Help with my Bsc Project

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 04 Jan 2009 Posts: 6

Myself and my lab partner are doing a BSc project on ecophysics, as part of our undergraduate degrees in physics fromt he University of Bristol. A major part of our project is establishing public awareness. We would be much obliged if you could answer our quick online survey for us. It can be found at http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB228PCRUZ28Z

Because we want to know general awareness, it would be most useful if you simply answered the questions as truthfully as possibly without looking up anything.

Thanks

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Was going to try it but getting " page not found"

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 04 Jan 2009 Posts: 6

link fixed. thanks.

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 11:26 pm

Quote:

link fixed. thanks.

Not yet...remove the first 'h' Smile

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 11:27 pm

page is there-clicked begin and get some options, but how do I activate my options, can't click anything, got a dead mouse on that page Wink

Edit: Not all here have the English language as their first language, does the test compensate that?
I have no clue, besides the obvious one, what a BSc project is Laughing

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 04 Jan 2009 Posts: 6

Ideally it should be completed by a wide a range of people as possible. BSc means bachelor of science - an undergraduate science degree, typically three years if completed full time in the UK. Mine is a physics degree.

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 11:50 pm

read the test and as I couldn't click any options I couldn't fill is out. Once your through you can't redo it or you have to chance IP# I guess.
Be glad you would have gotten some strange answer from this side Smile

A farm, I buy (used)vehicles(truck) for the loading options and don't care about fuel/millage, I make no miles at all.
My wife on the other hand drives 120.000 km a year easily with a car that she bought for the looks only, a Mustang big block convertible, reasonable on fuel if you keep it on cruise, but where's the fun in that, those 600+ horses want to run. Laughing

Sorry I couldn't help, but still would like to hear about the results one day.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 04 Jan 2009 Posts: 6

cheers. Seems strange, as I've had more than half a dozen do it already, and none fo them have reported problems. But if you drop me an email I can keep you up to date on the results, if you'd like?

Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 11:56 pm

Must be my limited settings on this computer, could swap IP and try on a different one, but it will just pollute your info, no use for that.
PM on it's way

Elite Baiter Joined: 17 Sep 2004 Posts: 1269

I just took your test and had no problems.

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 3:58 am

your question on what type of lighting does your house has only mentions two types: my house has a different type

but i just selected the most energy efficient one Wink

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 6:55 am

I took the survey and loved it. We just bought a 200 Kw hybrid and I've been buying 900 lumen LEDs. They have the same output as a CFL with half the input. Oh, should I not say that?

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 8:21 am

Done your survey. Couldn't answer the last question as there is no likelihood that the UK Government's introduction of grants would induce me here in New Zealand to install a home generation plant.

Also, here in New Zealand, most of our electricty is renewable, hydroelectric, geothermal and wind. We have some coal power generation and a peak gas fired power station. Unfortunately it is difficult for the power generation companies to get approval to install more wind power farms - there's a tremendous NIMBY factor at work (not in my back yard) and a strong environmental lobby which maintains that building wind turbine farms would pollute the scenic beauty of our more rugged rural areas - those being the areas where the wind blows strongest and steadiest.

Near the area where I live there are a number of smaller geothermal power stations, they extract the geothermal steam, "dry" it, drive high pressure steam turbines, then use the waste heat to boil a secondary system containing pentane which drives secondary turbines, the steam is condensed and re-injected back down into the geothermal table.

I think that the hybrid car is a bit of a red herring. Cars like the Prius and Civic hybrid may be quite ecological in short start/stop city driving, but on any long distance trips they may not in fact be as economical as a larger lower stressed engine. And in some countries, electric vehicles which are recharged at home are just moving the pollution to another site, not lessening it. Take Los Angleles. A plug in electric vehicle probably runs on electricity generated in coal or oil fired generation stations outside the city. The total pollution is no more, or less - the higher efficiency of a large thermal generation station balanced by the fact that more power than the vehicle uses has to be generated to overcome transmission losses. So all that happens is that the pollution is transferred out of the immediate area where the plug in electric vehicle is used - not a bad thing in the case of Los Angeles!

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

I filled it out. It was UK based, so I pretended I was in the UK. Wink

I have an issue with hybrid and electric cars being "Green". Something has to charge the battery. (ie: gas, coal, nuclear) Just the fact that we plug it into a socket to charge it may make us feel better, but the fuel to produce the electricity has to come from somewhere (mainly fossil fuels to date) , and those sources will probably produce just as much carbon emissions as burning gasoline (petrol, for my UK based friends)

I suppose that regenerative braking does recycle some of the energy, but does that offset the impact of the energy consumption, and CO2 output, to produce the lead/acid batteries, and the environmental impact of their disposal?

If I were to have a car that was electric, and charged by wind, solar, geothermal or hydro, then we have something that may really make a difference. And we also need to pump some money into advanced battery research.

JMHO

Master Baiter Joined: 23 Sep 2008 Posts: 236

Another one filled out Smile

Not quite a Newb Joined: 05 Jul 2008 Posts: 64

Completed as well. As I cycle or use PT to get around I didn't answer any of the motoring questions. On the rare occasions I do need to use a car I hire one.

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 10:47 am

Grimbad, the last question asks "does this change your view?" I clicked "Not at all" as I'm already totally in favour of the idea. Will my answer show as a negative response to this question? or is it linked back to the original one?

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 06 Feb 2008 Posts: 720

Done

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 04 Jan 2009 Posts: 6

Well, the last two sets of questions (hybrids and energy generation) are from two other groups, who have similar projects. We're colaborating on this (survey) section. So those sets of questions are copied verbatim from what they gave us. At the end of the day, we're looking for general trends and beliefs.

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 11:36 am

OK, well I think you might want to get them to reword the question. Asking "does it change your view," kind of depends on what the view was to begin with.

Would I like to party with a hot model? ....Hell yeah!
If you throw in £1000 will that change my view?...Not in the slightest!

Do I dislike models and cash then? or what?... see what I mean, I think you/ your friends are going to get false results with that way of asking.

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 1:34 pm

get a job - done

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 3:14 pm

Done.

EDITED TO ADD: Will we be able to see the survey results at some point? You had some excellent questions on there.

Quote:

And in some countries, electric vehicles which are recharged at home are just moving the pollution to another site, not lessening it. Take Los Angleles. A plug in electric vehicle probably runs on electricity generated in coal or oil fired generation stations outside the city. The total pollution is no more, or less - the higher efficiency of a large thermal generation station balanced by the fact that more power than the vehicle uses has to be generated to overcome transmission losses. So all that happens is that the pollution is transferred out of the immediate area where the plug in electric vehicle is used - not a bad thing in the case of Los Angeles!

Let me preface by saying that it is my opinion that most of this "green" technology is mostly rubbish and propaganda. I'm not saying that I am not for more efficient forms of energy and all that, but I think we are a long way from getting away from coal and oil. I'd like to see someone run their house on wind. The only green energy that I like is nuclear, and I consider that green because of the green glow you get from the exposure. Laughing

However, while plugging in your car to a socket (which is not how hybrids work by the way, only electric cars work that way) you are creating far less carbon emissions. Cars are not anywhere close to being as efficient as a coal power plant. Comparing the transmission losses to the inefficiency of a car is not quite accurate because transmission losses are not that great. In the US, power is usually transmitted at high voltages over long distances to prevent said losses. The voltage gets lower as it gets distributed to homes.

Quote:

I suppose that regenerative braking does recycle some of the energy, but does that offset the impact of the energy consumption, and CO2 output, to produce the lead/acid batteries, and the environmental impact of their disposal?

You are spot on there PF. The harm of a battery to the environment is probably just as bad. Ever seen the areas where batteries are actually disposed? Talk about a wasteland. It seems like these hybrids rob Peter to pay Paul so to speak. Batteries have a finite life. They have to be repleaced eventually. I don't think that the batteries are lead acid, I suspect lithium or NiCad.

I have also heard that carbon emissions in producing a hybrid car (on the factory level) is far greater than producing a standard car. I don't know if that's true, but it makes logical sense.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

Agree with Jojo. Not much more needs to be said.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

Did the survey
I'd love to have some wee wind turbines ( saw some on buildings in Bristol )
BUT we live in a listed building and can't even put a satellite dish up
and the hoops we had to jump through to install double glazing Rolling Eyes

Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 5:40 pm

jojobean wrote:

Ever seen the areas where batteries are actually disposed? Talk about a wasteland.

Almost all of the lead in a lead/acid battery is recycled into new car batteries. The traction batteries in hybrids are presently NiMHs and are not being disposed/recycled yet.

There is an area around a closed lead recycling smelter in the Dallas, TX area with a significantly higher rate of miscarriages. I have seen the graph of miscarriages vs. distance to the blast furnaces.