Datatek
Well-Known Member
Super U also do fairly cheap hire cars.
Have to agree about the empty roads. Round ours int Montagne Noire, get out of the towns and the traffic disappears. Like driving in the wilds of Yorkshire or Scotland. Also fewer potholes.I'll have to check for petrol, but I think they will also be Euro 6.
Apart from around Paris, driving in France is great, empty roads and very few potholes, I used to tour over here on my motorbike every year. Happy days
That's pretty standard stuff
Datatek
Well-Known Member
Only Italy is worse
Just Micron trying to make out he has a pair!
Datatek
Well-Known Member
If there are 6 cars in front of us at the traffic lights going into Poitiers, it's regarded as a traffic jam.
Aha! Over here wifey has a blue badge so can drive right into central London free as long as she makes it an appointment or Books the visit so to speak.
Too true, I can remember watching three cars on a two lane motorway going into a tunnel on a bend all three abreast of one another. Back in 1974. Nutters. Their penises must be in even more need of extension!Only Italy is worse
Turboman
Mab An Gov
So can I, unless I go in the Congestion Charge Zone during the day.
Won't be able to after next year, when the ULEZ is extended, unless I pay the 12 quid charge.
Not really bothered, I will just get a Euro 4 car.
And I haven't driven much inside the North and South Circulars for 20 years or more, really isn't worth the hassle.
If I want to stay up there for a few days, I take the boat, other appointments, public transport is much easier.
Datatek
Well-Known Member
There is a 30 year timescale needed to uprate the generating capacity and the distribution network. France is at the point where old nuclear power stations are at the end of their life and the first shut down has just occurred at Fessenheim. Wind is unreliable, so will never replace other forms of generation, same goes for solar.
Turboman
Mab An Gov
Agree entirely about the end of life of the nuclear plants.
Not so much about wind and solar generation. My own turbine has had fantastic production for 8 years, it is in a near perfect location, it is very rarely still in West Cornwall.
Panels on the boat aren't too silly either, or the panels installed on roofs of ground installations by many people I know.
Both will only come into their own when more power is able to be stored, and the massed batteries of electric cars are seen as a way that may be achieved.
Obviously, some core generation is required, to even out the spikes in renewables supply and demand, but there is scope for much more hydro and tidal power, and biomass, in addition to nuclear generation.
In my opinion, wind and solar is great for small scale generation. Not so good in this country as a reliable, constant source of energy
Solar doesn't work at night or when it's cloudy, typically the panels don't follow the sun either.
For turbines is often too windy or not windy enough. We get a lot of wind overnight, typically, when we don't need as much energy
Solar doesn't work at night or when it's cloudy, typically the panels don't follow the sun either.
For turbines is often too windy or not windy enough. We get a lot of wind overnight, typically, when we don't need as much energy
Datatek
Well-Known Member
Wind turbines over here do not work in high winds. The turbine blades have a limited life and it seems that they cannot be recycled. they also fail spectacularly on occasion. Massed turbines also affect the weather and kill birds.
As for solar, in winter they produce as little as 10% of rated output on heavily overcast days.
Li-Ion batteries cannot be recycled at the moment and production of Lithium & cobalt is a nasty polluting business.
Turboman
Mab An Gov
Solar panels don't work at night, they do work when it is cloudy.
My turbine generates pretty steadily. It very rarely stops due to low winds, it does shut off occasionally due to storms, but only for a few hours, it senses the wind speed, and comes back on when damaging winds have passed.
There are ways to use electricity at night, storage heaters being one, car batteries being another.
Total generation from renewables in the UK is huge, well over half of current demand on many occasions.
Having panels follow the sun isn't really cost effective when you are talking solar parks covering hundreds of acres, also common now.
Turboman
Mab An Gov
The big operators probably switch their turbines off in high winds, due to problems with insurance if anything happens.
It is actually possible to design the blades so that the efficiency reduces as wind speeds rise, in the same way as a wing is designed to give most lift at a certain air speed, but much less at higher or lower speeds.
Winter is problem for solar installations in temperate climates, but is compensated for to some extent long days in the summer.
Best place for solar parks is in the deserts. The Saudis, and some other Middle Eastern countries, have massive solar parks.
Very strong sunshine, constant day length, and with large parks you can transform up to very high voltages, for minimal line loss when transported to point of sale.
Yep, our once glorious view now has bits of 6 wind turbines visible and most of three of them. It is interesting to see how often they aren't turning or only one or two. Never know why except when there is no wind or the Vent d'Autan is blowing a houlie.
When they are not turning the slack is taken up by diesel generators. Daughter who used to work for a company in the UK making them says they are ridiculously unreliable and the cost of repairing the ones at sea is 5 times the cost of the same work on land. And the big ones require an input of power to start them!
Still at least they tell us which direction the wind is blowing in and how fast, if you time them going round, (if you've nothing better to do!)
Turboman
Mab An Gov
I would guess they are simply an unreliable turbine, which suffers regular breakdowns.
Timing them won't tell you how fast the wind is blowing, except in very light winds. They are designed to rotate at a constant speed.
57 rpm in the case of my turbine, it will shut off if it reaches 59 rpm.
Much slower in the case of very large turbines, sometimes as low as 15 rpm.
Datatek
Well-Known Member
Seen some wonderful video of wind turbines on fire
There are hundreds on the route to Paris, more often than not they are not turning since Nuclear cannot be shut down quickly, wind is only used to make up any shortfall as far as I can see.All wind turbines consume power at all times for the control electronics, blade feathering, turning to face the wind and temperature control for the electronics, so all the time they are not generating, they are power consumers.
The small group of turbines near me have twice shed a blade.
Turboman
Mab An Gov
That would be right about why they are switched off. But not only because nuclear generation takes time to shut down, sometimes they turn them off because there is simply less demand than supply at that time.Seen some wonderful video of wind turbines on fire
All wind turbines consume power at all times for the control electronics, blade feathering, turning to face the wind and temperature control for the electronics, so all the time they are not generating, they are power consumers.
The small group of turbines near me have twice shed a blade.
It is not the case that all turbines use power all the time.
There are hundreds of different makes, on some the blades don't feather, on others they feather by wind power, against a spring that snaps them back when the wind drops.
My turbine has control electronics, but they aren't cooled, and they simply go to sleep when the turbine is not turning.
Where most turbines do use power is what is called soft start, or pulse start, When the turbine senses wind sufficient for generation, but not enough to overcome the inertia of the rotor, it will power the rotor a bit until the wind takes over.
Over 8 years, the total input electricity of mine has been less than 1% of total production.
Datatek
Well-Known Member
I forgot the soft start.
