little donkey cart. Maybe a nice pink one, with flowers.

http://improve-usenet.org/index.html aioe.org, Goggle Groups, and Web TV users must request to be white listed, or I will not see your messages. If you have broadband, your ISP may have a NNTP news server included in your account: http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm There are two kinds of people on this earth: The crazy, and the insane. The first sign of insanity is denying that you\'re crazy.

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I dunno. What with the intrusion of the Bret Cahill and Rod Speed slugs and his responses to their crap I\'d say, deep down, he\'s OK. Maybe we should cut him a little slack? JF

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

He'll be in my kill file for at least a few more months, along with cahill and his mindless followers. Speed has been there through three ISPs, and at least a half dozen computers. Just because there are bigger offenders doesn't automatically make him good. Every time I have to change my access to Usenet, the usual trolls end up in quarantine. Now that I use Newsproxy it's easier to mange the changeovers. I no longer have the patience to wade through their crap, and almost three months after losing the use of my good eye to a palsy, nothing they have to say is worth wading through. The doctors tell me it will be three more months before they will even consider surgery, to attempt to repair the damage to the muscles of that eye. My remaining eye has low sensitivity to light, and is colorblind. It has no fine focus, and I've had to reduce the screen resolution as much as I can, to see the text.

http://improve-usenet.org/index.html aioe.org, Goggle Groups, and Web TV users must request to be white listed, or I will not see your messages. If you have broadband, your ISP may have a NNTP news server included in your account: http://www.usenettools.net/ISP.htm There are two kinds of people on this earth: The crazy, and the insane. The first sign of insanity is denying that you\'re crazy.

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It's SAFE ! AND handles better in adverse conditions.

You really ought to take a peek at some of the Saab demo team videos on youtube.

Graham

How would you like a posy ?

Graham

I appreciate your comments. I hope I've been smartening up a little recently. Long story. Maybe later.

Graham

the EPA to > deal with SOME CO2 sources.

British Court.

Red herring

in

cities

another red herring

I know. I've been to Kolkata many times, and can't stay there more than a week... Air pollution there is human degrading.

ensate

f

It won in the highest number of gear shifts dept.

Bret Cahill

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