Comments kiwiiano has made

  • 8 mile round trip....

    Quoting Pangolin:
    "$4 per gallon gas hits people who live even a little bit out of town much harder than the rest of us. A 3 mile round trip for you is 8 miles for them. Since they only tend to have older pickups or vans that adds up the fuel costs fast."
    My heart bleeds for you. In NZ it's $7.50 per gal and it's worse in Europe.
    One of our major problems is that we and the car industry can't get our heads around the need to downsize vehicles, by about 90%. As it is the Tata Nano is ridiculed as too small when in fact it is 3x too big. The 3-wheel triportuers to litter the roads of Asia are the transport of the future.On With food riots raging, let's open the books on the finances of Big Ag posted 1 year, 7 months ago 21 Responses

  • nano hydro

    Quoting Eric: At best, it would account for 20 percent of the house's needs -- not quite good enough for me to think too deeply about the capital expense or the fact that the town's Conservation Commission probably wouldn't allow the use. Other nearby commissions have also been unfriendly to residents employing or proposing it on their properties.....

    Back up, Erik. A perfectly usable nano hydro can be cobbled together with minimal capital expense by using a water pump, a washing machine motor,  a length of water pipe and a separate heating element on your hot water cylinder. The pipe dips into your stream as upstream as you can go and the pump/generator and return pipe as far downstream. Bury the pipe as much as possible and the CC will never know about it. (It's always easier to apologise than seek permission.) A friend here in NZ had that setup and did face the capital expense of having to install a bigger cylinder to stop it boiling.On 'Run of river' projects set for a boom? posted 1 year, 8 months ago 18 Responses

  • Can they cope with plugins?

    I guess that depends on whether the average plugin car is the pedal-assisted lightweight actually required for 90% of all journeys or the electric equivalent of a 150mph 4WD Hummer that most Americans (and others) fondly imagine they need.On Innovative idea may reduce renewable energy costs posted 2 years ago 8 Responses