• 2 Posts
  • 64 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 13th, 2023

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  • I think for me, it’s because it’s sort-of (though not!) self-archiving.

    If a site has a reasonable amount of popularity and subscriptions, it would take that site going down, plus all the sites that communicated with it, for the data to be fully lost.

    Not to mention that a lot of the sites are run by reasonably altruistic people, who are more likely to hand over than just shutter.


  • I kinda agree, lots of different formats in every direction, lots of dividing 1 by numbers to compare things.
    One site lists Wh/mi, another Mi/KWh, manufacturer site only lists the range based on speed.
    Then comparing it to figures for countries using metric distance, customary sized gallons for ICE, and L/100KM…It gets fiddly to make direct comparisons!

    On the efficiency of generation, I guess it’s open to the reader to apply their own modifier.
    I’d be aiming to charge the car using private solar as much as possible which would drive it down.
    National Grid emissions in the UK last year were about 217g/KWh on average. Even using grid the whole time, the emissions would be easily halved for me.

    Edit: There is a suitably lengthy wikipedia page on MPGe. Having skimmed it, MPGe doesn’t take into account upstream efficiency. While well-to-wheel gives a clearer picture, I can understand why for a simple metric MPGe does not. Especially since the primary function will be users gauging cost, and the electricity source should gradually improve over time.




  • I like to think of it as “better than”.

    They’re not perfect, but they’re better than what people might do instead.
    I could swap my older car for a second hand EV, which would be an environmental improvement.
    The current car does 50-ish MPG, about 1.5 miles per KWH. An electric would do 4+miles per KWH, which going in reverse is 100+MPG.

    A bigger improvement might come from me getting the bus/train/bike everywhere, which is where the fuck cars argument comes from.
    But I am disorganised, a bit lazy, and I don’t want to shepherd 4 people onto the train, paying £150 to go 100 miles.

    So for me, slightly better is better than no improvement at all.
    The energy used can be green, depending on what the national grid is up to that day. But it’s always more green than burning dinosaurs.
    And the reduction in brake dust is always a nice plus.






  • That figure actually includes depreciation and insurance! In fact, almost half of it is just the bloody insurance… Though I should possibly make an allowance in the figure for future repair work, as it’s an older car.

    I think once my big project (and associated last second trips to the builder’s merchant) is finished, I’ll have a go at living without the car.
    My housemates may not be too happy about the private taxi service shutting down though!