What annoyed you today?

[jimthetrain]

Whilst out in Tobago we noticed the fuel price was $1.50TT ( 15 pence ) a litre for diesel and $2.60TT ( 26 pence ) a litre for unleaded. It cost £10 to fill the car up. 

[Oldboy]

Whilst out in Tobago we noticed the fuel price was $1.50TT ( 15 pence ) a litre for diesel and $2.60TT ( 26 pence ) a litre for unleaded. It cost £10 to fill the car up. 

At that price you could have brought a tanker load, shipped it back home and with the money you saved, could go back next year. 

[Hinfrance]

As a litre of unleaded is just over 50p from the refinery gates, you could have made a huge profit if you could have squirreled some away in your hold luggage

[krennon]

Q? Electric cars....why don't they make them with swappable batteries....so a bit like the old camping gas canisters you just exchange a discharged one for a full one that would cut out to a degree the problem with the limited mileage that electric cars are currently suffering from...have them in petrol stations and maybe places like kwik fit etc so you just pull in exchange your dead battery for a fully charged one and away you go.....am I the only person that's thought of this....it seems to make perfect sense to me...

WAMT price of petrol and staff being bloody awkward at the moment tgif though....

[hevans]

Q? Electric cars....why don't they make them with swappable batteries....so a bit like the old camping gas canisters you just exchange a discharged one for a full one that would cut out to a degree the problem with the limited mileage that electric cars are currently suffering from...have them in petrol stations and maybe places like kwik fit etc so you just pull in exchange your dead battery for a fully charged one and away you go.....am I the only person that's thought of this....it seems to make perfect sense to me...

Replacing the batteries is a bit more work, however they have been investigating changing the dielectric fluid (acid in lead acid batteries). The charge is actually stored in this fluid, although it does tend to be caustic.

I remember seeing a calculation of the amount of electrical power (wattage) that would be required to charge an electric car in the same time as filling with fuel. Turned out that cables capable of carrying megawatts would be required, and of course the batteries would quickly fry if you pumped that kind of current through them. The advantage of petrol/diesel is the very high and (reasonably) stable energy densities.

H.

[skellum]

UNITED UTILITIES     We have a water meter at the shop and we don't use very much water so no problem but...  all businesses have to pay this ridiculous charge for taking away the rain that falls of our roof.

[Jonathan]

UNITED UTILITIES     We have a water meter at the shop and we don't use very much water so no problem but...  all businesses have to pay this ridiculous charge for taking away the rain that falls of our roof.

Actually they don't.  If they can demonstrate that the water doesn't make it into the public drains then they don't pay for a service they don't use.  This is partly to encourage people to have grass which soaks up water instead of concrete which runs it off.

It's no coincidence that drains started overflowing badly when everybody started converting their gardens to "hard landscaping".

[spinner]

Where I live we have a simple formula, not accurate for waste mind, but waste water equals water used. Doesn't matter the coffee you drank at home this morning got pee'd out at work an hour later. 
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[Hinfrance]

Q? Electric cars....why don't they make them with swappable batteries....so a bit like the old camping gas canisters you just exchange a discharged one for a full one that would cut out to a degree the problem with the limited mileage that electric cars are currently suffering from...have them in petrol stations and maybe places like kwik fit etc so you just pull in exchange your dead battery for a fully charged one and away you go.....am I the only person that's thought of this....it seems to make perfect sense to me...

WAMT price of petrol and staff being bloody awkward at the moment tgif though....

The suggestion you have made is exactly how Renault/Nissan see it working. Service stations would have a supply of charged battery packs which they would swap for the one in the customer's car. It hasn't got a prayer of working, of course, but they are relying on the fact that, at least at first, electric cars will be bought by rich eco warriors who won't be going very far.

General Motors (Chevrolet Volt, soon to be an Opel/ Vauxhall version) have got a much better idea. Their electric car will only do about 40 miles on a charge. But it also has a petrol engine that drives a generator when the batteries are flat, meaning that if necessary it has a similar range to an all petrol car. The drivetrain is totally electric. As most people mostly do journeys of less than 40 miles (daily commute for example) in practice the petrol generator will be little called upon in quotidian use. The car will fully charge up over night or at your place of work during working hours.

The only problem, of course, is that most of us won't be able to afford one, while we will all contribute through taxation towards the inevitable subsidy.

[anglefire]

I understand the swap out battery option is being trailed in Israel - mostly because they don't want to be reliant on Arab Oil.

Biggest issue will be the replacement costs, which have to be factored into the exchange scheme  - also would mean you couldn't charge it at home, I would think.

[Mick]

UNITED UTILITIES     We have a water meter at the shop and we don't use very much water so no problem but...  all businesses have to pay this ridiculous charge for taking away the rain that falls of our roof.

Dave, did you realise that most people pay that surface water charge on their homes, and don't know they are being robbed.   (this probably won't apply to your shop).

If you can prove that the surface water is going into a soak away (a lot do) and not down the main drain, you can stop the charge, and even claim some of it back.  My neighbour has already done this.   Apparently there's a form you can get from your water provider.

[Hinfrance]

I understand the swap out battery option is being trailed in Israel - mostly because they don't want to be reliant on Arab Oil.

Biggest issue will be the replacement costs, which have to be factored into the exchange scheme  - also would mean you couldn't charge it at home, I would think.

The idea is that you lease the supply of a battery pack. Yes, you can recharge it at home if you want. But unlike the Chevy, the Renault system requires special chargers, and can you even begin to imagine the chaos on a motorway when the service areas run out of charged battery packs during peak times? Not to mention the horrific cost of it all . . .

[Alfonso_Frisk]

WAMT ? and Yesterday
My HP printer has died and is now in a lot of bits.
However, I have lots of inks for it but can I hell get a printer which uses both sets of carts.
They will fit some other older printers but not as a pair.
Annoying to say the least.
Looks like the carts will have to go on flea bay and I will look at another brand such as epson.
So if anyone uses HP carts 339 and 344 drop me a pm

[SimonW]

I've often used a supplier called "Ink and Stuff". A couple of years back I had a printer die while I had several unused spare cartridges in unopened packs. Ink and Stuff were quite happy to take them back, giving me full credit against cartridges for the new printer.  No harm in asking the supplier you got yours from....

[Skhilled]

Great idea, SimonW.