Quote:
Originally Posted by ConnClark
I'm calling BS on the 50% efficiency claim! peak steam cycle efficiency with today's top of the line super heated steam plants is 40% maximum. That is about the thermal dynamic limit. To exceed that you have to go to a binary vapor cycle (biggest was just 40MW) or Kalina cycle (of which are currently only small scale up to 3.6 MW).
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I can only reflect what I'm told.
Even though that was 30 years ago, I'm pretty sure that's what they said as they made a point about the 50% home delivery efficiency; they wanted to raise the voltage on the power distribution net, as that would allow them to break that limit for good.
Of course they could be lying to me then. Intentionally or through lack of knowlegde. The guy was an engineer though.
Your claims seem pretty convincing too, but it contradicts what I heard on the plant.
Ah well, nobody gets a free ticket to knowing the truth. I know now that I don't know.
I know this though:
We pay a lot of tax on both electricity (70%) and gas (65%) over here.
So my electricity comes at 20 cents per kWh (cheapest provider 1 year contract). Gas at my local is currently about 1 Euro and 65 cents (13 cents below market standard) per liter.
I can drive 25 km max on one liter, but if the Insight were an EV it could easily drive 5 km on a kWh. That would almost cut my cost in half. Even under this adverse tax regime.
{EDIT: the math behind it: A liter of gas contains 8.87 kWh of energy, but the ICE can transfer just 2.2 kWh of that in actual power, the rest is heat. So It takes less than 100 Wh of actual power to move my car for a kilometer.
I assumed that half the energy an EV takes from the grid gets lost before it reaches the wheels. it is probably much better. Even if just 500 wH remains from the kWh I started with, that should move my car over more than 5 km.}
If those power plants are so ineffective, why then is electricity so much cheaper than gas? Mind you, there are no subsidies for either power plants or the oil industry; it is basically an open market.
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2011 Honda Insight + HID, LEDs, tiny PV panel, extra brake pad return springs, neutral wheel alignment, 44/42 PSI (air), PHEV light (inop), tightened wheel nut.
lifetime FE over 0.2 Gmeter or 0.13 Mmile.
For confirmation go to people just like you.
For education go to people unlike yourself.