Mother wrote:
> On Sun, 17 Oct 2004 17:31:45 +0100, "Paul S. Brown"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> [nod and snip]
>
>>If I were running a petrol fuelled car just now I couldn't easily justify
>>an LPG kit - the initial cost is just too high and any reduction in cost
>>benefit from running on LPG would be painful.
>
> Well I've a combined 12L* of output. This tended to give me
> uncomfortable dreams of children developing asthma within a 10 mile
> radius of Poggle Wood. LPG, apart from being cleaner and cheaper,
> helps me sleep sound at night 
>
>
> * 4.6L V8, 3.9L V8 and 3.5L V8 - start them all up and the sound is
> pure classical music.
I have around 4.5l of diesel output - 2 cars with less engine capacity than
Grumble.
I really have to balance these things. At the point where you have a car
that you are planning on running for substantial amounts of time then LPG
makes sense - from a financial point of view as well as from the PoV of
minimising impact on the environment.
The problem I have is that the longest I have ever kept a car so far is just
over 3 years. I can't justify a £15-1800 upfront investment for a 3 year
payback, especially on cars that typically cost in the £1-3000 range
themselves.
This is why I've decided to move over to diesel engined cars for the
forseeable future - I can run them on somewhat friendlier fuels without a
substantial upfront cost - maybe £50 for a heat exchanger at worst. I also
get more efficient running even if I do end up using dinofuels at any
point.
I'd love to run V8 cars, but I can't justify the costs for economy/purchase
price/maintenance - you can get any one of those at an affordable level -
rarely two and almost never all three.
I suspect that ethanol, methane and biodiesel in whatever form are going to
be the fuels of the future for internal combustion engines, with biodiesel
being apparently the easiest of the three to manufacture, store and handle.
I'm planning on looking at manufacturing my own biodiesel, for own use if
nothing else - I wouldn't want to try and manufacture ethanol (the
legislation on portable stills isn't fun to deal with) and methane strikes
me as something not very safe to use on an amateur basis - what would be a
trivial leak with diesel would be a major Fuel Air Explosion with Methane.
Ultimately, I suspect that personal vehicle usage is going to end up being
severely curtailed over the next thirty or so years, and I have a horrible
feeling that electrically powered public transport just isn't going to be
there in time. In my little nightmare scenario we could quite easily end up
with a situation never before seen - no problem communicating with people
at the other end of the country, but almost impossible to go and see them.
P.
--
If Mind over Matter is a Matter of Course
Does it Matter if Nobody Minds?
