[mdlug] ummm..... Re: Router - now power.

[Aaron Kulkis]

Reply-to set to mdlug-discuss

Rich Elswick wrote:
> A bit of a rant on an off Subject line item.
> 
> I have been deleting this inaptly named thread, since I assumed it was about
> something I didn't even really care about.  However, I am familiar with the
> area of discussion now, since I work at one of those named companies
> producing the batteries.
> 
> Overall, you are correct, the technologies for hybrid systems have been in
> place for sometime, however, the level of technology to meet the demands of
> a mobile hybrid system have not been, at least not in robust high volume
> manufacturing type environment, which exists for the automotive market.
> Neither has the demand been there, even accounting for your so called
> Hollywood crowd.  However, once gas went past $2 a gallon, demand picked
> up.  When it reached $3, there was a howling crowd waiting for hybrids.
> When it approached $4, i.e. last summer as in 2008, you could sell a 2001
> Honda Insight for $21,000, which is what is sold for NEW!  Now, here we are
> approaching $3 again, but the demand isn't as big.  Why is that?  Is it the
> economy, so no one wants to pay the premium for a hybrid?  I would argue the
> change of 25% in the price of gas verse the change of 100% in the price of
> gas has a bit to do with it.

Of course, the myth of hybrids is that they don't rely
on gasoline for power.  The cost to operate a hybrid is
directly proportional to the price of gasoline, or whatever
fuel you burn.

The U.S. military (TACOM) has had a project for quite a long
time to develop some hybrid trucks.  Not for fuel savings,
because they don't believe in the slightest that any such
thing is possible, but because a truck that can be powered
by electric drive will be almost SILENT as opposed to the
noise produced by diesel engines.  This means that trucks
can drive to within a few miles of front-line combat units,
switch to electric power, and drive the rest of the way
without producing a huge noise signature which would invite
artillery attack, etc.  [Current war operations have made
this sort of truck less of a priority than when we looked
at our most probable war being massive conventional warfare
in either Europe or Korea].

I have NO qualms with hybrid vehicles.  They offer many
advantages, which is why submarines adopted them before
1900, why the US Navy started using the same principles
to power even battleships for a couple of decades (until
further advancements in turbine reduction gear systems
tilted things in favor of pure steam drive again), and
why the railroad industry has been using diesel-electric
drives since the 1930's (higher torque when at a dead stop
with a LONG line of cargo cars.), requiring fewer trains
to have multiple engines, and when they DO require multiple
engines, it's far easier to slave (run by remote control)
a diesel-electric than it is with a steam engine.

There are multitudes of advantages to hybrid drive systems,
but substantial increases in fuel economy is a myth. Charging
and discharging batteries significant inefficiencies (1st,
2nd, and 3rd laws of thermodynamics) in addition to the 
inefficiencies of the prime mover (the gas, diesel or
steam engine driving it all) within the vehicle.