John2b

There's more than $10billion in fossil energy subsidies in the recently announced federal budget. That's about $10,000 per oil burner vehicle sold annually, or more than 100 times the total subsidies given to electric vehicles. Australia needs a political spin tax; we could all retire as tax exempt millionaires.

Best I could find is $2.63. I guess that's because by convention BCs are always used for ceiling batten lighting points in Oz. https://www.electricalproducts.com.au/hyena-batten-holder-screw-plug-base-hybhsp-gsm.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjws-OEBhCkARIsAPhOkIa83qG1jKCbOgczJnR44dgP3nGgUpfFSLf_nBwVr0nE-4lX_FQCzl4aAjCKEALw_wcB

Look at the bright side, you get to be a genius for another day.

I have had a leaking pressure pump trip the RCD sporadically until I finally managed to find the fault. It's such a pain when multiple MCBs share one RCD. I have now put an RCBO (combined RCD and MCB) on every circuit and got rid of the common RCD.

It depends on the application. Screw bases can work loose in vehicles so bayonets are preferred. For larger 240 volt globes, filament failure due to vibration is a bigger problem than the globe loosening in the socket. A bayonet base does allow the globe to move on the axis of the bayonet retaining pins. Vibrational forces have little leverage on automotive globes because of their size and weight relative to the spring tension in the base, and 12 volt filaments are thick and robust. Larger...

Not many light fittings are made in Australia, nor is Australia the primary market for many light fitting manufacturers. I think the 'standard' is to sell fittings in Australia with the base that suits the market where the manufacturer targeted the product to sell. Having said that, in Australia long ago when burner* globes ruled (*that's what light engineers call them because the filaments burn energy) bayonets were the commonly used base except if the bulb was subject to vibrations, where...

I remember chipies on building sites blunting the point of nails and then using a bucket of something slimy to coat them with to help them in. Bros you must be the younger bro...

Slotted screwdriver bits with a spring loaded centering guide used to be common, but seem to have disappeared. They were handy for driving one-way security screws and might be useful for slot head screw extraction. https://www.primeline.net/rg-18514-one-way-bolt-driver-bit-916-steel

Marc is correct, I drive an electric car to save money. I imported a BEV from Japan. I could have imported an ICE at a similar saving on local purchase price, but that wouldn't save money on running costs - der! Don't forget that fossil fuel companies and ICE manufacturers never profiteered. They only do everything selflessly for the good of others even if that means spending $trillions of guvmint money annually through industry subsidies worldwide.

As best as I can reckon the point of no return for maintaining an environment conducive to human civilisation for the next few generations was around 1980, maybe earlier. Planet Earth will see the back of the human race, electric cars or not, and continue on around the sun for a few more billion years, probably not even slightly affected by the absence of the current human plague. Elon Musk will be being driven around Mars by his autopilot electric car long before then, so it's worth Tesla...

Oops - missed that! So it seems did Marc.

I don't agree with all of the sentiments in this video; consider it 'balance' to Marc's video linked above. It does contain some truths that our guvmint's can't or won't swallow, and where their policies or lack of them runs contrary to the views of between 70% and 80% of the electorate Australia wide. And no need to set aside an afternoon to watch it, the clip is only a couple of minutes long!

An engine has one revolution rate at which the energy conversion is most efficient. It is often the RPM near or slightly above the peak torque RPM. If the engine is producing a fixed output, say 50% of its rated output, it can also produce that output at higher or lower RPM than the most efficient - at the penalty of energy conversion efficiency! Likewise an engine has a load which at the most efficient RPM that will result in the maximum conversion of fuel energy into kinetic energy,...

In the real world a vehicles start and stop for intersections and traffic lights, etc. Under many conditions the ICE continues to consume energy when the BEV does not. To slow an ICE vehicle brakes convert kinetic energy into waste heat in the brake disks which is lost to the environment. When a BEV brakes, most of the kinetic energy is converted back into electricity used to recharge the energy stored in the battery. So the notion that the two types of vehicle use the same amount of energy...

The problem with your statement is that you have the efficiencies the wrong way around. An ICE engine propelling a passenger vehicle will struggle to convert 15% of the liquid fuel consumed into energy used for propulsion. There are lots of reasons for this, the main one being that the engine is rarely, if ever, at optimum speed and load for efficiency of energy conversion for very long. It also has many parasitic loads and needs to burn fuel even when idling, coasting and braking. Contrast...

This quote from a former engineer at GM's Electro Motive Division puts it better than I can: Mechanical transmissions cannot match the efficiency of the best electrical transmissions. Except when (a mechanical transmission is) direct coupled and operating at the ideal engine speed with no slippage through the transmission, the diesel electric is more efficient, because it allows the diesel to operate at the most efficient speed for a particular horsepower output, instead of the speed...

Yes Marc, I started a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering, later changing to Electronic Engineering, and that is why I know my post is correct. I finally specialised in Electro-acoustic Engineering in which field I have been an Australia-wide consultant, but all engineering is based on the same laws of physics, the most notable being the law of conservation of energy which applies directly to energy transformations, such as motion to chemical energy in liquid fuel or electricity stored...

The manufacture of any vehicle uses resources. There's nothing that makes BEV cars worse than ICE cars when you take 'the whole of life' resource use into consideration. The irony off the picture of the BMW being charged by a generator is that the BMW will make more efficient use of the fuel consumed by the generator than an ICE vehicle using the fuel, because an ICE vehicle's engine is almost never running anywhere near the ideal load and revs for efficient energy conversion. That's one...

Just saying things like they are. Perhaps being an 'idiot' subject of this thread doesn't help; by all means amuse yourself by reading from the start.

Sure, and why souvenir book matches were banned years ago. Of course Australian companies were happy for everyone to take jerrycans of petrol with them in company cars in the fossil energy era, not! And why gas cigarette lighters have been banned on flights for decades, not that anyone took any notice of the ban.

Batteries are not really that flammable. Have you heard of house fires caused by laptops or mobile phones? In fact, who would dare put a phone in their pocket given the risk of lithium battery fires?

I haven't run over any pedestrians yet, but sure, some people are caught unawares of your presence. As I posted above here #1387 in reality ICE cars are about ten times more likely to end up in a fireball thanks to liquid fuel igniting so easily in the presence of sparks.

I bought a 3 year old 30 kWh battery Leaf at auction in Japan for $12,000 with 30,000km and battery state of health at 85%. It cost another $8,000 for freight, compliance, customs, GST, etc. I've driven 35,000km and the battery state of health is now 80%. Once the SOH gets down to 75%, the range will slowly begin to reduce, and that will eventually make the car impractical for me given my remote location. So I expect to drive it for another few years and then import a 40kW battery from a wreck...

Manufacturers could follow the ICE historical standardisation process, given the 100 years the industry has had to sort out standard engines, spark plugs, gearboxes, fuels, etc, to make them all interchangeable (sarcasm).

By making hydrogen batteries interchangeable with lithium batteries according to this organisation: HYDROGEN OFFICIAL FUEL CELL UNIVERSAL BATTERIES

I've just come back from our quarterly trip to the city to stock up on provisions. The trip made me appreciate just how good this electric car is to drive in traffic. Electric cars are extremely response with absolutely no acceleration lag (no gearbox or engine revs/torque hesitancy) and heaps of instant grunt for punting in front of other vehicles for quick lane changes, etc. Plus the interior is so smooth and quiet that you can easily listen to the radio and have a conversation with your...

Tell that to Volkswagen and Hyundai, they are the ones saying it. And, glad you think that is OK. I don't. And it's all happened as a result of Howard's introduction neo-conservative politics - which now afflicts both sides of mainstream politics equally. Decades later Australia is reaping what Howard sowed, and falling down the scale in international comparisons of income, equality, health and happiness, not to mention internet speed; where we once up with Japan and South Korea, at the end...

Wow Marc, I didn't realise that ICE cars were not made for profit, but for the benefit of us all out of the goodness of capitalist manufacturer's hearts (sarcasm). The ICE ideologues must be spewing that industry research in Australia shows that much more than 50% of people want to buy an electric car but can't because, at the self-admission of Australian vehicle distributors, 'the country is becoming a "Third World dumping ground" for outdated petrol-engine technology.'

Definitely use a hose clamp, even if the spigot is well above the water level, as those barb connections are prone to leaking and hose sizes vary between manufacturers. If you intend to use the lower spigot, make sure the appliance you connect will not syphon back through the drain hose (some older washing machines will) and loop the hose well above the height of the spigot.

There were about 190,000 vehicle fires in the US last year but statistically based on miles driven and collision rates ICE vehicle are ten times more likely to burst into flames than BEV cars. Whilst propulsion battery fires do happen, nothing beats a spark applied to a bomb load of liquid accelerant. Of course the plastic content of cars is a significant fuel load irrespective of propulsion system, and a reason vehicles burn so completely. Some plastics (PEs in particular) are virtually...