Bluedonkey

Bluedonkey, 10 months ago

@jamesthomson Reported

Bluedonkey, 1 year ago

@AlanSill I’m less bothered about the failures and more about the lack of warning. Even a clear indication that there are outstanding drafts would be better UX than hiding them behind what looks like a settings icon.

Bluedonkey, 1 year ago

@AlanSill Not that I am aware of. This morning there was no indication of that and a post I made just before the one that failed was ok. As was one a few minutes later.

Bluedonkey, 1 year ago

@ivory @AlanSill That may be the case with the older ones, but the post this morning was not showing up on my browser on my laptop, and did not show the red failed warning.

I do think something in the UI making it clear there are drafts would be useful too. Then I would at least be aware they were there.

Bluedonkey, 11 months ago

@glennf We’re in the UK now, and London was indeed packed yesterday, although a large part of that at the Tower of London appeared to be local school field trips (the schools don’t get out for summer here until early to mid July).

Same at Duxford last week - a lot of field trips.

Bluedonkey, 11 months ago

@glennf It is handy having family & friends you can stay with in various places 😀

We rented a car and drove, but I learned to drive in London suburbs so the roads here are more familiar (although all the speed cameras make it a lot harder).

Bluedonkey, 11 months ago

@glennf We only had one day in London itself and the kids wanted to see the Tower of London and ride a double decker bus! We also did Duxsford Imperial War Museum up near Cambridge, and spent some time down in Devon (Pecorama miniature railway, the Donkey Sanctuary and Sidmouth beach).

Bluedonkey, 10 months ago

@Hypx Total nonsense. Ask a fighter pilot whether he’d prefer the sound of a Rolls Royce Merlin or the power of a jet. Same with an EV vs a combustion engine. The sound is soon forgotten once the benefits are experienced.

The complexity of modern combustion engines is a masterpiece of engineering, but is mostly to work around fundamental limitations of engines that electric motors do not have. Gears, clutches, cam shafts, timing belts, injectors, valves. All replaced by 1 moving part.

Bluedonkey, 10 months ago

@Hypx But that isn't the whole story because the production and distribution of the hydrogen also has losses which are around 50% of the input energy. If you generate a 1kWh of green electricity, you waste almost 75% of it in a FCEV and even more using it as a combustion fuel.

Bluedonkey, 10 months ago

@Hypx Now you are beyond even hydrogen propaganda! Nobody, even those making hydrogen, will tell you that the efficiency of charging a battery is the same as electrolysis of water. That's just so far from the truth it is ridiculous.

You really need to go and study what a fuel cell is and how it differs from a battery. They are not the same at all.

As for efficiency. Ignoring the electrolysis losses, the Toyota Mirai has an MPGe of around 65 combined. The Tesla Model 3 is 131. About double.

Bluedonkey, 10 months ago

@Hypx It is not negligible, nor is it easily controlled. Even if it were negligible, it would still mean that hydrogen combustion engines are not zero emission.

There are solutions that are zero emission at the vehicle, and also have none of the drawbacks of combustion engines (higher maintenance cost, limited power bands requiring complex gear systems, much higher efficiency). Pushing for hydrogen combustion just keeps oil companies in business.

Bluedonkey, 10 months ago

@Hypx As for making ICE cars clean. It cannot be used to convert existing ones, so all it would be doing is promoting continued manufacture of combustion engines which are less efficient, and more complex than an electric motor, and require consumable fuel that oil companies can continue to profit from at our expense.

Why are you so desperate to cling to combustion engines? Have you driven an EV (battery or fuel cell)?

Bluedonkey, 10 months ago

@Hypx NOx production in combustion engines is not a conspiracy theory. It is well known, and well understood. Hydrogen combustion engines burn hotter than other fuels, and as a result produce worse NOx levels.

There are ways to reduce it, but they are expensive (precious metal catalysts) and/or further reduce the efficiency of the engine.

H2 FCEVs avoid the problem completely, but neither gets around the low efficiency of hydrogen as an energy source.

Bluedonkey, 10 months ago

@Hypx Hydrogen combustion is not zero emission. It is very low carbon (not zero), and still has plenty of other issues (NOx in particular since hydrogen combustion is even hotter than gasoline combustion).

Electric motors are the way to get to truly zero emissions. No combustion engine will ever be zero emission.

Bluedonkey, 10 months ago

@Hypx I am not disputing that FCEVs are EVs (it is in the name), but a fuel cell is not a battery, and they have lower efficiency than a battery in terms of the amount of energy you get out compared to the amount you put in. Again, not propaganda. Science. No matter how much you want to believe hydrogen is a miracle fuel, it is less efficient than storing the energy in a battery.

https://www.powermag.com/fuel-cells-vs-batteries-whats-the-difference

Bluedonkey, 10 months ago

@Hypx It is not easily removed. It can be reduced using techniques that reduce the efficiency and power output of the engine. We've seen how manufacturers deal with that problem - they did it with diesel engines when presented with the same problem there.

No, hydrogen is inefficient in a fuel cell too. (FWIW, they're not the same as batteries either). Hydrogen fuel cells are 40%-50% efficient typically; about double a combustion engine. A BEV is about 75%-80% efficient.

Bluedonkey, 10 months ago

@Hypx No, I'm not. You're reading hydrogen propaganda from oil companies desperate to keep selling energy. There is no reason to use H2 FCEVs or burn it in combustion engines. No matter how you look at it, it's less efficient. The only winners are the companies who want to keep selling you energy in liquid or compressed gas forms.

As for the Model S, it is a much bigger car than the Mirai and also almost a decade older. Newer EVs of a similar size are all more efficient than the Mirai.

Bluedonkey, 10 months ago

@Hypx Synthetic fuels will likely have a place keeping “classic” cars (including some of today’s that will be future classics) running. Hydrogen is not viable for that as it can’t just be used in an unmodified gasoline engine & needs different fuel tanks, lines, injectors etc. (and forget carburetor engines).

Bluedonkey, 10 months ago

@Hypx In a performance vehicle that complexity means more frequent issues (ask Ferrari or Lamborghini owners), and more expensive repair bills.

And a lot of that complexity is there because of the limited power band in a combustion engine.

We’re ~109 years into developing internal combustion tech & we’re pushing up against the limits of its efficiency. BEVs are starting at double that efficiency & are advancing rapidly.

Bluedonkey, 11 months ago

@stuart Interestingly, I just looked up the one I saw by its number plate and it appears to be diesel powered. Maybe the solar/battery 100% electric part is just the ice cream stuff. The one we saw did not have its engine running when we bought our ice cream. I can see it moving under diesel power but not needing that while it is serving ice cream.

Bluedonkey, 11 months ago

@stuart That does seem a little suspect for sure. 100% electric, powered by a diesel generator 😞

Bluedonkey, 10 months ago

@muratk5n I would suggest you pay more attention to your gas powered cars - they are 100x more likely to catch fire than an EV. Hydrogen combustion cars are unlikely to be safer.

You might also want to look into LFP batteries, which are less likely than other Li-ion chemistries to catch fire, even when punctured. These are finding their way into increasing numbers of EVs, which will further reduce the risk.

https://electrek.co/2022/01/12/government-data-shows-gasoline-vehicles-are-significantly-more-prone-to-fires-than-evs/