OT: If all cars were electric ...??

[Steve Walker]

We once spilt a quantity of diesel on my parents' drive. It took some time with a blowlamp to burn it all off.

SteveW

[NY]

Nothing would induce me to use petrol for anything except powering a car - and anyway, I much prefer to drive a diesel car... Hate the smell of the stuff, anyway.

[NY]

I'm surprised that they can add hydrogen without requiring changes to appliances, when the change from town (coal) gas to natural gas required a major programme of the Gas Board going round to every house to modify the boiler and the cooker burners.

[NY]

Ah, him. I thought he might be the guy you were referring to. I've seen that lecture, though I think I found a better-quality copy on Youtube. Very entertaining and yet also very informative - something which modern presenters think is an exclusive-or :-)

[tabbypurr]

you could always fit the boiler on the outside of a house

NT

[Steve Walker]

Oh, I don't know. I used to have a very good, unleaded petrol fueled Coleman lantern.

SteveW

[Steve Walker]

I remember us having to open the battery holder on the gas fire ignitor and change from an SP2 plus a dummy cell to two SP2 batteries, as it is harder to ignite.

SteveW

[Bob Eager]

Wouldn't be allowed today. He was firing lumps of burrning cotton partly into the audience!

[ARW]

I drive 21.5 miles to work/office most weekday mornings. Then I drive to the jobs.

[NY]

Some days I drive a short distance to the shops or to visit a local client; other days I have to drive much further, and probably beyond the range of an electric car. There's more than just average usage to consider - peak usage is also important.

[AnthonyL]

My understanding of current government policy is that alternative solutions are not considered, nor even hybrid. Someone up there believes electric is totally green (and they probably are anti-nuclear).

In my view the policy should be solely about total pollution & green house gases and let the industry work out the best technical solutions (VW excepted).

[Andy Burns]

For a given car/driver maybe, and AnthonyL hasn't been back with any comments, but I got the feeling he was interested in how feasible/infeasible it was from the infrastructure supply side to keep an all-electric fleet charged, rather than individual vehicles to carry drivers as far as they need to travel?

[The Natural Philosopher]

You are right. Thats WAY worse than any of the above

Photosynthesis does not produce hydrogen.

[The Natural Philosopher]

They banned methanol in most race cars after a driver burnt to death - he did lap after lap not knowing he was on fire...then it was too late.

[Andy Burns]

Don't think that's true, the "no new diesel/petrol cars by 2040" doesn't rule out petrol or even diesel hybrids, so you can have hybrid or plug-in charging.

[harry]

Ah. They're re-inventing coal gas then?

[harry]

They're called taxis. This is what people used to do all the time.

[Andy Burns]

I don't quite why you'd drive an uber onto a train and off the other end, leave it behind and book another one at the other end, surely more efficient ... taking the "car as IP packet" analogy a little too far?

[The Natural Philosopher]

to avoid the hassle of actually getting out of it with all your luggage, and so you have your private space all the way.

[The Other Mike]

You are free to believe that

Quite possibly, but methane hydrogen mixes are being actively explored as an option for a lower carbon intensity home heating option in the interim.

Agreed, but a vast majority of existing UK housing stock would require an investment well in excess of a recognisable rate of return and with significant disruption and possibly a large reduction in room sizes. Virtually no one wants to live in something resembling a nuclear bunker (see last weeks Grand Designs for a 1 million quid concrete abomination)

Some do but the vast majority particularly those built by major developers do not.

Some that had heat pumps that are now being ripped out 'because they do not work in poorly insulated UK homes'

Very few homes were built to Code 6 standards, then code 6 just fell off the radar. Despite evolution of building regs ove rmany decades the 'as built' thermal performance of UK homes remains as appalling as ever.

Harry, you really need to keep up with the modern world, it's happening in a trial, in conjunction with Cadent (which was until a partial demerger earlier this year National Grid Gas)