flotsam
-
Posts
586 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Store
Gallery
Tutorials
Lexus Owners Club
Gold Membership Discounts
Lexus Owners Club Video
News & Articles
Posts posted by flotsam
-
-
Electric Cars are the VHS to hydrogen cars Betamax. Servicing of hydrogen cars consists of, apparently, only changing some filters, whereas one owner of a Tesla blew it up when he got a $30,000 bill to replace the Battery.
-
1
-
2
-
-
21 hours ago, Boxbrownie said:
Is that in one payment or spread evenly over six months?
I haven't received it yet. But I guess it's spread.
-
1
-
-
Actually, I just received a message from Utilita saying it will be paid into my electricity account. Daft!
-
Has anyone read how the £400 rebate will be paid. They only say that £66 will be paid in October.
But what if you have both gas and electricity?
Will it be £33 added to your smart meter on both electricity and gas or £66 just on one?
-
The other shoe drops!
With the increasing cost of electricity, the case for Battery power looks less attractive. That is, unless you have your own solar panels and wind turbines.
David Cameron, however, removed the subsidy for households to buy their own renewable energy. So they want you to spend your own money.
And don't expect the utility companies to buy your spare energy at a fair price. Apparently, Octopus offer the best rates but you'll probably only get about £100 a year for your excess energy.
Here's my latest gobsmacking utility prices. The first 2kW is charged at a higher rate, which is why there are two prices:
Gas
======
Apr21
21.198 +1.83%
2.957 +3.21%
Oct21
21.414 +1.02%
3.984 +34.73%
Apr22
25.821 +20.58% +21.81% yoy
7.323 +83.81% +247.65% yoy
Oct22
29.298 +13.47% +36.82% yoy
10.614 +44.94% +166.42% yoyElectricity
=======
Apr21
31.836 +5.21%
17.811 +8.14%
Oct21
34.04 +6.92%
19.8 +11.17%
Apr22
51.26 +50.59% +61.01% yoy
27.78 +40.30% +55.97% yoy
Oct22
56.622 +10.46% +66.34% yoy
32.521 +17.07% +64.25% yoyThis is why the French have been donning their gilet jaunes!
Petrol prices are still falling.
-
On 8/28/2022 at 11:43 AM, First_Lexus said:
What really irritates me, is that when the energy ‘price cap’ was first announced the idea was for it to balance protection for consumers with protection for energy companies.
As far as I can see it isn’t balancing anything any more - the only consideration is protecting energy companies. Given the number that went out of business over the last 12-18 months, I do (sort of) understand that…but then again, it’s less of a ‘cap’ now and feels like more of a ‘target.’
The price cap was to stop energy suppliers from subsidising cheap tariffs with more expensive ones. That's why the type 1 smart meters go dead if you switch supplier. They've just pulled the same trick with insurance, banning companies from offering better deals to new customers.
There's no cap for commercial businesses. Apparently, some firms are being refused a renewal of their contracts. Small businesses are being taken to the wood-shed. It's total carnage.
-
On 8/28/2022 at 11:08 AM, Malc said:
Can anybody please explain to me in simplistic terms WHY we shouldn't be using inexpensive non-renewable fuels, like oil and gas ??
As I said a while ago, UK is exploring extracting it's immense and captive oil ( and gas? ) reserves off the Falklands ............. and Brazil has just about as much undersea fossil fuels too that have ever ever been extracted or ever likely to be extracted commercially EVER anywhere in the world ...... making Brazil one-cut above the UK in Global Wealth terms . no.5 or 6 is it ?
Just what is the problem using non-renewable fossil fuels ?
Does anyone have the answer ? Keep it simple please
Thank you
Malc
The only thing I can think of is that we need to export them. A lot of oil exporting nations have nuclear power stations for the same reason..
-
The entire weekend has been eerily quiet!!!!!!!!
Presumably, everyone on my street no longer has any energy to do anything on the weekend because they've been living off bread sandwiches.
Time for the yellow vests and wood stoves!!!
-
The one advantage of batteries over hydrogen is that you can get free energy from the Sun or wind turbines. I'm guessing that hydrogen is the new red diesel; for commercial vehicles only.
Except, you can buy your own hydrogen generator for under £8,000!!!
Don't know how efficient it is. I've read that it takes a LOT of energy to generate hydrogen, though I also know you can drop a Battery into some water and produce hydrogen bubbles.
-
22 hours ago, Bluemarlin said:
Not sure about Shell, but Esso E5 is zero ethanol.
I read that about Texaco. But when I got to the pump, it had an E5 label.
-
Heathrow is limiting departures to 100,000 people a day, whilst BA has cancelled all Heathrow flights. SCARY!
Now you know why they've been pushing taxi services and claiming that the Millennial generation aren't interested in owning their own car.
In Italy they're offering over 100% grants for insulation, whilst Spain is offering free train tickets.
They should do the same here, at least with buses, which drive around all day, mostly empty.
I see little future for Battery powered cars as after about a decade, you'll have a brick with a huge bill to replace the Battery and no 2nd hand market. At best I might consider a Battery with a 600m range and they're promising a million-mile Battery. Presumably, this is also why they're making the daft claim that second hand cars are fetching higher prices than brand-new. It's another cash for clunkers scheme.
A green-hydrogen plant is being built at Felixstowe. But it's only for trains, trucks and ships. So it looks like hydrogen will be the new red-diesel. Perhaps they'll allow car drivers to buy if they have a surplus.
-
1
-
1
-
-
On 8/3/2022 at 11:15 AM, Malc said:
China holds more US$ than even the USA outside of ..... the USA, let alone other holders of the greenbacks ..
the other " western " currencies are just " nice to know "
nah.......... the banks won't be able to rip-off holidaymakers and the like with excessive exchange rate profits .... c'mon, it's a huge source of income for someone
Malc
I'm not sure China holds that much. As for the U.S. why would she want to hold dollars, when she can print as many as she wants?
-
5 minutes ago, Malc said:
an old adage for stock market investing too .............. no one gets that right apart from maybe Warren Buffet ..... read his sitting on a cash pile of US$106 bn right now ..... longevity has its rewards ..... he's 96 maybe and was made, by his daughter, to change his car a coule of years back. so he bought himself another olden ... a canny saver too
Malc
Buffett has just lost about $50bn. I beat him hands down year after year, 'cos I'm not that much of a sucker.
-
Prices are falling, meaning everyone's buying less petrol.
I'll wait till they start to rise, in other words, when prices have bottomed, before filling up to the brim.
-
On 7/29/2022 at 7:44 AM, LenT said:
I suppose it’s no surprise that statements like these make no mention of the fact that only a year or so ago, the oil industry was announcing record LOSSES.
Simplistic statements don’t really further an understanding of the complexity of oil and gas production and the investments that these same companies are making into the development of alternative energy sources. Nor do they acknowledge the part played in global disruptions that raise prices in ways beyond the control of the energy producers.
But in the hunt for scapegoats no stone is left unthrown!
For the sake of some balance, I thought these articles presented a more nuanced approach. They are US-based but the USA does represent one fifth of the total World’s energy consumption so the data has a global relevance.
https://www.convenience.org/Media/conveniencecorner/How-Much-Oil-Companies-Make-on-High-Gas-Prices
I doubt they’ll even be read by the committed conspiracist, but then why spoil a good prejudice?
According to Bloomberg, Exxon "lost money for the first time in its history during the pandemic".
-
They call it the "Nudge Unit". If they only nudge you, then you can't blame them for the high heating bills.
You're supposed to figure out that it's cheaper to install solar panels (about £5,000 for a 5kW installation) than to spend £30,000 on a noisy and useless heat pump.
Only David Cameron removed the subsidy for solar installations.
This is also the only benefit of owning a Battery EV over a hydrogen car, until the Battery will no longer take charge and you're left with a bill of tens of thousands for a new one or a "brick".
-
1
-
-
5 hours ago, Boxbrownie said:
I don’t see that being correct tbh, after all a heat pump is just a big fridge running in reverse (to put it simply) and I really don’t believe that even running a six or seven American fridge freezers (worst case maybe?) for a year is going to cost anywhere near £30K.
Heat pumps work well when they are the correct size for the building, the plumbing for the heating is designed from scratch, and most importantly the building needs to be of a very high thermal insulation, all these together and a heat pump is great, unfortunately there are too many cowboy (and big builders) who are installing them with little knowledge of what is really required.
And converting an existing boilered heating system to a HP is fraught with problems, and very unlikely to work as it should.
If I were building again from scratch I would install a HP, but it ain’t cheap although reasonably cost effective on a new build.
As I posted, I don't trust the Telegraph. But some of us wot have more money than sense own multi-million £ mansions doncha know, so a £30,000 energy bill could be possible.
Many who install heat pumps have also installed solar panels as they knew beforehand that it would consume a lot of leccy. And isn't THAT what the government wants?
-
1
-
-
On 7/29/2022 at 7:44 AM, LenT said:
I suppose it’s no surprise that statements like these make no mention of the fact that only a year or so ago, the oil industry was announcing record LOSSES.
Simplistic statements don’t really further an understanding of the complexity of oil and gas production and the investments that these same companies are making into the development of alternative energy sources. Nor do they acknowledge the part played in global disruptions that raise prices in ways beyond the control of the energy producers.
But in the hunt for scapegoats no stone is left unthrown!
For the sake of some balance, I thought these articles presented a more nuanced approach. They are US-based but the USA does represent one fifth of the total World’s energy consumption so the data has a global relevance.
https://www.convenience.org/Media/conveniencecorner/How-Much-Oil-Companies-Make-on-High-Gas-Prices
I doubt they’ll even be read by the committed conspiracist, but then why spoil a good prejudice?
Nope, he's right.
Crude oil peaked at $147 a barrel in July, 2008. Back then petrol was about £1.08 a litre.
With the exhange rate of the £ falling from just over $2 to $1.2 today and the 5p fuel duty cut, prices should be roughly the same today.
-
15 hours ago, Bluemarlin said:
I saw that. Apparently there's a block on new development proposals in parts of West London, potentially until 2035. That will be interesting as there's lot of development happening in that area, and demand increasing, due to the new Crossrail services.
I share your scepticism about heat pumps too but, whilst maybe not a typo, I'm not sure it's an entirely accurate claim. The Telepgraph article I saw stated that one homeowner was quoted £30,000 to install a new heat pump and radiators to his house.
Still very expensive, but not the same as a £30k electricity bill.
Nope, the Telegraph article, "Why heat pumps sum up all that is wrong with 'net zero'" claims: "In May, homeowners who had installed heat pumps reported seeing energy bills jump to as much as £30,000 after it emerged most radiators are too small to work with them." Not that I trust anything the Telegraph prints.
Although the government DOES want to keep we "useless eaters" poor, I'm guessing the real reason they promote heat pumps whilst providing only a teeny, tiny amount to subsidise their installation is purely because they want to appease the green lobby. These useless ^*%$s couldn't give a *%$& if you waste time, money and effort installing one. It's as Dominic Cummings said, they're useless morons with Oxbridge Humanities degrees.
-
1
-
-
There's NO WAY the grid could take it if everyone bought an EV. GLA have just banned new properties because they say the grid can't currently take it. The Telegraph has just reported that people who installed heat pumps have seen electricity bills as high as £30,000! NOT A TYPO.
It looks as though we're being given a bum steer. Battery powered cars and heat pumps will be the betamax.
-
1
-
-
14 hours ago, J Henderson said:
I can see the overhead lines being feasible on motorways, but not everywhere else.
Even then, significant changes would have to be made. Most bridges only have a few inches of clearance for a double-deck trailer to pass under, as is.
What next a horse trough?
-
2
-
-
On 7/25/2022 at 1:23 PM, Bluemarlin said:
The Ford Focus story was from the US. Such incidents aside, I woud imagine the used EV market will be very busy. A lot will depend on both third party repairers, and the manufacturers, but currently people seem to have little fears over buying 10yr+ Toyota/Lexus hybrids, despite the potential for expensive battery or inverter failures.
As for electric trucks, Amazon are running 37 ton DAF electric HGV's in the UK.
LOL! It's range is a crappy 137 miles and that's subject to "conditions". It takes 75mins to charge at 250kW and is only 37 tonnes.
At least they won't need to have a tachograph in the cab as the drivers can't drive for more than an hour at a time.
-
There's no second hand market for EV cars. One family recently bought a Ford Focus EV, only to get a warning light and then they discovered Ford no longer supply a replacement Battery. This is why Musk was talking about a million mile Battery, which would last as long as the car.
Even if you could get a Battery small enough and light enough for heavy trucks, there's no way you could get huge amounts of electricity into the Battery without it exploding. That's why they've just announced a hydrogen refuelling station on the M6 will be built.
-
2
-
1
-
-
My thermometer said the peak temperature up until Sunday was 24.1°C. On Monday it peaked at only 24.6°C. Right now at 15:30 on Tuesday, it's peaking at only 26°C.
I'm pretty sure that 2018 was hotter. Yet we've had the first ever hot weather warning from the Met. office!
What gives?
High Energy Costs
in Lexus General Discussions
Posted
I'm guessing the high costs are, partly at least, to encourage the masses to spend their own money on solar panels and wind-turbines.
Anyway, the propaganda has been pushing induction hobs, so I did some reading. Apparently, my ceramic hob would take 0.203kWhs to boil a pan of water, whilst an induction hob would only take 0.117kWhs. I was more sceptical about induction kettles being more efficient than an electric kettle with a claim that the electric element is 80% efficient and the induction kettle (sitting on an induction hob) is 85~90% efficient. But now I might believe it.
I bought an induction hob off eBay for £26 and after switching on, put my hand above the pan. My reaction was the same as Leonardo diCaprio's in The Quick and the Dead after he got shot. LIKE INSTANTANEOUS! How is that even possible? My ceramic hob with the large ring having the same power about 2.2kW takes about half a minute.