SteveWalker
|
| posted on 14/12/10 at 10:32 PM |
|
|
Government subsidies are just a waste of taxpayers' money. For example - I looked at converting a Rover 400 to LPG a few years back and found
that the government grants could only be used at government approved installers. Guess what? The price differential between the local installer and
the goverment approved installer exactly matched the level of grant!
Similar grant schemes to modernise household heating systems all seem to cost the householder at least as much, if not more than having it done by
someone who is not part of the scheme.
Now they are talking of loans to improve the efficiency of your home, paid back over a long period through your utility bills. The increased bills
will be passed on to subsequent owners of the house too. Once again the work can only be carried out by members of the approved scheme (read as
"the exclusive moneymaking club" - why shouldn't I be able to have my own choice of installer or even do it myself and just have
the local council's building control department sign it off as correct before releasing a grant to me? Our entire central heating system cost me
less that £1500 to install, including separate zone valves and timerstats for each of seven rooms, an additional "zone" for water heating,
timer and stat for backup/boost immersion heater (most items were bought as part of stock clearances, so very good prices), but a boiler can cost moe
than that from a government approved scheme!
|
|
|
|
|
MikeR
|
| posted on 14/12/10 at 10:51 PM |
|
|
quote:
Originally posted by sonic
imagine you are sat at home and the wife daughter,son rings and says i have broken down or had a crash or some other panic situation somebody close
has been taken ill etc where you need to jump in your car and respond!,Hang on an hour or two until my car charges up! O and when i get to the dark
country lane in the snow were the car has broken down and i have had my lights and heater on will there be a charging tree to plug it
in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Total waste of time,even in cities were these things may work every idiot/gipo and the like will be unplugging it for a laugh or trying to tap into it
so they can wire there caravan up!!
Just out of curiosity, what did people do in the 1950's / 1960's when everyone didn't have cars? We need to adjust our views of what
is acceptable - we're at the tail end of a very propsperout time, the problem is no one wants to. Theoretically if you're a two car
household, with one person working locally (but not quite locally enough to use the bus) then they do work ........ except for the price. Being first
to market the price will always be stupidly high - how much did the first plasma tv's cost & how much do they cost now?
Right, i'm going to shut up as tomorrow i'm (hopefully) applying for a job as a PM on a hybrid car research project 
|
|
|
indykid
|
| posted on 14/12/10 at 11:48 PM |
|
|
i'm team leader building an electric formula student car. we've not dyno'd the motors yet, but it should be pretty ballistic. 0-60
in 3.5ish, certainly no milk float
i used to think electric was daft, but for a commuter vehicle, it makes a lot of sense. once the price comes down to an acceptable level and the
infrastructure gets on its feet, i'd happily buy in.
however, without early adopters, there'll never be a reason to develop the infrastructure. give them the incentives i say. the thing gordon
murray's company were working on looked good
|
|
|
l0rd
|
| posted on 15/12/10 at 12:12 AM |
|
|
There is only one car that covers all the ticks
The Renault ZeroEmissions range os otherwise known as Renault ZE
The idea is to have electricity stations that you can drive in, change the battery cell in about 3 min and drive off.
The problem is that you will need to rent the batteries i think. Not sure on costs.
|
|
|
morcus
|
| posted on 15/12/10 at 01:07 AM |
|
|
Other forms of transport would still exist anyway. If your car wasn't ready you'd take a cab or phone someone else. as someone else said
this is the begining of this technology. I saw something in a magazine about a system where some roads such as motorways would have systems built into
them so you'd actually charge the car as you were driving.
In a White Room, With Black Curtains, By the Station.
|
|
|
mcerd1
|
| posted on 15/12/10 at 08:57 AM |
|
|
quote:
Originally posted by morcus
..... I saw something in a magazine about a system where some roads such as motorways would have systems built into them so you'd actually
charge the car as you were driving.
welcome to the motorway of the future...
in the past when folk were trying to predict the future of cars they often got carried away - how different are cars / roads now to the 1950's ?
ok they are alot more developed, but the pricipal is more or less the same
-
|
|
|
