Solar powered homes and 40 hp cars -- or lack thereof -- as a metaphor.

Existential Angst · 2010-04-08T12:39:11+00:00

Awl -- In the recent thread on solar powered homes, which displayed the Natural Divide of opinion on solar power, Salty actually posted an inneresting ditty on solar powered planes.His purpose was, of course, more one-ups-manship than anything constructive, but it was inneresting nonetheless.The REALLY inneresting thing about it was that the plane had a whole 40 hp!!What does this remind you of?The old VW Beetle had a whole 36 hp, which was then souped up to... 42 hp! An air-cooled 4 cyl engine (no heavy fluid-filled radiator/cooling system).Incredibly, that measly 42 hp was fully capable of doing 80 mph -- mebbe not up hill, and mebbe with a slight tailwind, but, still, 80 mph. And, iirc, it got about 40 mpg..... or more. I never had one, and gas was 27c/gal, so no one was really calculating mpg's then, but that was a figure floating around. Coulda been much better than 40 mpg....The VW Beetle was for a commuting college student what a back pack is to grade-schoolers today..... when a whole city block of parked cars was nothing but VWs -- in NYC.... in Greenwich Village.... of course.....Even the VW mini-bus, the 60's breadbox equivalent to our SUV (iconized on a Beatle album, iirc), used that same 42 hp engine.Yet, in the rush for a viable electric car, I don't think a single design considers anything less than 100 hp. The Nissan Leaf is already at 107 hp. The stupidly over-priced Chevy Volt is at 160 hp.And the ironic thing is, a small car with four 10 hp "hub motors" (like disk brakes) would yield an incredibly versatile useful car! With the most versatile 4 wd possible, and a potential turning radius of zero -- think military tanks.All-solar homes are not practical, imo, simply because our lifestyles and "urban structure" won't *let* them be practical, even if the cost made sense.We engage in "spiraling habits", like air conditioning, which makes cities -- and the planet -- disproportionately and ironically hotter.Between the blacktop, cars (200 hp...

Apr 08, 2010 22 Replies

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trader4 16 years ago

So, you agree with EA that anyone that has a king size bed is an asshole, but it's OK for him to have a large bathroom?

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Existential Angst 16 years ago

So, you agree with EA that anyone that has a king size bed is an asshole, but it's OK for him to have a large bathroom? ==================================================

Get it right, please.... FIVE large bathrooms.

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HeyBub 16 years ago

And what would those "limits" be?

Please check out the Simon-Ehrlich Wager here:

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