Electric cars and the grid..... it has begun.

[Wedg1e]

-2° here last night, but I still have this perverse notion that i need to leave the sliding door open on my bungalow bedroom at night. And I'm still snug under just a medium quilt with a blanket on top.


I'm toying with going 'au natural' and not running heating at all, just dressing for the weather.

I live in Teesside. If I left my bedroom patio door open overnight, I'd wake up in an empty house.

 

[DAPPH]

When looking for a cheap place to buy in 2004 just before Christmas a place in Teeside came up on Rightmove which was well within the parameters I'd entered in the Rightmove search .
A good solid cavity wall brick built 4 bedroom ex 1950's council , on a large corner plot that was also big enough for a decent sized three bed house or bungalow & small workshop .

I found an aerial shot of it ... with rat runs across both back & front gardens , other houses in the street & adjacent streets had boarded up windows. I chatted at length with some internet pals @ World Sea Fishing.com who lived up there and they said I'd need a dozen SAS types armed with pump action shotties 3 on the truck, 2 escorting the Mr Shifters , 3 back & front and one roaming about inside .

I looked things up in " Up My street " and got the police grime figure and all sorts of other useful info from the internet ... Once i'd collected & collated everything I was amused to think I'd ever even considered moving there even though the place was only £40,000 ono . I could have had four of them , all mortgage free.

 

[Morrisman]

When looking for a cheap place to buy in 2004 just before Christmas a place in Teeside came up on Rightmove which was well within the parameters I'd entered in the Rightmove search .
A good solid cavity wall brick built 4 bedroom ex 1950's council , on a large corner plot that was also big enough for a decent sized three bed house or bungalow & small workshop .

I found an aerial shot of it ... with rat runs across both back & front gardens , other houses in the street & adjacent streets had boarded up windows. I chatted at length with some internet pals @ World Sea Fishing.com who lived up there and they said I'd need a dozen SAS types armed with pump action shotties 3 on the truck, 2 escorting the Mr Shifters , 3 back & front and one roaming about inside .

I looked things up in " Up My street " and got the police grime figure and all sorts of other useful info from the internet ... Once i'd collected & collated everything I was amused to think I'd ever even considered moving there even though the place was only £40,000 ono . I could have had four of them , all mortgage free.

I worked offshore with a young guy, ex army, he was from 'up north' and he was telling us about the house he had bought, £29k..... this was only ten years ago.
I've heard you can buy a whole street for chump change, ex mining towns, no work, no shops, no people, just emptiness.

 

[DAPPH]

Good refugee & asylum housing if they are quality up dated /modernised then ?

 

[Farside]

Milk floats , how ridiculous!

Four day old milk does.

Use google or a friend to check out what IIRC means .

Instahoney's Indecent Rubber Cosplay

No sunroof, even a Webasto

<shudder> The mention of Webasto sunroof brings me out in spots.

But that’s the equivalent of doing 72 in a 60 or 84 in 70 ….

I quite enjoy doing 84 in a 70 - doesn't attract Plod and gets the journey over quicker.
It's also on the safest road in the country.
I regularly get passed on it, too.

 

[addjunkie]

I worked offshore with a young guy, ex army, he was from 'up north' and he was telling us about the house he had bought, £29k..... this was only ten years ago.
I've heard you can buy a whole street for chump change, ex mining towns, no work, no shops, no people, just emptiness.

Theres areas like that in most cities too. Just most folk dont frequent them.

But eye its grim up north, right must doff my flat cap and walk the whippets!

Its actually so grim now folk come here on holiday!

 

[GRW]

Most (sane) people drive at speeds appropriate to the prevailing environment & conditions, & also within the scope of their ability/skill level.

This last bit is the issue. Awful drivers have a low threshold (but rarely if ever reognise & accept their own poor level). Instead, they assume what is unsafe for them, is unsafe for everyone, and cry "lunatic" at everyone who doesn't womble about like they do, and overtake them and go faster.
(Funny how people will happily accept that there are huge variations in skills & their ability/level in just about every aspect of life.... except driving).

The speed limits are lowered - dumbed-down to limits that suit the incompetent, which then overly restrict the competent (despite ABS and massive improvements in grip, suspension, handling, braking, etc. etc. that vehicles have now making them easier to drive).

The councils & police are now conspiring to exploit the decent drivers driving well and safely (but who are travelling above the dumbed-down limit) for profit (safety is demonstrably not the true reason, it's just a made-up excuse for Highway Robbery).

Expect the pressure to relentlessly mount up against the motorist. The rhetoric will be how dangerous we are, and of course how we are single-handedly destroying the planet. If they can make driving so slow and expensive that it becomes unattractive and non-viable, then they can get drivers to abandon their cars - thus leaving the remaining fuel and the road system as the preserve of the wealthy and privileged.
It'll take a good few years yet, but we are seeing the thin end of the wedge.

 

[fizzy]

G. B. National Grid status

www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk

Wind still dire. Less that 1gw/h and less than 2% of our supply. And yet people still claim it is always windy somewhere. Well this proves it isn't!

Of course we can get the reverse. Wind can provide over 40% of our needs sometimes. Not disputing that. But when we really need it there can be none at all. What do we do then? Like today? And the last week or 2?

 

[daleyd]

G. B. National Grid status

www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk

Wind still dire. Less that 1gw/h and less than 2% of our supply. And yet people still claim it is always windy somewhere. Well this proves it isn't!

Of course we can get the reverse. Wind can provide over 40% of our needs sometimes. Not disputing that. But when we really need it there can be none at all. What do we do then? Like today? And the last week or 2?

Use gas, and then not so much gas when it is windy. It’s quite simple, the alternative you are currently proposing is to use more gas all of the time.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Saw on the news tonight in Sheffield where they've had to turn the gas off, they're asking everyone who's bought electric heating appliances not to turn 'em on. As it'll likely cause power outages in the area.
Looking real good for when everyones charging the electric cars.........

But they told us the grid could handle electric vehicles. are they employing politicians these days.

 

[brightspark]

But they told us the grid could handle electric vehicles.

they did but didnt say how many. the local infrastrucure cant

 

[Melvyn Best]

Most (sane) people drive at speeds appropriate to the prevailing environment & conditions, & also within the scope of their ability/skill level.

This last bit is the issue. Awful drivers have a low threshold (but rarely if ever reognise & accept their own poor level). Instead, they assume what is unsafe for them, is unsafe for everyone, and cry "lunatic" at everyone who doesn't womble about like they do, and overtake them and go faster.
(Funny how people will happily accept that there are huge variations in skills & their ability/level in just about every aspect of life.... except driving).

The speed limits are lowered - dumbed-down to limits that suit the incompetent, which then overly restrict the competent (despite ABS and massive improvements in grip, suspension, handling, braking, etc. etc. that vehicles have now making them easier to drive).

The councils & police are now conspiring to exploit the decent drivers driving well and safely (but who are travelling above the dumbed-down limit) for profit (safety is demonstrably not the true reason, it's just a made-up excuse for Highway Robbery).

Expect the pressure to relentlessly mount up against the motorist. The rhetoric will be how dangerous we are, and of course how we are single-handedly destroying the planet. If they can make driving so slow and expensive that it becomes unattractive and non-viable, then they can get drivers to abandon their cars - thus leaving the remaining fuel and the road system as the preserve of the wealthy and privileged.
It'll take a good few years yet, but we are seeing the thin end of the wedge.

What a load of tripe!
When you have lost a loved one due to some prat thinking the rules don’t apply to them maybe, just maybe you will think differently!

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

What a load of tripe!
When you have lost a loved one due to some prat thinking the rules don’t apply to them maybe, just maybe you will think differently!

I nearly did. The cause. A cyclist who thought the rules didn't apply to them.

The statement you quoted is valid. We've all seen it happening.

 

[bricol]

Most (sane) people drive at speeds appropriate to the prevailing environment & conditions, & also within the scope of their ability/skill level.

This last bit is the issue. Awful drivers have a low threshold (but rarely if ever reognise & accept their own poor level). Instead, they assume what is unsafe for them, is unsafe for everyone, and cry "lunatic" at everyone who doesn't womble about like they do, and overtake them and go faster.
(Funny how people will happily accept that there are huge variations in skills & their ability/level in just about every aspect of life.... except driving).

The speed limits are lowered - dumbed-down to limits that suit the incompetent, which then overly restrict the competent (despite ABS and massive improvements in grip, suspension, handling, braking, etc. etc. that vehicles have now making them easier to drive).

The councils & police are now conspiring to exploit the decent drivers driving well and safely (but who are travelling above the dumbed-down limit) for profit (safety is demonstrably not the true reason, it's just a made-up excuse for Highway Robbery).

Expect the pressure to relentlessly mount up against the motorist. The rhetoric will be how dangerous we are, and of course how we are single-handedly destroying the planet. If they can make driving so slow and expensive that it becomes unattractive and non-viable, then they can get drivers to abandon their cars - thus leaving the remaining fuel and the road system as the preserve of the wealthy and privileged.
It'll take a good few years yet, but we are seeing the thin end of the wedge.

Take a day off.

Come to Bradford in a private car (exempt from the new clean air charge . . . although how that works when the wind blows all the dirty air from outside Bradford in, I don't know ).

Attempt to visit various areas, in the city and the outskirts, while maintaining your own lane discipline, and lets say, within 5mph of the posted speed limits, and I guess, staying on your side of the road, possibly even travelling in the indicated direction down one way streets, occasionally considering slowing down a touch for red traffic lights . .. maybe even join the queue waiting at a red light, rather than drive down the outside, at speed . . .

And then post again . . .

I'm a major car enthusiast - I want more un-marked, more marked, more speed guns hiding behind dustbins, lamposts, post boxes . . .

 

[fizzy]

Use gas, and then not so much gas when it is windy. It’s quite simple, the alternative you are currently proposing is to use more gas all of the time.

Nope.
Wirh wind they have built so many turbines it has become a base load. But a very intermittent one.
We should have large amounts of nuclear and then gas as the intermittent supply.
Or invent a way of storing the vast amounts of power wind can sometimes generate.
More wind turbines is not the answer as even with double the amount we have there are plenty of times where they do next to nothing.

 

[cheb]

G. B. National Grid status

www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk

Wind still dire. Less that 1gw/h and less than 2% of our supply. And yet people still claim it is always windy somewhere. Well this proves it isn't!

Of course we can get the reverse. Wind can provide over 40% of our needs sometimes. Not disputing that. But when we really need it there can be none at all. What do we do then? Like today? And the last week or 2?

My solution is we get you off your hobby horse and onto a bicycle powered generator.

 

[daleyd]

Nope.
Wirh wind they have built so many turbines it has become a base load. But a very intermittent one.
We should have large amounts of nuclear and then gas as the intermittent supply.
Or invent a way of storing the vast amounts of power wind can sometimes generate.
More wind turbines is not the answer as even with double the amount we have there are plenty of times where they do next to nothing.

In some ways I agree with you, we should have “more” nuclear, but we would still be looking a gift horse in the mouth if we didn’t use wind/solar when available. Again, your theory is to use just more gas. That doesn’t seem to be palatable long term, so in the meantime let’s use wind where we can, build more nuclear in the meantime then our gas usage comes down.

Once we have “enough” nuclear - or as much as we can afford given its eye wateringly expensive to build and then decommission after (which isn’t going to happen in the next decade or more, even if we went flat out) the wind becomes the “top up” for the times when it is windy (which is actually quite a lot of the time) and gas /something else is used when it’s not.

Like I said the alternative in the current situation is to just use more gas.

 

[fizzy]

In some ways I agree with you, we should have “more” nuclear, but we would still be looking a gift horse in the mouth if we didn’t use wind/solar when available. Again, your theory is to use just more gas. That doesn’t seem to be palatable long term, so in the meantime let’s use wind where we can, build more nuclear in the meantime then our gas usage comes down.

Once we have “enough” nuclear - or as much as we can afford given its eye wateringly expensive to build and then decommission after (which isn’t going to happen in the next decade or more, even if we went flat out) the wind becomes the “top up” for the times when it is windy (which is actually quite a lot of the time) and gas /something else is used when it’s not.

Like I said the alternative in the current situation is to just use more gas.

But that is exactly what they are doing. Using more gas. 60% today and most days. That is my whole argument. We use too much gas. A fossil fuel.
Better than Germany of course. Their green party are so anti nuclear they are burning vast amounts of lignite which is filthy stuff!
Anyway back to leccy cars.

 

[fizzy]

Unfair to electric cars.

Jaguar SUVs worth at least £260K go up in flames on the side of the M1 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...0-flames-M1.html?ito=native_share_article-top

I don't agree with electric car bashing when they don't deserve it.
Everyone seems to think this fire was caused by electric cars. More likely an overheated brake drum on the lorry.

 

[daleyd]

But that is exactly what they are doing. Using more gas. 60% today and most days. That is my whole argument. We use too much gas. A fossil fuel.
Better than Germany of course. Their green party are so anti nuclear they are burning vast amounts of lignite which is filthy stuff!
Anyway back to leccy cars.

We are today, this very minute, but annually we use much less than previous decades - I mean it’s rather ridiculous to jump up and down and get all red and sweaty when the wind stops blowing. No one does that for the months when it’s windy and we are getting a shed load of electricity from wind.

Again you are suggesting that wind power is the cause of this, in reality the rise of gas started when we decided we had enough of coal. Wind has come along later and displaced the gas, and yes everyone knows it’s intermittent but there you go.

More nuclear would be great but it’s not around the corner, and comes with its own baggage.