Solid Fuel Stove Review

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My New Stove
Blacksmith "Anvil" Review
part 1
ADDENDUM December 2015
(5years on and the stove is still in perfect order - I am well pleased with it)

I have been preaching the gospel of stoves, along with fireplace doors, for some time as a means of increasing the nations energy efficiency. My perspective has widened a little because I have installed both a fireplace door and a new stove. Today I am making a first assessment of the new stoves performance.

My name sake, SEAI (Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland), in their great wisdom, have seen fit not to back simple methods of energy efficiency like stoves with any sort of grant aid. You know - that may be a good thing - coz they would probably just have attracted the cowboys to the scene and hyped the price of stoves.

Anyway what I am writing about is my own new stove. I replaced an old solid-fuel range in my kitchen about two months ago with a lovely little stove.


A Review of my New Stove

My stove is from Irish supplier Blacksmith Stoves (look it up) and is the "Anvil" non boiler model. It is rated at 6 Kw output or 21,000 BTU, and as having an efficiency of up to 80%.

It is cast in solid cast iron and thoughtfully designed by people who would seem to know stoves and combustion. I have seen several pretty looking stoves with badly designed technical features. To date I am well pleased with the design of this stove.

The single door closes and seals very well, with a well designed simple lock and insulated handle. The grates are good and heavy, and the ash box is very easy to lift out for emptying with the supplied handle.

I can vouch for the stoves heat output -  it is easily capable of putting out the rated 6Kw when fired up with smokeless coal. The problem, for us, is keeping the output down and steady, as the room can become like a sauna all too quickly. With some practice it is possible to get an even 2 or 3 Kw output.

Fuel

The stove happily burns just about anything you put into it. We have burned peat, different woods and smokeless coal, all giving good results. The smokeless coal puts out much more heat than the other fuels, if you want to push the stoves output than this is the fuel to go for.

It has a very precise air control, once you learn how to adjust it properly - takes a little practice. The ashes are easily removed and cleaning is a breeze.

I have found smokeless formed type coals are by far the best fuel to use. With this type of coal, it is possible for the stove to burn over night for up to 10 hours, and to give a reasonable heat output all through the night. All this on a couple of shovels of smokeless fuel. In the morning, open up the air vent and add some fuel and away she goes. In fact, the stove has not gone out in two whole months!!!

Cost

We paid €400 euro for this great little stove and consider it very good value for the money. I would recommend it, in the right settings, as efficient, multi-fuel tolerant, good value, easy to adjust and to clean, and easy to get 8 hours continuous burn overnight. I have seen other similar stoves in use but I much prefer this one.

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2 Giga Watt MagLev Wind Turbines

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More than 3 Years on,

No MagLev Turbines!

Just over three years ago I posted articles on some proposed giant 2 Giga Watt+ maglev wind turbines. 

The idea was very appealing to me - but even without the technical knowledge to assess the viability of the proposals, I had a strong feeling that these images would not soon be translated into reality. In other words, I would not be investing any money in the projects even if I had money to invest!

To the present time, and to the best of my knowledge, the notion had still not made it off paper, and "as time goes by" I wonder if it ever will.

Writing this blog has taught me that if 10% of inventions, widely reported and touted at their inception, ever make it to the real world, it would be great odds indeed.

The development of photocells, wind generators, water generators, and batteries, so far, have not substantially changed in three years.

The odd and wacky - over-unity type devices, while still touting for investors in the media, have not materialised either.

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Flashing Phenomenon of CFL Bulbs

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Flashing Phenomenon 

of CFL Bulbs

I am writing this post because I have not seen too many articles or posts about an unusual feature of the latest types of quick start CFL bulbs where the bulbs flash when switched off.

What I have seen in two of my fittings are the bulbs give a small and short duration flash of light about once every 30 seconds or so - this even though the main light switch is switched off!!

The type of CFL bulb in question is the newer generation rapid start, i.e. reach full brightness quickly,  the variety is usually of a spiral shape. The flashing is not generally noticeable by day, as the light output of the flash is quite small.

The first time this phenomenon was reported to me was when I received a late night phone call from my wife who was in the UK at the time and staying at a hotel. She called to ask if there might be some danger as the main light in the hotel room was flickering at regular intervals in the dark. As I was not sure of what might have been happening, I suggested she contact the staff and request a different room, if for no other reason than that the flickering would disturb her sleep. At that time I did not know about flickering CFLs, and the dangers of faulty wiring was on my mind.

The next time I came across the problem what when we had some house guests who awoke us worried about the light in their room flickering. I had just fitted a new rapid-start spiral CFL in the main fitting. I immediately removed the bulb and re-fitted the old 100watt filament bulb curing the problem.

Since then, I noticed the problem in a hall light with a similar type of CFL fitted. This time the flickering was causing no disturbance and I knew that it posed no danger - that light still flickers away all night.

The Cause?

I think that the cause of the flashing is induction in the wiring causing a tiny leakage of current into the bulb. When that leaked current builds up in the bulbs starter circuit, it tries to ignite the bulb, but there only being a very small current present, all you get is a weak little flash. The charge and discharge cycle happens all the time and the interval depends on the capacitors in the bulb circuit. Apologies if that does not sound very scientific - it is only an educated guess.

I have learned that you would need to consider this CFL flashing business in your choice of bulbs and in your choice of locations. A bedroom is about the last place you want one of these bulbs. The older slow start CFLs - the ones that take a while to brighten up - I have found - not to flash.

So my advice - choose your CFL bulb carefully and choose the place you install it with this flashing thing in mind!

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Down like a LED Balloon

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An  Update on my domestic LEDs

I have, in recent months, been trying out some of the latest low-priced offering in LED replacement bulbs from China etc. Typical of this type of bulb is the GU10 bulb shown above. It is a 4 by 1 watt LED elements mounted very neatly in an aluminium heatsink, and incorporating a power converter circuit in the stem.

 

Above, laid out, are the "guts" of the GU10 LED, from the left is the stem or base into which is stuffed the power regulator circuit. The red and black leads are the low voltage to the LED elements mounted in the aluminium heatsink.

I have found that the light output and the colour of the light from this type of bulb has improved a good deal over earlier examples. For a 4 watt power consumption, I estimate the light output to be roughly that of a 20 -25 watt halogen lamp.

The Problems?

The lamp you see above is the first dud of 12 GU10 and MR16 LED lamps I recently purchased. It worked just fine for about 3 months and then one day it just was there - belly up.

What was immediately obvious on examination was that the LED elements had become detached from the aluminium heatsink. Whatever compound or glue that was used to secure the LED units onto the metal plate had failed. The immediate result would have been overheating and failure of the delicate LED units.

I am hoping that this is not a trend with this generation of LED bulbs and perhaps this is a one-off failure. As I already stated, the level of light output, and the colour of the light both were very satisfactory.

Chinese with CAUTION

But again, I must strike a note of CAUTION on buying Chinese LED bulbs. China had not as yet got a proper standards system in operation, so products can range from excellent to complete rubbish and even dangerous, and there is no universal official testing and marking system to warn the buyer. Neither does there appear to be any system to follow-up and punish any bad and dangerous products. 

Hopefully when China gets a standards system they will not see fit to punish offenders with an 11 year jail sentence!! I wonder does the Chinese authoritarian government realise just how foolish they look to 90% of the world?

So no Nobel prize to China, or "Confucius award"  (more like a "Confuse-us Award") for its control of manufacturing standards and safety - it is simply a case of "buyer beware"

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Ireland's Financial Problems - a comment

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A Comment 

on

Ireland's Financial Problems

Some comments - I publish as comments - some are above the bar and deserve a better hearing. So it is with this comment from "Mo". Why do I think this? Well I guess because I believe very much as he does, that the age of wastefulness and endless expansion is at an end.



Mo has left a new comment on your post "Ireland's Financial Problems":

I sense that we're all on that same train. The only difference is that Ireland is a few cars ahead of many others.

The prosperity we have enjoyed will probably be viewed as an anomaly in human history. Our lifestyle and economy's dependence on cheap energy and perpetual growth will likely find the precipice (assuming we haven't already) and the landing looks like it'll be a hard one.

I doubt it will be long before sustainable lifestyles will no longer be a choice - it will be a matter of survival.

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Apologies for Off-Subject Posts

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Apologies to Regular Readers

I owe an apology to my regular readers for so many off-subject posts recently.  I have just felt so frustrated, depressed, and immensely angry about the gross mis-management of our beautiful Ireland, that I have had to use my blog as a safety valve and let off some steam.

Those that have cost the Irish people so much, are the ones who, through their own designs, are most insulated from the fall-out of their actions.

So many Irish people are in a position where they cannot pay their electricity bills and have to suffer the darkness and cold, as well as the humiliation. That they should also have to suffer seeing government ministers retire on a salary of €315,000 a year is sickening and a disgrace to the Irish spirit.

This is not our finest hour.

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Ministerial Stampede Irish Politics

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 Stampede of Irish Gov. Ministers for Retirement

a painting by Shame-us O'Con-man

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Shocking Fuel Poverty in Ireland

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Shocking Levels 

of Fuel Poverty 

in Ireland

In the Island of Saints and Scholars, (used to be what Ireland was called - but nowadays it sounds hollow and very inappropriate), 2,500 homes a month are disconnected from their gas and electricity.

This is, quite frankly, a shocking level and represents a very large human tragedy being played out.
If that disconnection figure were to repeat itself over the full year, the yearly figure would represent 2% of all dwellings in the country.

Small Mercies


Various appeals have been made to the energy companies and as a result, ESB, Bord Gáis and Airtricity have announced that they are suspending disconnections during the bad weather and also during the Christmas holiday period.

St Vincent de Paul,  the main charity helping the ordinary population, reported having distributed as much as €5.800,000 to allay energy poverty.

I find these figures far more shocking than the IMF and EU bail out news. All the more sickening when one hears that a retiring government minister is to get €315,000 a year.

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Irish Politics

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The State of Irish Politics  - -  a painting by Shame.us O'Con.man

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Valuable Chemicals from Biomass

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The Test Rig. Photo courtesy of Phil Badger

University of Massachusetts Amherst
Low-Cost Biomass Alternative to Petroleum for Industrial Chemicals

I had a note from Janet Lathrop at UMass Amherst, giving permission to reproduce - thank you Janet. So here is the promised follow up, albeit brief and simplified, on the story of Petroleum Chemicals from Biomass.

The above picture, courtesy of Phil Badger, shows a development test plant, and it is tidy enough to mount on a truck it would appear.

The main man in focus has to be Associate Professor George Huber, head of the chemical engineering team at UMass Amherst. The other guys mentioned in the release are Tushar Vispute, Aimaro Sanno and Huiyan Zhang.

Prof. Huber said that it is now possible to produce high-volume chemicals including benzene, toluene, xylenes and olefins from bio-oils, the cheapest liquid fuels available today derived from biomass. The new process could reduce or eliminate industry’s reliance on fossil fuels to make industrial chemicals worth an estimated $400 billion annually.

It will now be possible to make these valuable and necessary chemicals, used for making everything from solvents and detergents to plastics and fibers, from  cheap oils derived from waste wood, agricultural waste and non-food energy crops.

The team’s efforts have outlined a simple system for converting low-value pyrolysis oils into products with a higher value than transportation fuels. The next phase is for up-sizing and further refining the processes they have outlined for us. This will be done on contract by several interested chemical industries.

I won’t go into reporting the chemistry outlined in the press release. Simply because I don’t understand it myself. I just have to take these guys at their word. This effort looks very promising indeed.

Good luck guys!


Thanks to UMass Amherst Chemical engineering team and Janet Lathrop for permission to reproduce materials.

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Celtic Tiger 2010

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The New Celtic Tiger 

in Picture

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High-Grade Petroleum Chemicals from Biomass

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Another Development that will Reduce

the Reliance on Petroleum

A team of chemical engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a highly efficient, and relatively uncomplicated, process to manufacture a wide range of chemicals, normally extracted from oil, from waste timber and other biomass.

The plant will fit on the back of a truck and offers the prospect of high yields of quality petroleum based chemicals from low-grade materials.

This is a highly significant development, as it will help to reduce the reliance on dwindling world oil stocks.

I will need to check with the publishers before reproducing further materials. Check back for a fuller report.

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Is Ireland screwed?

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No Comment

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Ireland's Financial Problems

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Warning: This is a RANT

Will the EU & IMF Conditions

Spell the End of the Irish Gravy Train?

It is my personal hope that the massive money crisis Ireland now finds itself in, will put an end to the Band Wagon and Gravy Train mentality which has largely caused the crisis, and so completely swamped the Irish psyche. The Celtic Tiger bred a meaner society, and widely promoted an "I'm all right Jack" attitude.

The Parliament (Dail) and the Public Sector particularly have been severely corrupted in this way. Our TDs (members of Parliament) have several times voted themselves substantial salary increases and dozens of perks.  Prime Minister of this tiny country of four million gets almost as much as President Obama. Retired Government ministers get massive pensions - yes plural - some have three, four or more pensions!!!


One independent member of the Dail clocked up €75,000 in expenses in one year. That figure represents three years earning for many people.

If I was an IMF official the first savings I would insist upon would be:
 
(a) Reducing the number of TDs (members of Parliament) by half.
(b) Reducing the salary of the remaining TDs by 50%
(c) Capping expenses of TDs at a maximum of €10,000 of receipts p.a.


In fact if the Dail was to show any sort of moral stamina and leadership, they should voluntarily take a 50% salary cut and cap their expenses. But there lies the core of the problem; MORALS and ETHICS.

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Are LED Bulbs Worth the Price Part 1

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Are LED Bulbs

Worth the Money

Regular readers will know that I had temporarily given up on LED bulbs as a viable domestic alternative. I had two reasons for this; (1) The very high cost of good quality LED bulbs running at around $35 each.  (2) The very poor quality of most of the cheaper alternatives.

Types of Light Emitting Diodes

LED bulbs use tiny individual elements or diodes to produce an intense light. The first LED made in 1962 was red coloured. In the early types of LEDs the diode elements were totally encased in plastic and were a small fraction of a millimeter in size.

It took a fair time for so called white light LEDs to be developed. The light produced is in fact very blue. To obtain white light of a nice natural colour involved introducing a yellow dye into the diode to filter the bluish colour and make it warmer in nature.




Types of LED domestic bulbs

Some domestic replacement LED bulbs use dozens of the tiny plastic diodes in order to produce sufficient levels of light.

Other types, based on more modern technology use larger high powered elements of up to several millimeters in size, sometimes mounted in multiples on the one die.

LED diodes of all types get VERY hot and need to be efficiently cooled or they will simply burn out or become otherwise damaged by the heat. Many will overheat and will turn blue to purple in colour and the light output will be greatly reduced by heat damage.

Good LED bulbs will have large aluminium finned coolers or "heat sinks" in order to carry away the excess heat. The crappy ones will not have metal fins to disperse the heat. These types of LED bulb will generally lose their light output, becoming dimmer and dimmer, and the light colour will turn bluish or purple in just a few months of working.

Any LED bulb that does not have sufficient cooling built in will not last "kissing time"  - I know, I have several duds in a drawer to prove it!!

More soon.

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Electric Cars and LED Lighting

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A Couple of

Bits & Pieces

Electric Cars

GlennC - has left a new comment on your post "Nissan turn a new Leaf":
http://wood-pellet-ireland.blogspot.com/2010/06/nissan-turn-new-leaf.html

I have to agree with John. The EVs currently available are not there to replace a car that is used for regular long journeys. There are plenty of people in this country with 2 cars, generally one small and one big. The small one is normally used for commuting to work or going shopping - this is where the market is. It is not suppose to be a blanket replacement. For longer journeys there are hybrids that will go as long as any car. If you need a car to go up and down to Kerry from Dublin all the time then yes, the current EV cars are useless to you.

Hi Glenn - I guess the point I was trying to make in the post is that EVs need to be aiming at being a 100% replacement for current road transport. With the emergence, soon hopefully, of the new generation of nano-technology super-batteries, that goal can be quickly realised. But for now, EVs just do not make sense to many people.


LED Lighting

Yea- yea - I did say I have a post in the pipeline on the next generation of GU10 and MR16 LED bulbs. I apologise, I just have not got around to the testing and photographing of the samples I have in hand. 

I have bought a dozen of these LEDs from four different sources. The price is very good at a ballpark price of around $5 to $7 a pop plus shipping. As I already stated, my initial reaction is one of surprise at how well they perform in terms of light output and colour temperature match.

As there is actual physical work and a fair bit of time involved in the testing and photographing, and as I am currently in a place where time is not too plentiful, it may take me a couple of weeks to get around to the testing and review bit. So please bear with me on this one.

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Solar Energy goes BIG

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Solar Energy Plants

go B I G

US Desert Solar Boom

The U.S. government has approved plans for what is perhaps the world's largest solar power plant in Blythe in Southern California.  At the centre of the proposal is a German company called Solar Millennium AG.

The generating capacity of the proposed plant is hefty 1000 megawatts - that is really big for a solar project and is the kind of power one would associate with a large coal burning plant.

Small Solar Concentrating Plant at Sanlúcar la Mayor near Seville

The plant will use a system of mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays to super heat a fluid that in turn will create steam to drive the turbines. There are a total of nine solar plants in the pipeline in the US. It is not clear from the reports if the proposed engineering includes some degree of heat storage, (of the superheated fluid),  which would be most useful in a solar facility.

South Africa goes Mega size Solar

Meanwhile, South Africa is winding up their spin doctoring machines in the hope of getting the investments for a truly massive 5,000 MegsWatt solar facility at Upington in the Kalahari. If this gets off the ground the plant would account for over 12% of the energy need of the country.

Keep an eye on China and the Far East. These guys will be pushing the solar boundaries in the coming years.

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Are Philips CFL bulbs short lived?

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tom has left a new comment on your post "Philips CFL Bulbs only 1 Euro":

Why are the manufacturers and promoters of cfl bulbs claiming long life on these bulbs? Six years ago I started using these bulbs , I have had to replace many of them in that time , I now put the date of installation on each bulb.

Today I replaced 2 Philips genie 8w screw cap bulbs that I fitted on 11/4/09, 1 blew 2 weeks ago & the other blew yesterday.

reply to comment:

Tom, I have some 22 CFL bulbs currently running in my house. Like you I started to put the date on the base of the bulb with a pencil, so I have a fairly good idea about the lifespan.  All CFL bulbs have their lifetime quoted as an "average" number of HOURS. Frequent switching on and off will affect the lifespan, as will any form of dimmer.

Regarding Philips CFL bulbs specifically, about 4 years ago I experienced a high rate of failure in some Philips bulbs at that time. I contacted Philips and they were very good about it and sent me a bunch of free bulbs.

Now, only occasionally does one blow. My porch light is the most frequent one to blow. This light is switched on during the winter time from maybe 4pm till 9am the following morning. That adds up to 17 hours a day. That bulb lasts about 2 years on average. I am not dissatisfied with this lifespan, which averages out at about 9,000 hours. I would have replaced at least 4 filament bulbs in the same period.

You might have got a dud batch, in which case, you should contact Philips.

I still think CFL bulbs are terrific value for money and a really great energy saving method. As LED bulbs improve in design and reduce in price, they will eventually overtake CFLs, but that time has not yet arrived.

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Ryan's Air or a Big Wind Project

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Ryan’s Air

hopefully not just Hot Air!

Big wind is afoot. No - not a storm. Irish energy Minister Eamonn Ryan has just announced a kick off of some big plans for massive offshore wind farms. Hold up there - plans - just plans at this stage.

The idea is to construct, over the coming years, off-shore wind capacity some ten times the national energy requirements, and then to sell the nine tenths surplus power to Europe via an interconnect.

First, Ireland will have to do a fair bit of convincing in the EU, and further will have to do some major spinning of the story to convince the lenders to make the necessary funds available.


Playing with Figures

The start up budget for the off-shore winds farm project is only a drop in the ocean compared to the current national deficit, at a piddling €3billion. Eventually, however,  the project budget could reach a figure close enough to the National Debt at around €15billion.


A few Minor Obstacles

Apart from securing the money and subsidies, there are a few small details to consider like:

(a) an off shore grid system,
(b) an interconnect with England, and
(c) European and British contracts to buy the intermittent and erratic wind power we might thereby generate.

Minister Ryan seemed very positive about it all and is quoted as saying “This is very real, this is very much happening today. This is very much at the centre of Government thinking”.

"This is very much" good luck with the plans Minister.

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Waste Plastic to Oil

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Mr. Ito's Machine

Recycling plastic, other than just melting into masses to mould as garden seats etc, has been a high-tech factory based operation. Turning plastic back into oil has been a highly technical and expensive process. We have mountains of plastic to dispose of every year. On a global scale the estimates suggest that 7% of the world's oil production is used to make plastic.

 

Japanese inventor and businessman, Mr. Akinori Ito, has developed a process so simple that it can be fully realised in a machine small enough to fit on top of your kitchen table. What is even more important, is that the process is safe, releasing no toxic gasses. The final residue can be safely disposed of.


In various forums and articles concerns have been expressed about the safety of Mt. Ito’s process. General worries about pollution and toxic residue from the process have been addressed by the Blest Company. They say that, if the recommended plastics are fed into the machine, polyethylene, polystyrene and polypropylene PP, PE,  PS plastics, that there is no toxic substance released. And, as already mentioned, any residue can be disposed of with regular rubbish. The company also state that while methane, ethane, propane and butane gasses are released during the process, the machine has been fitted with an off-gas filter. The filter effectively degrades the gases into water and carbon.

Mr. Ito’s machine is called the Blest Machine. The process is basically a controlled heat process. You place the plastic waste in a large sealed pressure cooker type of container. After switch-on the temperature begins to rise melting the plastic. The plastic firsts becomes liquid, and eventually, as the temperature further rises, it becomes a gas. The gas is filtered through water, is cooled and again forms a liquid. This time the liquid is a flammable oil. One Kilogram of plastic rubbish will produce 1 Litre of usable oil.

This oil is immediately usable for certain purposes, for instance it can be burned in just a slightly modified central heating furnace.

In fact, this was the essence of my suggestion to the Kerry County Council; to recycle the plastic and heat the County Buildings with the oil produced. The system would probably pay for itself in time. But even if it didn’t, it would still be a worthwhile exercise, simply because we would not be exporting the problem.

The oils produced by Mr Ito’s machines can be further refined into petrol, kerosene and diesel and directly used in cars and other transport vehicles.


Cost of the table top machine is around €6500.  This is little better than a demonstration / assessment machine.

 The larger machine the B120 has a capacity of 5Kgs per hour or 5 litres of oil output per hour or 120 litres per 24h day. A cycle uses 4Kw/h of electricity. That would work out at around 10 cents per litre electricity costs.

info@blest.co.jp.

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Fate of the World

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And Now a Game in which

You Control the Earths Destiny

My son sent me a link to a computer game, based on environmental science, in which you can doom our planet or save it according to your actions.

Might be a good learning tool for budding environmental scientists. Personally, I hate computer games, just don't have the patience for them.

If you would like to play God with the planet, you can pre-order a copy and save yourself 50%.

http://www.fateoftheworld.net/buy.html

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Plastic Minister Martin and Oil

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Plastic Mountain High

Plastic is one of the most ugly and most visual ways we have of polluting our planet. We think we are great that as developed people we “recycle” the plastic. But have you paused to consider what that might actually mean?

In many cases “recycling” consists of your local authority, in my case Kerry County Council, gathering the hundreds of tons a year of waste plastic and having it shipped off “somewhere else” to be recycled. In all too many cases, and I am not pointing the finger at Kerry County Council, this “somewhere else” is a third world or developing country. The recycling methods all too often are toxic and dangerous, but as it is far away and somewhere else, it is all right?

A Medal for Minister Martin?
He has already been awarded at least one!

Many voices are raised against this type of “recycling”. These same voices would also be calling for a reduction in use of plastics. Here let me give credit where credit is due and say that Minister Michael Martin must be thanked for his efforts in having the plastic bag more or less banned in shops. He too should be marked down in Irish history for bringing into law the smoking ban. But even if we drastically cut down our use of plastic, we still have to deal with mountains of the stuff.

That Brings me to the Core of this Story

The basis of this post is an idea I glanced at some time back and did not register too much interest in at the time.  It has again surfaced in the news with more details and a video.

The story is about a relatively simple machine that turns waste plastic directly into immediately usable oil. The machine, or rather series of machines in different sizes, are made by a small company in Japan.

I have been in contact with Kerry County Council environmental office and have suggested that they consider investing in one or more of these machines.

I will go into detail on the machine and the company in the next post.

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Are Electric Cars Practical?

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Batteries Not Included

Are Electric Cars practical?  Regular readers will know my answer to date is NO. I get sarky with Nissan hype here: http://wood-pellet-ireland.blogspot.com/2010/06/nissan-turn-new-leaf.html

What about the BIG Savings?



Only for city dwellers are current electric vehicles EVs of any practical use. Even then, the cost of the battery pack is a joke - a bad joke, and the charge capacity per litre of space to date would mean you would need to fill up most of the passenger areas with batteries to complete any decent round trip. Battery replacements costs would cut well into your gas savings, and I am not sure too many experts have properly costed this into the equation.

I can do around 650+ miles on a fill in my 2L ford diesel. You would be lucky to get 150 miles from a fully charged EV.

What's the Problem?

I have been writing about the re-birth of the electric car;
http://wood-pellet-ireland.blogspot.com/2009/11/electric-cars-and-goddess-of-love.html
and about what will cause that re-birth to take place. I am, of course, talking about the new breed of battery that we all have been waiting for. Waiting is the operative word here. It is like a 4 year old waiting for Santa in June!


Some of the Players

Ecolocap, FluidicEnergy, Next Alternative and EEstor are four development companies that I have been following for some time.

EEstor especially have been trumpeting loudly about their fab new battery, but not a single piece of hard evidence, not a glimpse, not a smell, not a drawing, SFA to suggest their hype and publicity is anything but hot air!!

Ecolocap published some very impressive “Independent” testing figures on their claim for a truly extraordinary leap forward in battery technology, there has been talk of factories in India and Korea - but has anyone handled one of their batteries or fitted a pack into car and road-tested it?

http://wood-pellet-ireland.blogspot.com/2010/05/nanotechnology-lead-acid-battery.html
Nothing either from Next Alternative on their Nano Lead Acid super-battery all gone real quiet there also.

FluidicEnergy are just a bit different, (1) they got two separate US government grants, not too many double whammies are given out - just like that! Either they are very cosy partners with someone high up, or they are on to something and have shown enough to get the action. (2) The have not fuelled the whisper mill, blown the mega trumpet, or wound up the spin-doctoring machines. (3) AFAIK They are a group of researchers, NOT bankers and investors.

I have been in touch with Fluidic Energy and while they are not playing the sort of games some of the other would appear to be playing, they are not releasing the goods - on the goods for fear of being ripped off - till the fat lady sings.


So When is Santa Coming Daddy?

So when will we see a proper, high capacity, reasonably priced, long lasting EV battery? You know, that has been on a sliding scale, especially with EEstor, for a good many years. Like the old saying goes; “Tomorrow never comes”

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Technology or Balance with Nature?

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Letter from a Reader

For a man who writes continuously about new technological advances, can you really hold such an anti-technological outlook? If so, why are you looking for the next big green solution?


Nuclear neither most Dangerous or Toxic?

As for dangerous and toxic technology, look around! Nuclear power is neither the most dangerous, nor the most toxic technology that we use in Ireland. For that you only have to look at the car and the coal-fired plant in Moneypoint. CO2, NOx in the air. Heavy metals in air and ground water. Elevated radioactivity in the environment (coal stations release more radioactive material into the environemnt through the flyash and the slag than a nuclear power station). Not to mention the direct fatalities: coal has the highest fatalities per kWh electricity produced of any power source (mainly through coal mining accidents); cars kill over 300 a year in Ireland alone.


A Solution for me?

The only consistent solution for you is to just strip off all your clothes and walk out your front door to live naked in nature, taking the trials and privations of hunger, sickness (e.g. due to dirty water), and exposure to the elements as part of the "living with nature". Anything else will depend on, and encourage the rapid move towards that type of technological society we have now. (it only took 5000 years to move from Archimedes to the Gas turbine - we'll probably do it quicker the next time!).

The only way is forward. Embrace technology. Help shape the policy decisions that have to be made based on a realistic assessment of the desires and motivations of people all over the world to protect themselves and their wives/children/husbands/parents from the arbritrary cruelties of "living with nature", as well as an honest recognition of the complexity of the problems (and solutions) that we face. As a starting point, read David MacKay's book.


My Reply:

You misread me totally I think. You jump on my metaphors and take them too literally. I love technology passionately, since a small child I have played with science and I see us advancing to yet unimaginable levels in time.

However, we (the human race) have allowed ourselves to grow both in numbers, and in our appetites for consumption, at a rate that the planet simply cannot sustain.  The trend is amplified all the more because we depend on finite energy sources to fuel our rapacious hunger for more and more. My hope is that either we soon learn to harness fusion or failing that, we learn to stay our dangerous level of expansion.

I have David MacKay's book with a year or more - good stuff indeed.

My wife enjoyed the picture you draw of me heading out my front door in the “full Monty" pot belly and all - and heading to the woods to hug some trees.

I enjoy your sharp - might I say - acidic humour. I look forward to further contact.

Kindest Regards,
Tony

As I have not had a reply, I think my correspondent is NOT amused, nor inclined towards an empathetic approach to differing, if less technological, points of view.

On second thoughts, should I have been insulted by the suggestions made?  - hmmmm!

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LED Lighting

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Regular readers will know that I had more or less given up on LED lighting as a viable alternative in domestic settings. The cheap bulbs were just rubbish, and the good expensive ones were just too expensive if you were fitting a room with 10 bulbs.

I have recently had another look and Chinese GU10 4 x 1watt LEDs and must say I am impressed, at least in the short term. We will have to wait on how well they maintain output and colour rendition. I will soon have a post with some basic comparisons.

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Nuke or Wind? (round 3)

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Round Three

Nuke or Wind?

Tony,

As a reply to your reply to my reply let me say this:

I did say that its complicated! Let me take another stab at laying the case that saying absolutely no to nuclear in any place, anywhere, anytime, is not consistent with reducing carbon emissions and improving the quality of life for the 6 billion human beings on the planet.

Here’s a graph (using data from the IEA) which plots wealth per capita (G/P) against Energy intensity (CO2 produced for Total Primary Energy Supply i.e. F/E). Each dot is a country. Ideally we would all be in the top left hand corner: Low emissions and high wealth. Now before you think wealth is a bad thing, broadly speaking GDP per capita is a reasonable indirect metric of average well being of people in a country (until you become very wealthy).

The countries that are doing the best in this context are Norway, Sweden, France and Iceland.
·    Iceland uses a lot of geothermal (specific to local geology)
·    Norway and Sweden have a lot of hydro (specific to local geology)
·    France and Sweden use a lot of nuclear

I can already hear you scream that wind is Ireland’s local specific advantage. The problem is that wind is expensive. It isn’t me who says this. The European Wind Energy Association (and you have to believe those guys will put the best possible spin on it) say that wind needs a carbon tax of €35 per ton to be cost competitive with a gas fired power plant. I know we are talking about nuclear power, but as previously noted the cost of nuclear per kW is not clear. But even this assessment is only part of the story, as you can decide to have something provided cheaply at point of use so as to maintain an equitable society, and meet the real costs through substantial subsidies. We do this with food in the EU. We could do this with energy, and the argument would then not simply be, “this is cheaper than that”.  So, you have to accept that many countries will consider all the issues and decide that nuclear is reasonable. France and the UK are two cases in point.

As Ireland has already started to expand electrical interconnection to the UK grid and has plans for interconnection to France, we will be closely linked with the nuclear generating capacity of these two countries, and indeed we may well depend on it to even out the intermittency associated with high penetration of wind power as planned.

As for the risk of bad thinks happening, I do agree that bad things do (and will) happen. The nuclear industry responded to safety concerns with technical solutions for risk mitigation (e.g. passive failsafe systems for a loss of coolant accident – LOCA- event), and have now driven the quantified risk of accidents down to very small levels. However, William Nuttall in his book “Nuclear Renaissance” argued that people want a reduction in fear, not a reduction in risk only.

But life is a risky business. For example, about 300 people die in road accidents every year in Ireland. We could cut this to nearly zero simply by choosing to fit all vehicles with speed limiters set at say 15kph. Equally we could resolve the thorny issue of climate change by everyone on the planet agreeing to live a life similar to the pre-industrial age (with endemic malnutrition driven by poor food security; high infant mortality; short average life expectancy; and huge societal inequality). Neither is going to happen, because the benefits of taking the risks of are perceived to be high. I would argue that the same is true of nuclear power.

The challenge for us as a species and as a society is to maintain the benefits of high energy consumption with manageable environmental impact. As I said previously, nuclear is de facto part of that solution. It is not a silver bullet. We need to continue to develop and deploy other, new technologies. But we need to use all the tools in the box.


Craig

Thank you again Craig for your continued input on this subject. I think we are debating on two completely different base lines. I would not, and could not argue on the basis of your science. 

My point is fundamental bog logic. Any farmer will tell you if you over crop a field, it will not be fruitful unless you pump it full of chemicals. If you continue to spread too many chemicals, the soil will deteriorate, the essential bacteria and bio balance will break down. 

Marine biologists are telling us that we are taking too much from the sea, and putting too much rubbish into the sea, and unless we stop, the balance will be destroyed. 

No maths - no science; if you use your well as a toilet, the water is contaminated.

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Cleaning Stove and Fireplace Door Glass

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Cleaning Stove Glass

One of those jobs

You LOVE to do?

A Cure?

Have you had difficulty cleaning the tempered glass window in your solid fuel stove or fireplace door?  The glass quickly gathers deposits of soot and tar that really stick.

The general advice given for cleaning varies from using white vinegar, to special cleaning compounds, to removing the glass door and soaking and washing. Many people just give up and leave the glass dirty.

I have tried quite a few different approaches to cleaning stove glass, and all of them have necessitated a great deal of elbow grease - darn hard work.

Being essentially lazy by nature, I spent a good deal of time mulling over how I might find an easier way to get the sticky soot off the glass. Then I remembered how to remove sticky price labels from plates, drinking glasses etc. What works in that case is first remove the paper bit and then deal with the glue. The best way to get the glue off was to use Mr Sheen or similar furniture polish. My guess is a combination of the solvents, greases and silicone in the polish prevents the glue re-sticking and that does the trick, but I do not know the science involved.

Anyway, this train of thought gave me the idea to try Tesco furniture polish, the one in our cupboard at the time, cheaper than the brand names and better if anything, on the stove glass. It certainly helped matters but there was still a heck of a lot of hard rubbing required.

Then I got the Eureka moment. Why not try one of those plastic dish sponge/scrubs, with the rough green side, strong enough to get through the tar but not hard enough to damage the glass.  The combination of the two ideas worked just a treat and since then the cleaning of my stove and fireplace door glass has been a breeze.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS: This is my finding and my personal experience. I offer it in good faith for what it is worth. I have used the method several times over with great success and ease of use, and with no damage whatsoever to the glass. If it doesn't work for you, go complain to the Minister for Hardship.

Remember who told you!!!

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Wind Energy v/s Nuclear Energy (round two)

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Wind or Nuke?

In the last couple of days, I had a closer look at "Craig's" letter on nuclear power, and decided that I need to answer some of the points made.


craig has left a new comment on your post "Wind Energy v/s Nuclear Reactors":

First of all, let me declare that I am an engineer who has worked on technical issues associated with nuclear plant, wind turbines, wave power and other fluid machinery.

At the risk of seeming patronising, the issue of nuclear vs "any other power source" is very complex. I do not claim total expertise, but rather a lot of informed opinion.

And before somebody tries to pigeonhole me as “pro” or “anti” anything, I am pro a highly developed society with the benefits of abundant and reliable, high grade power supply. (i.e. I prefer the idea that most of us should live in the 21st century, and not the 18th).

Some points:

1) Nuclear and wind have very similar investment profiles, per MWe: fuel costs are small, up front capital costs high, and O&M costs are similar. You seem to be talking exclusively about the installed (i.e. capital) cost. This is nonsensical, as this accounts for only about half the cost of electricity supplied by either technology and ignores grid supply issues.

[Craig - I was reporting, not commenting. Fair enough the reports I based my piece on may not be technically the best - I would not know, I am not qualified to make a judgement. Regarding grid supply issues, I did include the idea that wind is intermittent and needs storage facilities to be reliable.]

2) Wind has the huge advantage of being modular (a couple of actual MWe is the incremental unit). Nuclear comes in big chunks (~1600MWe for most modern). Nuclear has the huge advantage of being reliable base-load, with no real “security of supply” issues, at least in the short/medium term. 

[True, but seeing as how you mentioned security, the cost of security has to be factored-in in nuclear power plants - because they are prime targets for all sorts of terror groups and extremists. These costs, in addition to greater than normal on-going site security, would have to include a substantial national security input involving, police, armed forces, and air force involvement, as well as satellite and other monitoring. All that does not come for free.]

3) Wind has an energy density of about 2W/m^2, nuclear has a density 1000 times that. So the red herring question at the head of the post ("Really enhances the Natural Landscape?" under a pic of a nuclear plant) could be answered, "well yes, it does enhance the landscape, actually, as it confines the necessary developed zone to an area about 1km x 1km rather than 50km x 50km for equivalent wind power").

[ I personally would much prefer 5000 acres of windmills than 100 acres of nuclear plant in my back yard - Would you care to take bets on other people's attitudes?]

4) The cost of nuclear power is a hotly contested issue. I can quote from 6 reputable sources all at odds, which estimate nuclear wholesale power costs in the range 10-84 £STG/MWe. Onshore wind has a smaller spread in the range 25-60 £STG/MWe. (apologies for the currency). As for there being no reliable figures to depend on because there has been no new build in the USA recently, this is total crap (not that there has been no new build in the states, but that there are no reliable data). For example, China is building several. And incidentally is also building a lot of wind, so it isn’t necessarily and either/or proposition.

[Again, I reported on news items - I am no expert but as, no doubt, you will agree, there is always more than one point of view.]

5) On the issue of technological development, while modern wind power is younger than nuclear (i.e. turbines which can reasonably by called modern designs), wind power has borrowed heavily from the aerospace industry (design, materials and manufacturing), and has had many iterations, precisely because wind is more modular. Nuclear plant on the other hand, while mature and reliable now, is only on the 3rd or 4th generation. As a result, from a technical viewpoint, I am not convinced that wind has any great technological leaps to make to achieve dramatically lower unit costs.

[Who cares about technological advances - if it works for the planet and for sustainability. Personally, I would be happy to go back to Archimedes technology in order to preserve the planet for future generations.]

The bottom line is that like it or not, nuclear is definitely part of the global and regional energy mix for the foreseeable future. The real question is do we build a plant in Ireland. My feeling is that for technical reasons we should not at this point, but we will absolutely still depend on nuclear through our interconnects to UK and France, so we should be a little more reasonable about nuclear power generally.

[I, and I guess quite a few like me, find it difficult to be academic or reasonable about a technology so dangerous that it has the ability to make a country uninhabitable for a quarter million years. The old seafaring adage, generally referred to as Murphy’s Law, springs to mind when I think of nuclear reactors;  “If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong, sooner or later, and in the worst possible way, and at the worst possible time” Thankfully we do not have too many examples of Murphy’s law at work in nuclear plants, but IMHO more than enough to prove the point]

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