flyerdave01

I confess that my 4kw per day was incorrect, I was in some what of a hurry when i wrote it. I meant to say 4,000kwh pa and 11,000kwh pa combined. Some estimates go as high as 4,600kwh for electricity. It all depends upon the size of the property. Thanks for the correction. In the UK there were 27.2 million households in 2017. Currently, this equates to 27,200,000 x 4,000 = 108,800,000,000kwh per annum. (just domestic use) So lets assume a rough average of the combined rate of energy per UK household is 11,000kwh pa (no gas). This equates to 27,200,000 x 11,000 = 299,200,000,000kwh pa.(this is just domestic use) So when gas and oil runs out, using current domestic electricity energy demands (2017) we will require a further 190,400,000,000kwh pa In 2017, solar accounted for about 3.4% of Britain’s total electricity generation and 15% of the UK’s entire electricity was generated from wind power. I have been unable to find any future estimates of solar or wind generation. If all of these households have just one ev and based on the lowest battery storage, say 48kwh and use 50% per day that will be additional 27,200,000 x 24 x 365 = 238,272,000,000kwh pa. So based on the above using current UK households as of 2017 we will need to increase our electrical energy supply (just domestic plus EV use) by 3.94 times of what we use to day. This does not take into account, electric HGV's, coaches, trains, ships, ferries, roadside lighting, schools and factories converting to electrical heating, public buildings etc. Please don't shoot me down in flames, as I am very much on the side of renewable energy. I just wish to point out the enormous challenges we face within the next 30 or so years. I cannot consider that it is possible to provide future energy needs without nuclear or coal power stations. So getting back to the original question, "The end of gasoline/diesel powered cars?" I think the answer is we have to change over to electrical propulsion for all types of transportation, due to the world running out of oil and gas sometime in this century. Quite how we are going to accomplish this is another matter altogether. A fascinating subject indeed!

However, I was talking about overall power output. Sorry if this was not clear. I still think that solar panels are a great idea but there is no way they are going to provide current needs let alone future requirements. I have no idea what plans are in place, if any, but I do know we are talking considerable amounts of electricity. The average house in England currently uses about 4kw of electricity per day. Most UK houses are heated by gas and many cook by gas too. If you exchange the gas used for electricity the average kw usage goes up to 11kw per day and this does not take into account charging an ev. Someone in authority and with the ability needs to sit down and workout the actual required consumption that we will need if everything goes electric. Then work out where it will come from. If a small ev has a 48kw battery bank just imagine what a 40 ton HGV will require. Do we have our heads in the sand?

Thank you. It is a bit of chicken and egg situation regarding the flowrate and I will only know it once I have carried out my experiments.

There are a number of very large problems with Solar and Wind. Solar works moderately well in the daytime during summer months but in winter it provides next to nothing in terms of power and nothing at night and that is when power is required the most. Even EV's have less range in winter than they do in summer. Battery storage will help but colossal amounts will be required for winter and night time use. what plans are being made for this? Not a lot. Britain is blessed by being one of the most windy nations on earth but many other nations get far less wind and so generation is not as much. Wind turbines can only operate between certain wind conditions. Too much wind and they have to switch them off, too little wind and they produce much less power. We are already reliant on the French, who have much more nuclear power, when our own grid cannot produce enough now. What will this be like as everyone wants to recharge their vehicles and heat the home as well all at the same time. What about the massive amount of energy that industry will require and commercial transport too. What about ocean going ships and the vast amount of energy they will need. There is a converted car ferry running on electricity in Scandinavia that has 10 mega watt connections when in port and it only travels about 4 KM between ports.. In winter you can forget solar and if there is no wind or there are gales the wind turbines will not produce much either. That's why there has to be other sources of electrical power generation available and this needs planning now not in 30 years time and the way our politicians are handling Brexit I don't have much hope in achieving what is required. Either we have coal burning or nuclear power stations. I can see no other alternative at the moment.

As for the future of electric vehicles of all types I believe that sodium batteries may play a greater roll in 10 years time. A greater problem to replacing ice engines will be the amount of electricity we will have to generate when oil and gas starts to run out. We will require huge amounts of electrical power not only for transport but for every thing on our planet, homes, factories, schools, public buildings, shops (if any are left) and most of our heating/ air conditioning. I have serious doubts about the current infrastructure being able to cope with the vast amounts of power that will be needed in about 30 years time when the oil is used up. The current theory when oil reserves run out is 2052 so not very far ahead. We will certainly require much more cables under our streets and at the moment nuclear power stations may be the only real answer.

If I have a 15cm diameter by 3 metre high water tank with a non-return one way valve at the bottom attached to a water pump, what size and power of electric pump would I need to pump water to fill the tank? Thanks