Anyone using electric diggers?

GazCro

GazCro

Well-known member
Anyone that thinks electrification is going to be a lasting solution has been smoking pot.

Have had the discussions R.E household storage batteries.... ATM they can be used to earn money if your smart (buy electric when there is negative demand and use it during peak) with some suppliers even paying people to take excess grid power....... But it won't last
Same as all the renewables like ground source, biomass etc. If you were in it early there's good money to be had in rhi payments etc but once they end and the true cost of it becomes reality it'll be a different story. That's without reliability/repairs and initial huge cost to get back.
Electric can't be the solution long term as it wastes energy being produced, then loses energy being sent through network, then loses again to charge a battery and then again being used. That's why fossil fuels have been and still are in use, so efficient albeit at a green cost.
 
V8Druid

V8Druid

do it as well as you can,but learn to do it better
In depth ..🥸 but interesting stuff!👍 All hinges around storage...
DNOs now stating that if your breakers add to more than 60amp...you need to notify them...so two ring mains...7kw car charger ..heat pump..😂 gone need more substations lads
can't keep the bloody leccy on up here .. let alone charge a ****in' car ..... we average at least one trip a week ..... can be 6 or more in a day ... bloody annoying, hence my UPS purchase a while back ..... has buggered our induction range cooker though .. has had to get it's head together so often some days it doesn't know whether it's coming or going .... was talking to a guy surveying tree trimming today, for the latest outfit to get the contract and he said i'm not the first person to make the same comment to him ..... might just take it up with SSE :unsure:
 
Bob

Bob

Well-known member
Long term dont think electic is going to be the answer for heavy plant lorries and buses hydrogen is looking the best bet one company is building plants in UK to use old plastic to make hydrogen and electric
 
M

Monkeybusiness

Well-known member
If you consider the whole supply grid/power walls/electric cars/green energy production etc as a complete system then it does make some theoretical sense, but requires a massive rethink of consumption (which I’m not convinced is possible).
If everyone had an electric car sat on the drive, plugged in to the network when not in use then it would be a massive national battery, charging up when there is a surplus in the grid and feeding back in when demand outstrips generated supply. It theoretically smooths out the peaks and troughs of green energy generation.
I heard talk on the radio of ‘free’ slow charge points pretty much everywhere - the majority of private cars only do very limited mileages so could stay plugged in to the nearest lamppost etc. They would maintain a constant minimum charge but subsequently act as an energy buffer.
It’s clever thinking and does make sense in many scenarios, but humans are greedy and self-serving and I can’t help but think many people would unplug their cars when fully charged...
 
V8Druid

V8Druid

do it as well as you can,but learn to do it better
If you consider the whole supply grid/power walls/electric cars/green energy production etc as a complete system then it does make some theoretical sense, but requires a massive rethink of consumption (which I’m not convinced is possible).
If everyone had an electric car sat on the drive, plugged in to the network when not in use then it would be a massive national battery, charging up when there is a surplus in the grid and feeding back in when demand outstrips generated supply. It theoretically smooths out the peaks and troughs of green energy generation.
I heard talk on the radio of ‘free’ slow charge points pretty much everywhere - the majority of private cars only do very limited mileages so could stay plugged in to the nearest lamppost etc. They would maintain a constant minimum charge but subsequently act as an energy buffer.
It’s clever thinking and does make sense in many scenarios, but humans are greedy and self-serving and I can’t help but think many people would unplug their cars when fully charged...
there are already insurance claims for ppl who have tripped over extension leads crossing pavements to vehicles ... how would you charge your vehicle if you couldn't park it within 200 ft of the your own house ... ditto if you live on a side of a street with no parking outside your property .... the list is endless. I can see where you're coming from MB .... but HTF is all this enormous extra demand going to be supplied ?? the grid can't cope with the demand everyone's kettle puts on it when the ad.s come on the box in a popular program :( ....... the cart is well and truly in front of the horse ATM ....... the systems just aren't in place to cope
aaaaaaaaaand WTF is everyone going to do with their hybrids in a few years time? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand there're going to be a lot of folks crying in their beer when batteries need replacing in any of 'em - hybrid or otherwise to say nothing of the fiscal and environmental costs of producing said batteries, both initially and down the line when they'm fooked
 
S

Smiffy

Well-known member
there are already insurance claims for ppl who have tripped over extension leads crossing pavements to vehicles ... how would you charge your vehicle if you couldn't park it within 200 ft of the your own house ... ditto if you live on a side of a street with no parking outside your property .... the list is endless. I can see where you're coming from MB .... but HTF is all this enormous extra demand going to be supplied ?? the grid can't cope with the demand everyone's kettle puts on it when the ad.s come on the box in a popular program :( ....... the cart is well and truly in front of the horse ATM ....... the systems just aren't in place to cope
aaaaaaaaaand WTF is everyone going to do with their hybrids in a few years time? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand there're going to be a lot of folks crying in their beer when batteries need replacing in any of 'em - hybrid or otherwise to say nothing of the fiscal and environmental costs of producing said batteries, both initially and down the line when they'm fooked

At the end of the day for all this to work people are going to have to sacrifice there cars and there travel and public transport will have to improve.
It also amazes me that in the last year we have proven that a vast percentage of travel is avoidable and that most people can work from home but lock down ends and boom, roads are chaotic again and everyones back in the office
 
J

Jimoz

Well-known member
At the end of the day for all this to work people are going to have to sacrifice there cars and there travel and public transport will have to improve.
It also amazes me that in the last year we have proven that a vast percentage of travel is avoidable and that most people can work from home but lock down ends and boom, roads are chaotic again and everyones back in the office
Travel reduced because we had a massive intervention which has disrupted normality. A few jobs like my missus can be done from home but still would need 2 or 3 days a week in office. What was happening last year is not sustainable.
 
S

Smiffy

Well-known member
Travel reduced because we had a massive intervention which has disrupted normality. A few jobs like my missus can be done from home but still would need 2 or 3 days a week in office. What was happening last year is not sustainable.

Yes but there is a middle ground could atleast be reached plus I do not buy for a second that foreign holidays in the sun are essential
 
J

Jimoz

Well-known member
Restricting people's movements is despicable. Freedom of movement should be a human right. How long did any of the millionaire footballers or powerful politicians at G7 have to isolate for?! My mother lives in Australia and we normally see each other once a year. We are missing big life events. Not sure of the relevance to electric diggers lol...
 
Flying Torquewrench

Flying Torquewrench

Active member
@Smiffy the problem is that a lot of people in the UK have family abroad. So it is not all about foreign holidays in the sun.
Also modern aircraft engine technology is getting greener. Last weekend I flew 178 passengers from Lisbon back to the UK (2.5 hour flight) and we used 22kg (26.4 litres) of fuel per passenger. Which is not a lot of fuel considering the distance.
They are working on bio fuels and electric engines. Same as with diggers etc. technology on aircraft also will move forward. Maybe the aircraft of the future is hydrogen powered, who knows?
 
S

Smiffy

Well-known member
Restricting people's movements is despicable. Freedom of movement should be a human right. How long did any of the millionaire footballers or powerful politicians at G7 have to isolate for?! My mother lives in Australia and we normally see each other once a year. We are missing big life events. Not sure of the relevance to electric diggers lol...

I'm not saying anything about restricting movement it's entirely about how people get there thats the problem.
And at the end of the day we massive problem. There are two many people on this planet and they want to live unsustainable lifestyles and something has to give eventually.
At the end of the day I don't really care about people traveling I just think it's ridiculous that foreign travel and long distance commuting is acceptable when they are forcing other things to change.
And air travel is worse in the respect that it releases carbon high into the atmosphere which causes more damage.
So until we have electric airplanes is it really such a problem to find different ways to holiday especially when we have a train that connects us to mainland Europe.
 
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