Green Energy Fuel, Compressed Air.

Let’s talk about air as a green energy fuel. That is, cars running on compressed air.

Compressed air motors have been around for quite a while, and development of them for the motor car has been going on, on a small scale for a number of years. As usual the big car company’s are dragging their heels, and as far as I know, there is nothing in the pipeline from them, regarding compressed air as a fuel.

By now you all know that my own personal leanings are towards electric motive power, which I think scores on nearly all points over any other green fuel.

My first inclination was to dismiss compressed air as a green fuel, because of the usual problems of mechanical inefficiency, though of course there would be no energy loss through heat, but with a normal piston bore arrangement, there is still a reliance on a lot of mechanical components whirring around at vast velocities. There is however, a compressed air engine under development that could solve the above problem. Going along the theme of the old rotary engine, invented by Mr. Wankel, which died a very deserving death, or certainly should have, you will see in the latter part of the YouTube video below, that this engine has been revived, more or less, in a compressed air fuel form. Whereas the old Wankel engine was inefficient in the extreme, the air rotary engine seems to be exactly the reverse, and seems to have a much better power to weight ratio than the piston engine variety, though I can’t state this as a fact without seeing actual figures.

Of course, air driven green vehicles suffer the same draw back as all other green energy vehicles, that is; limited range. Though this problem is being addressed, but will still need the aid of a combustible fuel to heat the compressed, air to gain greater volume and expansion. So there will still be the same problem of air pollution, though on a smaller scale. The starting figures that have been mooted for the range of a combustible fuel assisted compressed air driven car are around 800 to a 1000 miles on 8 gallons of fuel,(6.4 UK gallons), which is impressive, but still leaves room for improvement. Once the big boys get in on the act, with serious investment, which they will do if they see a threat, or an advantage, then development may improve, though that doesn’t seem to be the case with the electric car.

When you see how the small private inventor develops a product, usually against mountainous odds, it really does put the large concerns to shame.

I have the feeling that there is still no real interest by the big chaps, in seriously developing green fuelled vehicles. This is only my opinion mind, but I do think that the conglomerates are keeping the range of green vehicles inadequate, so that there will still be a market for the gas guzzling, air polluting, natural resource diminishing, not to mention inefficient, internal combustion engined automobile. I hope you will excuse my little rant.

A thought has just occurred to me. As you know, here in the UK, we’re pretty heavily taxed, and not least on petrol and diesel fuel. If the compressed air car does gain a foothold, and we can pop into our local garage for a top up, then of course that fuel will be taxed, and so it will not be cheap at all, though of course it may be green, or certainly greener, our esteemed government will then actually have achieved their ultimate aim, which is, to tax Air.

I haven’t covered the safety aspects or concerns that are associated with compressed air. I would assume that these will be ironed out and tested before any manufacturing stage is reached.

Anyway, we will have to wait and see if compressed air is going to be a serious contender as a green fuel. Development in this area does seem to be gathering pace, with Tata, the Indian car manufacturer, seemingly ready for production.

As usual, I’ve added a small selection of YouTube video’s for your enjoyment. So sit back and enjoy.

What You Should Know About Rain Water Harvesting.

Rain water harvesting? Asked this question, a fair amount of people will say that they have a rain water butt in their garden for watering the plants, which alone is a good water conservation measure. How many households though have rain water harvesting, where all their practical water usage needs, apart from drinking, are met by harvesting rain water.

Unfortunately for most of us, the practical limitations of the installation of a rain water harvesting system, mean that an installation is at the least, very difficult, unless you have extremely accommodating neighbours. The reason being, quite a large hole has to be dug, to take the catchment tank, which requires the use of a mini digger, and most of the catchment tanks are largish, actually all of them are, so really good access is needed to enable the tank site to be excavated. Ok, a spade and three weeks might be an option, but not one most people would go for.

Good access being a thing that most of us don’t have, makes rain water harvesting on a large scale a no go. The alternative would be to have a much smaller system which could be used for the garden, and maybe flushing the toilet.

I have a friend who was brought up in Jamaica, and apparently all houses out there are built with full rain water harvesting installations. Not just a few hundred litre capacity either, we’re talking of several thousand gallon capacity catchment tanks. Jamaica, being pretty dry for most of the year, any rain water harvested has to last for several months.

So if you have a largish family, or even if you don’t, and you are going to move into a new build house, that’s the time to have a rain water harvesting system installed, before any garden walls or fences are put up.

Here in the UK, all new build houses have to have water meters fitted, and water, as we know, is not cheap, and will be getting scarcer and more expensive as the population grows. Again, here in the UK, a certain water company, which is foreign owned, not so long ago filled in seven reservoirs, and built houses on the sites. Whether that’s foreign thinking I don’t know, but I would call it just plain stupid. Our government should have stepped in on that one, no, I’m sorry, what am I thinking of, government ministers have much more important things to do, and I should think that filing expense claims is much more of a priority than making sure our largely foreign owned utility companies don’t stitch us up, and sell us down the river, which is where we will all be moonlighting to when we no longer have the luxury of being able to turn on the taps in our home, and see that wonderful H20 flowing clean and cool.

Back to the subject. A plumber friend of mine specialises in fitting eco systems. All of the properties he has fitted full rain water harvesting systems to are now totally independent of the water mains system, except for drinking water. Of course, with the amount of rain fall we’ve had in the UK over the last 3 years, there has certainly been an abundance of rain water to harvest.

The point is, rain water harvesting is a very good water conservation idea, whether it’s just a water butt in the garden, or the whole hog, or anything in between.

Watch the videos below, to get an idea of what’s involved in the installation of a full professional rain water harvesting system, or alternatively a plausible DIY system. In fact there’s a wealth of information on this subject, as always on just about any subject, on UTube.





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Energy Conservation Revisited, With Angry Green Girl.

I know I’ve covered this ground before, but it cannot be stressed enough, that energy conservation in the home is as important as, and goes hand in hand with renewable energy.
I’ve visited my favourite video site again in the search for fresh material, and I’ve found a very nice Angry Green Girl series of videos, and obviously, being a Male, and maybe a chauvinist at that, I think they are very entertaining, and also very informative. Seriously, they are hard hitting and serious. P.S; I’m not really a chauvinist. So, without more ado, I’ll hand you over to the wonderful YouTube, and Very Angry Green Girl & co.