Alec Cameron wrote in a message to Roy J. Tellason:
 AC> Hi Roy
 AC> On (22 Sep 97) Roy J. Tellason wrote to Day Brown...
 RJ> Another consideration,  and one that I don't often see addressed with
 RJ> regard to electric vehicles,  is the power grid.  I can't remember where
 RJ> it was exactly,  but somewhere in my collection of Analog magazines
 RJ> there's an article that looked at that issue and came to the conclusion
 RJ> that in order to move to electric vehicles in this country we'd need to
 RJ> *double* the power grid,  in order to support current levels of usage.
 AC> ^^^^^^^^
 AC> *double* is easy. That is no big deal. And it has HOMEPOWER
 AC> aspects. ^^^^^^^^
Maybe.
 AC> Thru the 1940s to 1970s AUS and USA no doubt, doubled the grid 
 AC> sizes and generating station capacities, at intervals of 7 to 
 AC> 10 years. The last few years of recession and enforced 
 AC> economies have greatly subdued that rush of development.
I suspect the serious objections to nuclear plants,  the rising costs of 
labor,  the concerns about emissions,  and a number of other factors have 
been involved in that as well.
 AC> Why support current levels of auto useage? 
Now *that* is a question!
 AC> A nation that is smart enough to retire petrol fuelled autos, 
 AC> would surely legislate for more compact vehicles and moderate 
 AC> highway speeds. Your future elec cars will not be used like 
 AC> those we drive now.
First,  I have a bit of a problem with legislating anything,  it oughta be 
market-driven,  and not much beyond that.  The trend in this country _has_ 
been towards more compact vehicles,  especially over the past 25 years or so, 
and I strongly disklike it.  I've had standard-shift where the pedals were 
too close together for me to be able to operate it reliably (thanks, 
Mitsubishi!), and others where my legs were jammed up against the steering 
wheel no matter what I did with the seat adjustment (thanks, Isuzu!),  
thankfully these were not my own personal vehicles at any point in time.
I don't *want* a smaller vehicle,  which is why I'm in the process of 
building a truck (full-sized,  not one of them little "toys"!),  and why I 
drive a 20 year old sedan.
I don't particularly want "moderate highway speeds",  either.  When I lived 
in the NYC area,  some roads were reasonably restricted,  and I have no 
problem with posted limits around town at all,  but around here (south 
central PA) I have not seen hardly anybody driving on highways at the posted 
speed limits, even those that they've recently raised to 65 from that 
federally-mandated 55 crap that it was at for so long.  So you've got a 
choice of either toeing the line and being a traffic hazard at the same time, 
 or moving with the flow of traffic and breaking the law.  There aren't 
enough cops in the country to enforce that crap.
Furthermore if you get out to any of the bigger western states it makes 
little or no sense to have "moderate speeds",  not when you need to go out 
and drive over 100 miles to get to tne nearest store.
We've had emissions limits and "fleet economy" limits in the law which get 
tighter every year.  That last one is the average gas mileage over all of the 
models that a given car company sells.  The people have been buying trucks 
and other sport-utility vehicles,  which don't have that restriction,  and 
from what I hear there are plans for Ford to come out with a new one of those 
that's bigger than the 18 feet of the GM Suburban.  People don't *want* 
smaller stuff,  in many cases.  I know *I* don't (I'm over 6 feet),  and I 
resent the hell out of some government agency trying to ram such a thing down 
my throat.
 AC> What does it mean to HOMEPOWER? It means that the recharging 
 AC> cycle can be managed so as to minimise energy losses. 
 AC> Essentially, auto recharging needs to be done off-peak when 
 AC> energy generation is cheapest and transmission losses are 
 AC> lowest.
I imagine that charging cars up will have a serious tendency to redefine 
"peak" from what it is now.
 AC> The home, domestic power consumption is thus integrated with 
 AC> the other loads at home. So when the refrigerator or washer 
 AC> cuts in, the auto charger takes a break. A smart arrangement if 
 AC> to- morrow's home is largely battery driven from wind and sun. 
 AC> No good having the lamps fade and the TV picture shrink, during 
 AC> coincident loads that don't HAVTA coincide.
That part makes a lot of sense,  though I don't think that things are tending 
to go in this direction in this country,  not that I've seen,  anyhow.
 AC> ... Me drive? I'll take the train as the good Lord intended!
 AC>  ^oo   oo^oo   oo^ 
 AC> ___ PPoint 1.92
 AC>  - Origin: Bundanoon, Southern Highlands, NSW AUS
 AC> (3:712/517.12) 
email: roy.j.tellason%tanstaaf@frackit.com 
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