unless people start to take them because they are larger just for being larger and not for actually hauling things
I mentioned having an additional fee for the larger vehicle... If they feel the need for the larger vehicle, let them pay for it.
Lately many of my purchases have been for big things - power tools, lumber, appliances, plumbing supplies(like 3 meter sections of pipe). A truck, while not absolutely necessary, would have made getting a number of those purchases home easier.
Last time I moved, I rented a truck. 250 for the weekend... That's not that much, is it?
Even assuming $1=1, it's about double what I'd pay for a big diesel Uhaul type panel truck for the weekend.
So, yes, allow 10% bigger cars, but I think people wanting those should prove that they need them for hauling/camping/etc. Otherwise, it's going to get abused.
No need to do that, simply charge more for the larger vehicles. Make it a profit leader, IE 5% of small car rental is profit, 10% for large/cool vehicle. If a car is $10 for a day, and a truck is $20, it'll control most abuses.
If the large vehicles don't have enough availability, buy more.
Do you mean a car that's 10% larger, or have 10% of the fleet be larger vehicles?
What if it's the surgeon who gets sick/injured and needs surgry? Killed in an accident? Now we're up to two needed.
Surgeons are becomming specialized - what if the operation is a complicated one? A telepresence capable robot would be a better option.
Given enough development, a robotic surgeon can do more complex tasks faster than a human. Like the one designed to be able to work on a mobile human eye. A heart would be easy after that. Imagine, open-heart surgury while the heart is still beating.
At least for on earth combat use - you'd be able to have real surgeons standing on hand to make near realtime adjustments. You could even have him teleoperate, though ideally a surgeon robot wouldn't be limited to human movements.
Worse, a damaged human surgeon is likely to take out two surgeons (IE him and somebody to work on him), while you discard the robot and stick a spare(that you hopefully have) in.
How many times a year do you go shopping for furniture?
About once. Maybe twice if you count book shelves. As a guy I'm not obsessed with 'matching' furniture. Of course I live in a rural area and do my own house work. It's much cheaper for me to borrow or rent a vehicle than to pay to have something delivered.
Anything else is exotic.
Thing is, exotic uses happen. Here we have a car subscription service where you pick up a vehicle when you need it and return it when you're done. You're not limited to a single vehicle, or even a single vehicle type.
Maybe I want one for a couple days to go camping or hunting. Maybe somebody is moving aparments and needs a truck for the bed/sofa.
It ends up being a simple question: Does making a pickup truck availabe to check out improve the system or not? I'd tend to say yes, it can help the system, as if you have a few thousand people subscribing, there'll be somebody looking for a truck at least some of the time. Kinda like how there might be a party or visiting relatives to make a multipassanger van or SUV make more sense than trying to deal with two or three subcompacts.
Look at it this way: At least the truck is going to be used for truck appropriate uses 50% of the time rather than 1-10% of the time like the truck bought to haul a boat trailor four weekends out of the year. It doesn't really matter that you can't think of a reason you'd need a truck, they still sell like hotcakes, so there has to be reasons that they're popular.
but sensible folks can do a lot without screwing it up for everyone.
Exactly. As this would be a 'frequent use' type system - people won't want to lose their ability to rent the vehicles(cheaper than traditional rental or purchasing a vehicle). Thus, they'll try not to mess the vehicles up. It'll still happen - but you build a certain amount of this into the price.
Another problem is that the cars would quickly becoming disgusting inside, which I figure is one reason why car rental companies turn their fleet over every year. Between people smoking, eating corpses, etc. in the cars I certainly wouldn't want to participate in such a scheme.
Depends on the clientele. My last rental car was a decade old. Worked fine, was in clean shape, etc...
Keep accountability, track problems so you can identify problem clients and drop them.
Odds are most problems will be caused by a few subscribers - and they'll be easily identifiable.
Funny thing is, according to other posters, there are companies already in the USA operating in the cities (Flexcar and Zipcar), and these haven't been problems.
Of course, as a subscription service - commit a crime using the car and they can track down who was using it at the time rather easily, and leave spooge and the next occupant complains, you get dinged for cleanup costs, make a pattern of it and they cancel your service(under some sort of you're a dickhead clause).
You can get stopped by angry police with guns almost anywhere, for any reason - including your car vaguely looking like one they're looking for. With the current services, a simple check showing you hadn't checked out the vehicle at the time of the crime will clear you.
The easiest method I can think of would be to require an initial sign up - that would give CC companies time to make sure the subscription is good and the person legit. Maybe snail mail him an activation code to his registered address.
Then simply reverify the card/driver's license on rental.
You don't have to prevent all theft - just enough that you can still make a profit. Given that you'd probably put a number of anti-theft and tracking measures in, and the items wouldn't exactly be 'open market' items, so you'd have to part it out - but most users of those systems would also be corporate types with the vehicles on contract - so the aftermarket value is limited.
And a few cameras. Take a picture when the person presents his ID, take pictures of the vehicle leaving(beginning condition), and pictures of the vehicle returning(ending condition). Something comes up, review the pictures.
How do you prevent someone with horrible hygiene from renting one? Do you want to get into a smelly vehicle with a mucous-covered steering wheel and god-knows-what stains on the seats? (note: this question is NOT directed at folks who regularly use NYC taxis)
If the vehicle is trashed, you report it(using the provided number or onstar style system), stick the vehicle in the back of the queue. Other than that, a quick misting of sanitizing spray should take care of the rest.
And if you complain about the condition of the car? How do we know YOU didn't ding the door?
Cameras at the rental/return station. Take some high res snap shots of the car when it leaves/returns. Theoretically it'd be like rent-a-wreck. They don't worry too much about 'dings'. Major damage is one thing, dings are normal wear and tear.
How do we know YOU didn't rip the seats and leave that crusty residue on the door handle? Eventually the company will start fining the people who report the problems. Don't think it will happen? Then you've obviously never reported a property crime to the police. You instantly become their first suspect.
Strange, I've reported things to the police before, they didn't treat me like a suspect. I'm willing to bet that they wouldn't start fining people who report the problem as a matter of course - they're more likely to look up the renter before them and fine them. Just as easy and doesn't punish people who report things.
Oddly enough, it's actually fairly rare for people to mess stuff like this up when they're paying for the service.
How about a PRT type system? Lighter rails, preferably electric driven individually routed cars. Smaller stations, quicker departures, non stop travel.
And the very next thing after mentioning shopping is furniture, for which a truck would indeed be mightily useful. He also didn't mention groceries before 'shopping', he could have been talking about a visit to the hardware store to pick up lumber for some project.
Heck, I'd consider signing up for it - I have a small car that I use for daily commutes, but there are occasions where I have had to scramble to borrow/rent a larger vehicle.
To put it another way - I'm running an occasional use vehicle subscription service - should I only offer Honda Civics? Minis? Or would also offering a few full size SUVs and trucks improve my service, even if there's an additional surcharge for the larger vehicle?
but what this technology will do is increase the number of cars on the road.
I'd imagine that it might be partially that each little car doesn't need quite as much space, even on the road; that the number of people dropping a big four seater(even a civic would be big for this purpose) for one of these would counter balance those trading up from a bicycle or motorscooter.
Better yet, use it to convince some people to switch to non-motor vehicles except when they have a special need.
Andy Fastow pleaded guilty - Jeff Skilling went to trial. Andy Fastow helped testify against Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.
IE Fastow copped a plea. Charges dropped, sentence reduced in exchange for not having to have the expense of a full trial.
Or is it (more likely) up to the discretion of the judge and whether or not the particular judge wishes to sent a particular message.
There are guidelines, minimum sentencing requirements in some areas, but this is generally it.
Another truth - if you're going to steal money, it's best to do it whitecollar, and steal millions. You can easily spend more time in prison for hitting a stop-n-rob for less than $200 than stealing millions from a company.
Oops - mislabled. I meant watthours, not amp hours. Did it in both posts, darn it all!(shouldn't post when tired)
I checked out a couple batteries. They weren't rated in Amp hours, they were rated in Watt hours.
Though I did screw up on the cell phone battery - it's 3.6 volts, so we went from 3 seconds to ~11 seconds, depending on efficiency.
As for your six minute figure - you're considering a 60Wh battery, I considered a 100Wh one, you considered 5 Amps at the wall, 100% efficiency, I figured 10. We came within one minute of each other, and both figures are 'drink your coffee quickly'.
Your figure would be good for a 'notebook' computer, mine for a larger 'laptop'.
Long trips will likely call for an IC engine in a trailer, but even then, there is benefit to charging the batteries and running on them for a bit during your trip.
Agreed. Actually, the trailor can be eliminated if the EV has enough range. I'd peg it at around 300 miles@75 mph. That's four hours plus some change for slower driving before you get on the interstate. IE you eat breakfast and start driving at 7 am - charge runs low at 11 - you stop off and have a nice lunch. Start traveling again at 12 pm, charge runs low at 4 pm, time for an early dinner. Restart at 5pm, drive until 9, when you get a hotel.
Harder drivers, rising altitude drives will need the trailor. At least until the battery can handle 400 miles@75mph. the need exists currently because battery density doesn't normally have enough range(~100miles), and charging stations are effictively non-existant at this time.
I can easily see courtesy chargers sized based on how long the business hopes for the customer to stay. A diner would likely target a 30 minute or so charge. A mall might go for a 2 hour charge. Businesses that provide chargers for emjployees would likely choose 6-8 hours.
Thing about these assumptions is that at a diner you're going to be cycling customers in and out enough that charging faster probably wouldn't be that hard. You just do them serially instead of in parallel.
The common circuits are 15A@120 wired with 14 gauge copper wire, 20A@120 with 12, with dedicated 240 volt circuits. Most US homes actually have 240V service, it's just we run a split phase system dropping it to 120V in the house as 120V is considered safer than 240V while still being useful for most applications.
It's generally difficult to find portable electronics that need more than 1500 watts, as they generally figure you're going to use more than one device on a circuit.
However, it's quite possible to get a 20amp 240V circuit in your kitchen, for example. It just requires a double breaker in the panel box and some rewiring.
30A 240V water heater line uses at least 10 gauge(generally hard wired), and there are a couple standard electric dryer plugs(also usually a 30A@220V device). There's a three prong 'old style' and a four prong 'new style'. the new one adds a chassis ground, the old one simply used the common. 50A electric stove, 6 gauge. There's a Standard plug for that as well, it's just huge.
Some regions require all 240V appliances to be hard wired(no plugs allowed), some require conduit for all electrical runs, etc...
I'd say that goes toward proving my point (I don't see much wiring that's inside the house). How much is cat3 compared to the same length of phone cord?
Cat3 is phone cord. It's probably actually cheaper per foot. It'd be pretty hard to find in preassembled lengths, I think it's mostly used for in wall wiring.
Have digital speakers taken off? I haven't seen them anywhere, either in Best Buy or in a high end audio stores. If they haven't, which I suspect is the case, then the point the digital people are making is moot. That's the point I'm trying to make; since speakers are likely analog, you DO need some higher quality cables, either shielded or twisted. I'm not saying you need $1000 cables, but good cables DO make a difference.
No, they haven't. On the other hand, we haven't been talking about speaker cables - we've been talking about the digital wires used between components like the player, receiver, and frequenly the TV today.
In the digital case, losing 49% of the signal likely won't be enough to put the original signal back together.
It was just an example, just to give you an idea though - wireless networking works despite orders of magnitude of signal loss. If the receiving antenna gets 1/1000 of the signal strength - it's considered good. I wasn't thinking '49% of bits lost', I was thinking '49% of what tells the difference between a 1 and a 0 has been lost'. IE there's still 51% of that difference left, which can be plenty.
The old cables were of very low quality, and I certainly didn't spend a lot to replace it.
And we've made multiple mentions of 'decent' quality - not 'very low'. Sure, a cruddy ethernet cable might work, but it might not. Going a step or two up gives you a cable that will work.
"Virtual Shotgun". For those who really want their privacy.
While I don't normally understand why you'd play an online game to just be alone - from what I understand of second life you could have the equivalent of 'prepping', IE you're creating something to be shown later. Whether this is a house or an adult accessory, it doesn't really matter.
Also useful for a laptop. A quick stop for coffee could have it ready to go.
Well, yes. 3 seconds for 1000mAh = 1 Ah. Average laptop battery: 85-100 Ah, thus 300 seconds for a full charge of the bigger battery, or 5 minutes.
You could cut this down with even more amps- but the average circuit is only 15-20 amps, and you need some serious cables if you're going to be pulling that much. Plus the sheer hassle of popped circuit breakers if the circuit isn't dedicated.
For a car charging at home, I agree the limit would be the house's service, but at a specialized charging station on a trip it could be really useful. Since an ultracapacitor is unlikely to be as picky about how it's charged, there would be room for mid speed chargers as well. I can imagine any number of roadside diners might offer a charge as part of the service. By the time you're done eating the car could be fully charged.
They've gotten car chargers to the point that they can do anything from trickle charge all the way to fast charge. The restaraunt would generally be a fast charge even for a leisurly meal. My concern is that they'd probably be taking 40amps of 240 or even three phase. Multiply by ten to twenty cars and the restaraunt would be needing it's own switching station.
Still, bank of supercaps on the roof with the solar panels* to help even things out would help.
Though for the long trips I'd probably prefer the 'pusher trailer' which has an IC engine to provide either power or thrust. You'd rent it from UHaul or something for the occasional long trip.
*The uber-efficient and cheap ones I keep hearing about;).
Perhaps it needs a supercapacitor to even out the load?
I'd mod you insightful if I could.
An electric stapler is pretty much the definition of 'intermittant load'. Figure that a worker is going to be stapling only once every 1 - 5 seconds. The stapling process is far less than a second, let's call it a 10th for active power draw.
Contantly drawing 10 amps, stapling once a second, that'd give you the equivalent of 100amps@120. Yikes!!! You could probably drive masonry nails with that.
You'd still have to worry about a cord - but let's face it, if you're doing that much work even a LiIon battery isn't going to last long - both for between charges and time before needing replacement.
I dare you to try and recharge a Lithium Ion battery with 15A. Remember to duck.:)
I demand a blast-shield.
Though I suppose it'd work if we're doing something like charging the tesla roadster's battery pack. 15A@120V through it's charging circuitry counts as a 'trickle charge'.
Nearly instant recharges and 100,000 cycle lifetime?
I'd also hope that it'd end up costing less per kw/h of capacity.
The instant recharge isn't actually that big of a deal, like it would be for a cell phone. As is fast charging an EV can max out many home's services.
Fast charging a cell phone - 10A@120volts for 3 seconds = 1000 mAh Or more than enough to take my E815(850 mAh) from 'empty' to 'fully charged'. Might need an extra second or two if I get the extended life battery (1400mAh).
I'm still hoping that a company will come out with an electric 18 gauge stapler so I can stop dragging around an air hose.
Probably not going to happen, my small electric stapler doesn't play nice with the power, I can't imagine what a bigger one would be like.
Then there's the part where if you get too much more powerful, you go above the 1800 watts a 15 amp 120 circuit can handle before the breaker trips/fuse blows. A 20 amp one would help, but then you have the little problem of the nice thick expensive power cord - I think it'd be easier to haul the air hose.
At least with the compressor you get a nice constant motor action, not a stuttering power drain that'd make the power company real happy with you.
Though, talking with my professional electrician brother - he loves his cordless LiIon tools - and he can actually justify them, as he's paid by the job. If it saves him 15 minutes a day, that adds up.
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unless people start to take them because they are larger just for being larger and not for actually hauling things
I mentioned having an additional fee for the larger vehicle... If they feel the need for the larger vehicle, let them pay for it.
Lately many of my purchases have been for big things - power tools, lumber, appliances, plumbing supplies(like 3 meter sections of pipe). A truck, while not absolutely necessary, would have made getting a number of those purchases home easier.
Last time I moved, I rented a truck. 250 for the weekend... That's not that much, is it?
Even assuming $1=1, it's about double what I'd pay for a big diesel Uhaul type panel truck for the weekend.
So, yes, allow 10% bigger cars, but I think people wanting those should prove that they need them for hauling/camping/etc. Otherwise, it's going to get abused.
No need to do that, simply charge more for the larger vehicles. Make it a profit leader, IE 5% of small car rental is profit, 10% for large/cool vehicle. If a car is $10 for a day, and a truck is $20, it'll control most abuses.
If the large vehicles don't have enough availability, buy more.
Do you mean a car that's 10% larger, or have 10% of the fleet be larger vehicles?
What if it's the surgeon who gets sick/injured and needs surgry? Killed in an accident? Now we're up to two needed.
Surgeons are becomming specialized - what if the operation is a complicated one? A telepresence capable robot would be a better option.
Given enough development, a robotic surgeon can do more complex tasks faster than a human. Like the one designed to be able to work on a mobile human eye. A heart would be easy after that. Imagine, open-heart surgury while the heart is still beating.
At least for on earth combat use - you'd be able to have real surgeons standing on hand to make near realtime adjustments. You could even have him teleoperate, though ideally a surgeon robot wouldn't be limited to human movements.
Worse, a damaged human surgeon is likely to take out two surgeons (IE him and somebody to work on him), while you discard the robot and stick a spare(that you hopefully have) in.
How many times a year do you go shopping for furniture?
About once. Maybe twice if you count book shelves. As a guy I'm not obsessed with 'matching' furniture. Of course I live in a rural area and do my own house work. It's much cheaper for me to borrow or rent a vehicle than to pay to have something delivered.
Anything else is exotic.
Thing is, exotic uses happen. Here we have a car subscription service where you pick up a vehicle when you need it and return it when you're done. You're not limited to a single vehicle, or even a single vehicle type.
Maybe I want one for a couple days to go camping or hunting. Maybe somebody is moving aparments and needs a truck for the bed/sofa.
It ends up being a simple question: Does making a pickup truck availabe to check out improve the system or not? I'd tend to say yes, it can help the system, as if you have a few thousand people subscribing, there'll be somebody looking for a truck at least some of the time. Kinda like how there might be a party or visiting relatives to make a multipassanger van or SUV make more sense than trying to deal with two or three subcompacts.
Look at it this way: At least the truck is going to be used for truck appropriate uses 50% of the time rather than 1-10% of the time like the truck bought to haul a boat trailor four weekends out of the year. It doesn't really matter that you can't think of a reason you'd need a truck, they still sell like hotcakes, so there has to be reasons that they're popular.
but sensible folks can do a lot without screwing it up for everyone.
Exactly. As this would be a 'frequent use' type system - people won't want to lose their ability to rent the vehicles(cheaper than traditional rental or purchasing a vehicle). Thus, they'll try not to mess the vehicles up. It'll still happen - but you build a certain amount of this into the price.
Another problem is that the cars would quickly becoming disgusting inside, which I figure is one reason why car rental companies turn their fleet over every year. Between people smoking, eating corpses, etc. in the cars I certainly wouldn't want to participate in such a scheme.
Depends on the clientele. My last rental car was a decade old. Worked fine, was in clean shape, etc...
Keep accountability, track problems so you can identify problem clients and drop them.
Odds are most problems will be caused by a few subscribers - and they'll be easily identifiable.
Solve these conflicts and you've got it made.
Funny thing is, according to other posters, there are companies already in the USA operating in the cities (Flexcar and Zipcar), and these haven't been problems.
Of course, as a subscription service - commit a crime using the car and they can track down who was using it at the time rather easily, and leave spooge and the next occupant complains, you get dinged for cleanup costs, make a pattern of it and they cancel your service(under some sort of you're a dickhead clause).
You can get stopped by angry police with guns almost anywhere, for any reason - including your car vaguely looking like one they're looking for. With the current services, a simple check showing you hadn't checked out the vehicle at the time of the crime will clear you.
The easiest method I can think of would be to require an initial sign up - that would give CC companies time to make sure the subscription is good and the person legit. Maybe snail mail him an activation code to his registered address.
Then simply reverify the card/driver's license on rental.
You don't have to prevent all theft - just enough that you can still make a profit. Given that you'd probably put a number of anti-theft and tracking measures in, and the items wouldn't exactly be 'open market' items, so you'd have to part it out - but most users of those systems would also be corporate types with the vehicles on contract - so the aftermarket value is limited.
And a few cameras. Take a picture when the person presents his ID, take pictures of the vehicle leaving(beginning condition), and pictures of the vehicle returning(ending condition). Something comes up, review the pictures.
How do you prevent someone with horrible hygiene from renting one? Do you want to get into a smelly vehicle with a mucous-covered steering wheel and god-knows-what stains on the seats? (note: this question is NOT directed at folks who regularly use NYC taxis)
If the vehicle is trashed, you report it(using the provided number or onstar style system), stick the vehicle in the back of the queue. Other than that, a quick misting of sanitizing spray should take care of the rest.
And if you complain about the condition of the car? How do we know YOU didn't ding the door?
Cameras at the rental/return station. Take some high res snap shots of the car when it leaves/returns. Theoretically it'd be like rent-a-wreck. They don't worry too much about 'dings'. Major damage is one thing, dings are normal wear and tear.
How do we know YOU didn't rip the seats and leave that crusty residue on the door handle? Eventually the company will start fining the people who report the problems. Don't think it will happen? Then you've obviously never reported a property crime to the police. You instantly become their first suspect.
Strange, I've reported things to the police before, they didn't treat me like a suspect. I'm willing to bet that they wouldn't start fining people who report the problem as a matter of course - they're more likely to look up the renter before them and fine them. Just as easy and doesn't punish people who report things.
Oddly enough, it's actually fairly rare for people to mess stuff like this up when they're paying for the service.
How about a PRT type system? Lighter rails, preferably electric driven individually routed cars. Smaller stations, quicker departures, non stop travel.
What's not to like?
And the very next thing after mentioning shopping is furniture, for which a truck would indeed be mightily useful. He also didn't mention groceries before 'shopping', he could have been talking about a visit to the hardware store to pick up lumber for some project.
Heck, I'd consider signing up for it - I have a small car that I use for daily commutes, but there are occasions where I have had to scramble to borrow/rent a larger vehicle.
To put it another way - I'm running an occasional use vehicle subscription service - should I only offer Honda Civics? Minis? Or would also offering a few full size SUVs and trucks improve my service, even if there's an additional surcharge for the larger vehicle?
but what this technology will do is increase the number of cars on the road.
I'd imagine that it might be partially that each little car doesn't need quite as much space, even on the road; that the number of people dropping a big four seater(even a civic would be big for this purpose) for one of these would counter balance those trading up from a bicycle or motorscooter.
Better yet, use it to convince some people to switch to non-motor vehicles except when they have a special need.
Andy Fastow pleaded guilty - Jeff Skilling went to trial.
Andy Fastow helped testify against Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.
IE Fastow copped a plea. Charges dropped, sentence reduced in exchange for not having to have the expense of a full trial.
Or is it (more likely) up to the discretion of the judge and whether or not the particular judge wishes to sent a particular message.
There are guidelines, minimum sentencing requirements in some areas, but this is generally it.
Another truth - if you're going to steal money, it's best to do it whitecollar, and steal millions. You can easily spend more time in prison for hitting a stop-n-rob for less than $200 than stealing millions from a company.
Oops - mislabled. I meant watthours, not amp hours. Did it in both posts, darn it all!(shouldn't post when tired)
I checked out a couple batteries. They weren't rated in Amp hours, they were rated in Watt hours.
Though I did screw up on the cell phone battery - it's 3.6 volts, so we went from 3 seconds to ~11 seconds, depending on efficiency.
As for your six minute figure - you're considering a 60Wh battery, I considered a 100Wh one, you considered 5 Amps at the wall, 100% efficiency, I figured 10. We came within one minute of each other, and both figures are 'drink your coffee quickly'.
Your figure would be good for a 'notebook' computer, mine for a larger 'laptop'.
Long trips will likely call for an IC engine in a trailer, but even then, there is benefit to charging the batteries and running on them for a bit during your trip.
Agreed. Actually, the trailor can be eliminated if the EV has enough range. I'd peg it at around 300 miles@75 mph. That's four hours plus some change for slower driving before you get on the interstate. IE you eat breakfast and start driving at 7 am - charge runs low at 11 - you stop off and have a nice lunch. Start traveling again at 12 pm, charge runs low at 4 pm, time for an early dinner. Restart at 5pm, drive until 9, when you get a hotel.
Harder drivers, rising altitude drives will need the trailor. At least until the battery can handle 400 miles@75mph. the need exists currently because battery density doesn't normally have enough range(~100miles), and charging stations are effictively non-existant at this time.
I can easily see courtesy chargers sized based on how long the business hopes for the customer to stay. A diner would likely target a 30 minute or so charge. A mall might go for a 2 hour charge. Businesses that provide chargers for emjployees would likely choose 6-8 hours.
Thing about these assumptions is that at a diner you're going to be cycling customers in and out enough that charging faster probably wouldn't be that hard. You just do them serially instead of in parallel.
The common circuits are 15A@120 wired with 14 gauge copper wire, 20A@120 with 12, with dedicated 240 volt circuits. Most US homes actually have 240V service, it's just we run a split phase system dropping it to 120V in the house as 120V is considered safer than 240V while still being useful for most applications.
It's generally difficult to find portable electronics that need more than 1500 watts, as they generally figure you're going to use more than one device on a circuit.
However, it's quite possible to get a 20amp 240V circuit in your kitchen, for example. It just requires a double breaker in the panel box and some rewiring.
30A 240V water heater line uses at least 10 gauge(generally hard wired), and there are a couple standard electric dryer plugs(also usually a 30A@220V device). There's a three prong 'old style' and a four prong 'new style'. the new one adds a chassis ground, the old one simply used the common.
50A electric stove, 6 gauge. There's a Standard plug for that as well, it's just huge.
Some regions require all 240V appliances to be hard wired(no plugs allowed), some require conduit for all electrical runs, etc...
Actually, that part was my first reaction to reading the article, and your 'first reaction' post seemed appropriate to hand it off of.
It was more of a 'get off my yard' response.
I'd say that goes toward proving my point (I don't see much wiring that's inside the house). How much is cat3 compared to the same length of phone cord?
Cat3 is phone cord. It's probably actually cheaper per foot. It'd be pretty hard to find in preassembled lengths, I think it's mostly used for in wall wiring.
Have digital speakers taken off? I haven't seen them anywhere, either in Best Buy or in a high end audio stores. If they haven't, which I suspect is the case, then the point the digital people are making is moot. That's the point I'm trying to make; since speakers are likely analog, you DO need some higher quality cables, either shielded or twisted. I'm not saying you need $1000 cables, but good cables DO make a difference.
No, they haven't. On the other hand, we haven't been talking about speaker cables - we've been talking about the digital wires used between components like the player, receiver, and frequenly the TV today.
In the digital case, losing 49% of the signal likely won't be enough to put the original signal back together.
It was just an example, just to give you an idea though - wireless networking works despite orders of magnitude of signal loss. If the receiving antenna gets 1/1000 of the signal strength - it's considered good. I wasn't thinking '49% of bits lost', I was thinking '49% of what tells the difference between a 1 and a 0 has been lost'. IE there's still 51% of that difference left, which can be plenty.
The old cables were of very low quality, and I certainly didn't spend a lot to replace it.
And we've made multiple mentions of 'decent' quality - not 'very low'. Sure, a cruddy ethernet cable might work, but it might not. Going a step or two up gives you a cable that will work.
The first thing I thought of was a response:
"Virtual Shotgun". For those who really want their privacy.
While I don't normally understand why you'd play an online game to just be alone - from what I understand of second life you could have the equivalent of 'prepping', IE you're creating something to be shown later. Whether this is a house or an adult accessory, it doesn't really matter.
The only reasons I kicked it as high up as I did was for the internal HD and HDTV capability.
Though a hacked PS2 capable of using USB flash/external drives would work, the screen is rather below today's standards.
Also useful for a laptop. A quick stop for coffee could have it ready to go.
;).
Well, yes. 3 seconds for 1000mAh = 1 Ah. Average laptop battery: 85-100 Ah, thus 300 seconds for a full charge of the bigger battery, or 5 minutes.
You could cut this down with even more amps- but the average circuit is only 15-20 amps, and you need some serious cables if you're going to be pulling that much. Plus the sheer hassle of popped circuit breakers if the circuit isn't dedicated.
For a car charging at home, I agree the limit would be the house's service, but at a specialized charging station on a trip it could be really useful. Since an ultracapacitor is unlikely to be as picky about how it's charged, there would be room for mid speed chargers as well. I can imagine any number of roadside diners might offer a charge as part of the service. By the time you're done eating the car could be fully charged.
They've gotten car chargers to the point that they can do anything from trickle charge all the way to fast charge. The restaraunt would generally be a fast charge even for a leisurly meal. My concern is that they'd probably be taking 40amps of 240 or even three phase. Multiply by ten to twenty cars and the restaraunt would be needing it's own switching station.
Still, bank of supercaps on the roof with the solar panels* to help even things out would help.
Though for the long trips I'd probably prefer the 'pusher trailer' which has an IC engine to provide either power or thrust. You'd rent it from UHaul or something for the occasional long trip.
*The uber-efficient and cheap ones I keep hearing about
Perhaps it needs a supercapacitor to even out the load?
I'd mod you insightful if I could.
An electric stapler is pretty much the definition of 'intermittant load'. Figure that a worker is going to be stapling only once every 1 - 5 seconds. The stapling process is far less than a second, let's call it a 10th for active power draw.
Contantly drawing 10 amps, stapling once a second, that'd give you the equivalent of 100amps@120. Yikes!!! You could probably drive masonry nails with that.
You'd still have to worry about a cord - but let's face it, if you're doing that much work even a LiIon battery isn't going to last long - both for between charges and time before needing replacement.
I dare you to try and recharge a Lithium Ion battery with 15A. :)
Remember to duck.
I demand a blast-shield.
Though I suppose it'd work if we're doing something like charging the tesla roadster's battery pack. 15A@120V through it's charging circuitry counts as a 'trickle charge'.
Nearly instant recharges and 100,000 cycle lifetime?
I'd also hope that it'd end up costing less per kw/h of capacity.
The instant recharge isn't actually that big of a deal, like it would be for a cell phone. As is fast charging an EV can max out many home's services.
Fast charging a cell phone - 10A@120volts for 3 seconds = 1000 mAh Or more than enough to take my E815(850 mAh) from 'empty' to 'fully charged'. Might need an extra second or two if I get the extended life battery (1400mAh).
I'm still hoping that a company will come out with an electric 18 gauge stapler so I can stop dragging around an air hose.
Probably not going to happen, my small electric stapler doesn't play nice with the power, I can't imagine what a bigger one would be like.
Then there's the part where if you get too much more powerful, you go above the 1800 watts a 15 amp 120 circuit can handle before the breaker trips/fuse blows. A 20 amp one would help, but then you have the little problem of the nice thick expensive power cord - I think it'd be easier to haul the air hose.
At least with the compressor you get a nice constant motor action, not a stuttering power drain that'd make the power company real happy with you.
Though, talking with my professional electrician brother - he loves his cordless LiIon tools - and he can actually justify them, as he's paid by the job. If it saves him 15 minutes a day, that adds up.