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Cool Fuel
By jmk, Section Reviews Posted on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 12:16:20 PM MST
New show on the sience chanel

I watched this show last night and thought it was pretty neat. It's about an Australian guy touring the states useing only renewable energy. He has a couple of people following him around in an r/v, and houling various types of electric vehicals. He used an electric Harley cruiser, e-cars, e/bikes, and other various vehicals. He goes on sertan stretches were he only will use power from one type of green energy. It shows neat high bread cars from around the country. It also showed some huge ethenoul refineries, garbage powered turbines,and some neat hydro. I thought some of you people would like the show. If you watched what did you think of it?

Cool Fuel | 9 comments (9 topical)

Re: Cool Fuel (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by nothing to lose on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 07:25:30 AM MST

I don't watch TV so I didn't see the show. Sounds maybe interesting.
How much gas or diesel does he use for the RV hauling the RE vehicles?
In a way though it sounds like touring the USA on a bicyle, not exactly the same thing when being towed by a CAR :)

Does the RV have a generater for charging the electrics? Curious how they are recharged while he travels the country. Is the RV ran on Ethanol or bio diesel?
.
nothing to lose

Spelin and tpying are my strong points, not electronics.

Re: Cool Fuel (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by riskable on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 11:28:46 AM MST

I watched a bit of the show as well...

The RV ran on bio-diesel and when they were trekking around colder states, they used an ethanol/bio-diesel mix to prevent the the bio-diesel from gelling and causing engine problems.

Each bike he rode could only go ~20 miles so he was on a regular bike rotation throughout the show. Early on he didn't have that E-Harley so he spent quite a bit of time going like 15MPH on an electric scooter... Which was quite ridiculous (they were going for "hilarious", but I quickly grew tired of seeing boring footage of him putzing down the highway in the middle of nowhere).

I thought the most interesting vehicle he drove was the BMW roadster convertible that ran on ethanol. They didn't give ANY details about it and was featured for about 15 minutes straight. Then, about 20 minutes later into the show they had the car again and it was revealed that it had a hydrogen fuel cell in the trunk to boost gas mileage and they said nothing more of it. He was like, "Cool!" and then they drove... With more endless driving footage. What a waste!

Another interesting part of the show was when he took a trip on a 1984 Cessna plane that ran--unmodified--on ethanol. I tried to google information about the plane but the only thing I found was a 2002 advisory from Cessna saying that using ethanol in their planes was dangerous. That would explain why the Cool Fuel team was so worried about their star when he was on the plane =)

-Riskable
http://riskable.com
"I have a license to kill -9"
[ Parent ]

Re: Cool Fuel (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by jmk on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 11:49:57 AM MST

I thought the Volkswagan made from a high school teacher and students was cool. They turned it into the drivers ed car, and has had over 500 kids learn to drive from it.
jmk

Re: Cool Fuel (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by Walt on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 03:31:14 PM MST

I watched as well. If I remember correctly the plane was a Mooney from South Dakota and the only modification was that the fuel jet had to be enlarged. The RV ran on bio-diesel but didn't have a generator so they bought one and ran it on ethanol. There was a lot of footage of him riding that boring but they did show some good footage of e-car though.

Re: Cool Fuel (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by jmk on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 04:48:41 PM MST

I like how his dog rides in a back pack. He is standing up looking over the guys shoulder wareing goggles, as they cruse down the road. The show is a little goofy, but some of the stuff like the micro hydro dams in Colorado. One of the dams on private property has a three foot head, and I beleave it was three hundred feet of drop. He powers all thirty houses in the area, and still sells extra back to the power co.
jmk

Re: Cool Fuel (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by nothing to lose on Sun Apr 23, 2006 at 10:08:48 PM MST

"Each bike he rode could only go ~20 miles so he was on a regular bike rotation throughout the show. Early on he didn't have that E-Harley so he spent quite a bit of time going like 15MPH on an electric scooter... Which was quite ridiculous (they were going for "hilarious", but I quickly grew tired of seeing boring footage of him putzing down the highway in the middle of nowhere)."

Well it sounds like the show had ups and downs to it. I hope it did more good for RE than harm! I didn't see it so don't have an opinion.

Problem with so much of TV or Media is they ruin the good stuff by always over promoting the problems and not showing enough of the benifits.

If they did not show real E-bikes much that can go 75miles at 60mph, but showed alot of 20mile 15mph e-bikes they probably added fuel to the anti electric peoples bond fires.
You know who I mean, the people that only know what they see on TV or read in papers, then argue with us that wind gennies won't power our home because they read MEGA wind farms for power companies were a flop.
They can't understand the differnce between trying to power 1 home or 12 major cities!

Same type people can't fathom that E-bikes and E-Cars have real range and real speeds.
Like Jerry's truck!

Speaking of Vehicles, E85 is available at SOME MFA stations in MO. now, not all. I don't know of any in my area, I checked. MFA in Charlston MO (next to BoomLand) exit 10 I57 sells it (about $0.50 less than regular unleaded) and one other I know of I think in Dexter, MO. The one near me does not sell it. They looked at me like "what is that" when I asked them :(

This is what I mean about BAD TV or Media impresions. I still have everyone argueing with me all about how making Ethanol is not cheaper than gas based on junk they read or TV show they watched, probably 5 years ago at that, but yet the MFA sells E85 for $2.19 and Unleaded for $2.69 last I was there. They are not losing $0.50 or more a gallon I bet!
.
nothing to lose

Spelin and tpying are my strong points, not electronics.

Re: Cool Fuel (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by electrondady1 on Mon Apr 24, 2006 at 06:14:40 AM MST

it can be frustrating watching tv if your technical.
i've seen a one hour documentry on big windmills on the discovery channel a few times.they spend most of the time on stuff that doesnt matter ( the crane operators brand of pipe tobacco) and all of 6 seconds (i counted) on the actual generator.

[ Parent ]

Re: Cool Fuel (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by Bruce S on Wed Apr 26, 2006 at 01:21:39 PM MST

NTL;
I can tell you the more I see about the E85 on TV around StL the better and it's actually getting better. Shell, Ford and GM have all gotten on the band wagon too. Mostly they see it as a sellers trick, but since KPLR has been out here to talk about the e-trike, they are always calling and asking what "we" think.
One thing most people don't know also that those newer 4 stroke scooter run just perfectly on the E85.
Nice and peppy too.
After taking a short break to take a lazy person look at how I can continue to make 160P in a single run without burning up a heater and also to have somewhat of a continous batch process. I think I finally have a much easier system.
The only real draw back that I've seen with others finding out about being able to use the E85 is that know its getting expensive and that the St. Charles places actually ran out of E85 for a short time.

Cheers!
Bruce S

[ Parent ]

Re: Cool Fuel (3.00 / 0) (#9)
by nothing to lose on Sun Apr 30, 2006 at 02:50:44 AM MST

Hey BruceS
Been awhile since we shot e-mails back and forth like we were.
I may be cruising past ST L soon on way to Chicago, We'll get together if you want.
Also got a new idea to test out on the fuel distilling, and would like to hear yours too.
Not much for posting here right now on the subject, but e-mailing might be good.
.
nothing to lose

Spelin and tpying are my strong points, not electronics.
[ Parent ]

Cool Fuel | 9 comments (9 topical)

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