When I was a teenager, I remember reading a Farmer's Almanac that described how to set up solar panels and windmills and whatnot in order to reduce your energy consumption, or even reverse it to the point where the electric company might pay YOU money.
I've heard in countless articles about people who managed to strip out their cars, redesign them to run entirely on electrical power (filling the trunk with batteries and similar such tricks.)
But all of this is hobbyist material. Why hasn't anyone gone into this as a professional business?
Maybe it's that people aren't sure there's a market in it. Would you pay for a windmill in your backyard that could halve your electric bill for the rest of your life, but costs $1,000 and might break in major storms? Would you pay for a solar panel that could halve your electric bill and eliminate the costs associated with your hot water heater, but would cost $2,000 and could be easily crushed by falling tree branches? I'm just guessing at prices here, but the point is, do businesses think there's a significant market for professional installations of this? Is there a market out there somewhere? Why isn't it mainstream by now?
As for converting cars to electric - why aren't there garages that specialize in this sort of thing? Do we really think the market is too small? I'm plunking $30 a week or more in my gas tank, because I have to get to and from work, which means my wife is driving two hours a day. Our kids are starting to drive on their learner's permit - more gas money. If I could afford to get a car that ran on batteries, plugged into the house every night, and had solar panels on the roof to help it recharge during the day, I'd be a pretty happy camper. (And, yes, I know there's that babble about how wonderful hybrids are. Most of them don't allow you to charge the battery without using gasoline to do it, though, so it's not very impressive to me.)
Conspiracy theories abound when it comes to talk of why we haven't switched yet. What do you think? Why don't we have these yet? When are we getting them?
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Comments: 21
I think the powers that be realized that converting all engines to electric engines just wasnt practical. And not all people would or could do it.
I also think by the time you get to be a senator or congressperson or president...you owe too many people too many favors and unfortunetly the big oil companies have the money so it is in the politicians best interest to side with them.
The current state (no pun intended. Well, maybe) of battery/storage technology just isn't quite there, in my opinion. The Electric cars and hybrids now being marketed seem to me moreso as proofs-of-concept rather than a truly viable alternative. The meager net gains in fuel efficiency don't justify the additional cost. And what about maintenance? I'm given to understand that battery replacements can run into five figures.
Additionally, years ago I read an article about someone developing a new type of "steam" engine -- the engineering and operational concepts were based on a steam engine principles, but it used some sort of volatile, but non-combustable liquid instead of water. I think it mat have been refrigerant-like in its properties. And it operated at much lower heat/energy levels than a similar water-based steam engine would. Has anyone else heard of this?
As for windmills I have seen many homes with them in the hgh desert and know that over by Bakersfield there are a lot of Windmills on the hillsides used by the power company but don't know much else on them or how much energy they generate.
I have never seen an electric car that I know of but see many charging stations at places like Costco for them but have never seen them used by anyone.
Maybe all of this has not progressed far or reliably enough for there to be a market just yet?
I am lucky to have pretty good weather in Ca. I do 90% of my errands and shopping on foor or on my bike. There are quite a few electric cars around here. I live in an area where I swear most of the hippies have retired, so you can't miss their way-out paint jobs on their cars!
There are some press about alternative fuels here once in a while. I remember the local news did a piece on some guy that uses recycled veggie oil instead of gas. Also, Caly Poly Slo is always up to something:)