Just When You Think You've Seen It All...

[Old Doug]

The general public has no idea of the scale of energy use. The only experience many people have is their car or lawn mower. They fuel their car with 20 gallons a week. But can't think of a OTR semi-truck filling 200 gallons a day. And most city people don't even have that. I'm a city bred fellow, but engineering educated. I have read on a forum someone saying we should use car batteries to power our homes instead of coal plants. On RV forums, people wonder how they can run their microwave and a/c unit on a battery or a solar cell.
The public is energy ignorant and schools, media and political leadership perpetuate that for the "Green energy" agenda. North Carolina mandates renewable energy. My electric bill has a "renewable energy surcharge" Someone is cashing in. And it isn't me.

I did work for a SMALL company that have 2 semis with tank trailers. They haul to 5 gas stations and several farmers and others. They make 2 trips each 6 days a week and have a guy that runs at night several nights a week. Then alot of times they have others haul if needed. This is a very small part of what fuel is used in a small place were there isnt alot of people. Being envolved in this i cant begin to imagine how much fuel is realy burnt in my county let alone is used in the world each day.

 

[Jonas302]

Every thing should run on steam and buffalo chips

 

[673moto]

I did work for a SMALL company that have 2 semis with tank trailers. They haul to 5 gas stations and several farmers and others. They make 2 trips each 6 days a week and have a guy that runs at night several nights a week. Then alot of times they have others haul if needed. This is a very small part of what fuel is used in a small place were there isnt alot of people. Being envolved in this i cant begin to imagine how much fuel is realy burnt in my county let alone is used in the world each day.

and then consider that consumer fuel use is the smallest portion of the pie....
When cruise ships/container ships burn more oil than all the cars in the world combined...
And That the US is the #1(country) and the #3(military) consumer of oil...
It’s mind boggling to think of the massive impact oil has on our lives.
Electric machinery is in the future, and I’m excited to use it when it’s ready, but it’s still early in the game and the tech has a long way to develop.

 

[skyking1]

change comes in fits and starts, one step forward several steps back. I think the electric push is ahead of the real change that has not been invented yet. Fusion and clean atomic energy in the future, IMO.

 

[John C.]

It doesn't matter what we think. What matters is what the people that we voted for think. What matters to them is getting elected again. I would say most of them have our interests as their primary interests. They are supposed to be listening to experts to gather information in which to make a decision. Unless some of us are aligned with those experts, all we are is a peanut gallery. Basically all we are is noise, until it's time to vote!

Stay calm, monitor and adjust.

 

[Birken Vogt]

I like these charts. Really fit my style of thinking. I hope they illustrate the scale of the issues. The scale is the thickness of the lines, not the size of the boxes.

 

[Old Doug]

Things could be changed in this country. This would make alot of people mad but if every one didnt drive a 4x4 pickup every were or if every retired person didnt think they need a 4 bedroom 5 bathroom home. My grandpa built a 2 story house and when his last kid moved out he took the upper story off. Now as soon as your kids move out you build on .

 

[colson04]

Things could be changed in this country. This would make alot of people mad but if every one didnt drive a 4x4 pickup every were or if every retired person didnt think they need a 4 bedroom 5 bathroom home. My grandpa built a 2 story house and when his last kid moved out he took the upper story off. Now as soon as your kids move out you build on .

When I built my house, my wife and I assessed where we were, and where we thought we would be in the future. We then designed and drew our house plans based on those needs (3 had, 2 bath, 1650 sq ft). We shared our plans with family/friends, and instantly, they tried to push us to build bigger. We built what we drew, and stuck to our plan. Its plenty big for a family of 5, and wont be absurdly large when we are empty nesters in 20 years. Its reasonably energy efficient, and is 100% heated by a renewable source (wood).

There are applications where I believe an electric powered machine can really shine. Interior remodel work, stationary work, etc. Places that have sufficient electrical grid available to support them.
Remote areas? No.
Large earth moving projects? Not realisitic.
High usage and mobile machines? Not cost effective or realistic.

I do think many auto users would benefit from an electric vehicle, if the electric grid could support the charging. 99% of my wife's driving could easily be done with an electric vehicle that can recharge at home every night. The other 1%, we could figure out how to accommodate, either recharging on the go, or renting a vehicle for those one off trips. In my local area, the power companies are already making massive amounts of infrastructure upgrades, including extending 3 phase power to small towns and rural areas. That will probably be a key part of commuters being able to make the switch to electric.

 

[skyking1]

we are already considering an electric for most travel at the retirement place. Keep an ICE rig for cross country. Heck i can bicycle for much of what I will do

 

[Old Doug]

I always drove a pickup or Jeep. My dad had a Buick with a 4 cylinder that needed work he told me i could have it or it would get scraped i didnt want it but figuered i could sell it after i fixed it . The very first time i drove it on a small trip i thought why had i wasted so much money on gas. I need to get another one right now i have a Dakota its a hog for what it is.

 

[kshansen]

we are already considering an electric for most travel at the retirement place. Keep an ICE rig for cross country. Heck i can bicycle for much of what I will do

Where I live and what I use one of our two cars for, runs to get gas for mower, run to most stores I go to and such, I could be happy with something having a range of 75 to 100 miles between charges.

 

[AusDave]

In Australia Kenworth prime movers for B-Double semi trailers are being converted to battery electric https://bigrigs.com.au/index.php/2021/06/23/brisbane-to-melbourne-on-a-single-battery/
When the price of diesel gets to a certain point and electricity for charging is cheap, then economics makes the electric truck more than viable.

 

[apetad]

That's what all these manufacturers of these electric machines are missing - the ability to charge all these machines on a job site.

Take for example the large arena project we recently finished. We had on site at one time -
349FL, 325FL, D5G, CS533E and a 279D
In addition there were 4 "Lull's", many warehouse forklifts, 4 CTL's, 3 mini's and 10+ manlifts.

The $1M question - how are we all going to charge those machines at the end of the day? There were night shifts often so if the night crew needed the same equipment would the crew need 2 of everything while 1 charges?

During the arena project they had to kill the main plant power to the entire complex so they brought in a huge diesel generator from UR on a tractor trailer to power the building. GC used our fuel supplier and the tanker ran daily.

I can see the future of all these green "zero emissions" electric machines all lined up to be charged by a big diesel generator on a trailer chugging away making that electricity. Press release reads - "We have a zero emissions job site just don't look at the diesel generator"...

Most dirt working projects, all the equipment has finished and gone on to the next job, before there is ANY ELECTRICAL SERVICE OF ANY KIND AVAILABLE AT SITE!

 

[digger doug]

Barn cleaning....they get used for 1/2 to 1 hour every 12 hours.

 

[Tarhe Driver]

Are the newer Buc-ee's convenience stores constructed as large as they are in anticipation of customers having to wait 30 or more minutes for a charge and being bored into shopping?

 

[Tarhe Driver]

Buc-ee's, as in "Buc-ee's convenience stores..."

 

[KSSS]

Interesting business idea! If people are going to wait for the cars to charge, might as well "mine the miner".

 

[CM1995]

Buc-ee's, as in "Buc-ee's convenience stores..."

They built one here 2 years ago. Big place, lots of gas pumps and the brisket is too sweet. I thought Texans knew how to smoke brisket..

 

[RollOver Pete]

Not everyone only runs dirt moving equipment for 5 hrs at a time. Or even 8 hrs without stopping. Some people might even go 10-12 hrs while only stopping twice to squirt the dirt. Many of us have been there a time or two.
Is that working smart ?
No.
Is that working efficiently?
No.
But there are times....lots of times when things on the job just don't go as planned. Regardless of how educated the management might be, real world is way different than what they thought they learned in that fancy college. If the managements hands are soft, supple and manicured? Run......
They live a fantasy land. Chances are that they don't know what they are talking about in the first place. These battery powered tractors are a joke. That is unless you have stock in a Chinese battery manufacturer. Just as with these mask mandates, gullible people will believe anything. Global warming? Yeah...zero emissions? Right. I don't see Chinese battery makers or anything Chinese going green. But people gobble this go green global warming propaganda up and think battery power is the answer.
Oh...how many batteries does it take to shove a megga container hauler from Asia to Long Beach? How about airforce 1 from the funny farm to Little St. James Island?
Impossible...it won't work.
Choose to work, produce, conform and live a certain way just because some schmuck saw on TV told you to?
Go for it.
Plug her in and get you some of that coal fired, petroleum fed, natural gas injected electricity. You wanna move mountains like real men once did? Hire a bunch of China men, burn diesel or repower with a pocket sized nuclear reactor. The battery technology just isn't there and won't be there...not in my lifetime.

 

[AusDave]

Hi Pete.
It's happening over here in Australia in your lifetime as mentioned above with Kenworth trucks converted to battery electric with quick battery change stations changing battery packs in the time it takes to have a cup of coffee. See https://bigrigs.com.au/index.php/2021/06/23/brisbane-to-melbourne-on-a-single-battery/

At the time bigrigs article was written the money saved using electricity instead of diesel was significant. But the cost of diesel is now much higher in Australia and the cost of electricity is going down. If I was running an interstate trucking operation these numbers would talk to me. Also in Australia we have billions of dollars of private investment going into solar and wind farms as they are now producing electricity far cheaper than coal or gas. When the sun shines over here now there is already starting to be an excess supply of power when it's not needed so filling up quick change truck batteries is a no brainer.

It's not just commercial operations which are installing renewable power systems, over 3 million Australian houses have rooftop solar installed with some states seeing times when the entire state was running on renewable power. High power prices combined with Government incentives initially caused the uptake of solar but now it's becoming so cheap to put panels on your roof that no incentive is required and Australia is a world leader in rooftop solar.

The only missing link is inexpensive battery systems but battery costs are coming down and battery technology is getting better. I remember 40 years ago when my father bought a rechargeable Skil drill. After a dozen 3/16 holes slowly bored in sheet metal for rivets the battery was flat and it wasn't long before it was left in the cupboard and a mains powered drill was used. However nowadays rechargeable drills, impact wrenches, angle grinders etc offer much more convenience and comparable power with mains powered tools and non of the hassle of power cords across sites.