Tesla Founders Blog

I’m in Pasadena, 2 blocks from Caltech..only several miles from you in Monrovia. When I got my house in ‘84 (24 yrs ago), there was a solar vendor who would put up solar arrays on the roof (plus do an optional attic insulation). I didn’t go with it, but it’s interesting that solar was being pushed way back then.

I had my roof done a few years ago, & the contractor threw in a freebie: 2 solar power roof fans (they turn on automatically in sunlight). You can get a rebate from the local DWP. I assume yours are manually (or automatically) switched on. You must shop at the Home Depot in Monrovia (Mountain Ave.)?

I have large tree on the SW, & they provide some partial shade of the roof. That helps. In the summer, I start running the A/C (window unit in my living room) in late afternoon when the heat “hits” (the cooked attic air begins to penetrate). I turn it off after an hour. I then use an interesting “air flow system”: I close the doors to isolate the living & family room, open the front door, & stick a fan in a window (which blows out). This sucks in cool evening air from the front door. I turn it off before going to bed. My bed is in my living room (!), so I can sleep without A/C.

You’ll recall that when you were at Coordinated Science Lab/AARG (summer intern), it was 1 block away from University High School (across from Computer Science Bldg).

1 of my high-school classmates became CFO of Siemens Solar (now Shell Solar) in Camarillo/CA, he’s a double PhD in business & Computer Science. As of 2000, he’s back in Switzerland looking for a startup company. My other high-school classmate is a PhD in Material Science (U of Arizona, UIUC undergrad in Ceramic Engineering), now at NREL, Photovoltaic Research/Performance & Reliability Testing. He told me a few years back he’s 1 of the worlds leading solar cell fabricator. Bpth of these guys (& me) were Class of ‘75, another alumni (Theodore Gray ‘82) co-founded Wolfram Research with Stephen Wolfram.

I do remember looking out the window of CSL 1 day (’80?), & seeing a professor driving a research electric car (crude thing, totally open) on the corner of Springfield Ave/Goodwin Ave. A student passing by, gave him the thumbs up. Funny thing, here we are 28 years later at nearly the same location talking about electric & solar, having converged on “automotive”.

I started my Jumplive.com project in 2005, which addressed multimedia in automotive racing (with a spinoff for Physics conferences). I made a lot of contacts in Auto Racing (Offroad, Champcar, Formula 1), all who have heavy auto mfr involvement (Toyota, Nissan, Ford, Chevy, BMW, et al). This is something Tesla Motors needs to have, an R&D program in auto-racing. This would have prevented the “engineering issue” that led to the “personnel issue” (aka stealth bloodbath). I met Andrew Heard of Xtrac (heavy involvement with auto racing: F1, IRL, offroad), & they’ve been working with a leading offroad team in Class 1 (BMW M5 power). After over a year of testing (lots of breakage), they finally won their 1st race 2 months ago (SCORE San Felipe 250). It involves high dynamic shock loads, similar to the issues withthe Roadster. Xtrac is also involved with CORR

[ being Sierra Madre, you know of Baldwin Ave., named after 1 of the founding S. California real-estate tycoons "Lucky Baldwin". His descendant Jim Baldwin owns CORR, which I've been doing a project with since '05 ]

which has their inaugural ‘08 race this weekend in Pomona. Just 20 minutes down the 210 fwy from you (& me). It’s gas-guzzling gearhead racing (offroad). I’m good friends with the Pro 2 team using the Xtrac tranny. But, like pavement racing, it’s an opportunity for R&D for EV vehicles. The Long Beach GP that just happened over the weekend, showcased EV race cars way back in ‘93.

Hi Martin,

thanks for the post. It’s interesting to note how much has changed in home construction over the past forty years. Where I live, in Ontario, Canada, many of the features that you mentioned are standard in new homes, and have been for a couple of decades now. We experience a large seasonal temperature range, from -45C in winter to +45C in summer, so we have to plan for both extremes!
I am especially impressed that you opted for the white roof. That shows real commitment to reducing energy consumption, but it probably has your energy guzzling neighbours puzzled.:) Some of the hockey arenas in Canada have silver roofs to deflect solar radiation in the summer, as the energy costs of maintaining a big slab of ice when it’s +40C outside can be kinda high. Personally, I think they should let it melt, and then use roller blades in the summer, but I’m not exactly a hockey purist… Most of the house roofs in Canada are just your typical asphalt shingles in brown, grey, black, etc.

I have a few ideas for boosting energy efficiency of homes. I noted that you installed ceiling fans in the bedrooms, and that your house is tri-level. I’m assuming (I know, I know, please correct me if I’m wrong…:)) that your home is a more traditional layout, with the bedrooms on the upper level, since it was built in the early 60’s. If this is the case, then, as we all know, hot air rises, and accumulates in the bedrooms during the hot afternoon and early evening. The hot air forms layers against the ceiling which become progressively cooler the further from the ceiling they are. My suggestion is that, instead of using a ceiling fan to stir that hot air against the ceiling with the cooler air underneath, we use extractor fans that vent to the outside of the house to permanently remove the hottest air from the room, thereby significantly lowering the average temperature of the air left in the room. Vented air would be replaced by cooler air from other parts of the house. Of course, you would only need to switch on the extractor fans about 1/2 hour before bedtime to ensure that the bedrooms are nice and cool by the time you go to bed. You may want to leave in the ceiling fans for the colder weather though, as you would want to mix the warmer air against the ceiling with the cooler air beneath it in that situation.

One other thing, and I don’t know if Carolyn would go for it, but, here goes.:) Those 24 ft. south-facing, sliding glass doors, you mentioned that they are low-e glass, and that they have exterior UV shades. I don’t know exactly what type of shades you mean, so maybe this idea is unnecessary. Have you ever looked into covering them with a silvered film (on the outside)? This still lets in light, but reflects a great deal of the high energy solar radiation from entering the house (btw, the oak tree sounds magnificent!). This tends to reduce the need for curtains, and you get to keep your view.

Perhaps you have already considered these ideas and rejected them for one reason or another. I don’t know, but I hope that you find them useful.

All the best,

Chris H.

Martin sez:

Hi Martin,

just a clarification. I read over my post again, and your response, and I think there was a bit of mis-communication. I was talking about applying the silvered film to the outside of the windows, the glass, not the shades. As I read over my post, I realized that it sounds like I’m talking about applying it to the shades, sorry.

All the best,

Chris H.

About hot / cold water for clothes, I think there is some psychological issue for most people using hot water. I was that way in the past but after some testing proved to myself that it made no difference at all. Not only that, I now use about 1/2 as much soap as before (in the washer and dishwasher). No doubt those with “hard” water need to use more soap but that is a water specific issue. The little line on those cups are not really useful for anything aside from a soap limbo contest (how low below the line can you get and still have everything be clean

Imagine if everyone did these simple steps, the size of the impact it would have. I think sometimes the new tech (EVs included) take attention away from how big a difference the really easy and really affordable (free or in this example cost savings for soap and heating energy) changes can make. Of course, when you do both it is ideal but like you say there is no green solution ripping up your oak hardwood and putting down bamboo, the same can be said for replacing some gas cars with EVs. There is a lot of energy and fuel that goes into making any new car and that part of the equation is not always factored in.

Hi Martin,

Congrats on your wisdom to keep the existing parts of the home, the embodied energy in that far surpasses any savings gained from discarding and building new.

We diligently teach our children the benefits of recycling aluminum cans, but did you know that the demolition of just one 5000 sq. ft. building either residential or commercial can whip out the entire aluminum can collection benefit for a city of 50,000?

Why don’t we teach our children with equal vigor not to throw away old buildings?

So bravo!

I would simply add for those interested in energy savings and walking lightly, to check out the information at the California Center for Sustainable Energy website http://www.sdenergy.org/ its full of great information.

Tankless water heaters should be standard on all new home construction projects. Not so in remodels, but first the new home scenario. They shorten plumbing runs by being centrally located (less copper, less cost to install plumbing lines) They save 20% to 30% on energy cost, and with typical new home and custom home construction at around 200 a sq. ft. , they also save 5 sq. ft. of space by mounting in between studs, as opposed to on a 30” by 30” raised platform that cost a few hundred to build. The best reason though, is because if anything wears out in the tankless in twenty years it will be the copper heat exchanger about the size of a typical ream of paper, easy to replace and fully recyclable because of the high cost of copper. On the other hand the same twenty years will produce a couple of full size water heaters that end up at the dump.

On remodels, in many cases it makes better sense to insulate the existing water heater and or solar heat the water.

It’s a new old world. Be liberally conservative!

Cheers
Peder

You’ve really been mindful with your renovation.

Sounds like you’ve done more than enough to save A/C load. Any further efforts to save A/C would probably cost more energy than they would save.

If all of your family members (kids too) turn off lights religiously then wall box sensors won’t save much energy but they would still add convenience. Bathrooms, closets, entryways, etc are perfect locations. Dimmers can save energy if full light levels aren’t needed all of the time, but with compact fluorescents these savings are mitigated and you would need dimmable ones too.

I assume low flow showers, faucets, and toilets are commonplace or required in CA. If not they save water AND power (water pumps).

Energy star isn’t the only measure of a refrigerator’s real world power use. Some are designed for more efficient utilization. Properly sized freezers, exterior ice/water dispenser, and quick access doors for your most commonly used items all help to reduce actual energy use.

Martin sez:

Yes, low-flow toilets and shower heads have been mandatory here in California for decades. We also installed a low water usage dishwasher (Bosch) and a low water usage washing machine (stacked Maytag Neptune. Awesome machine!)

In California getting a whole house fan makes a lot of sense. It can be very hot during the day, but cool down at night outside. The attic can get up to over 150 deg. F and stay hot at night, sauteeing your upper flow upside down. Crack a window and a whole house fan brings cool air from outside and pushes it into and out of attic, cooling the house and the attic at the same time.

During the day a solar attic fan can keep the attic at a temperature nominally the same as outside.

California also offers rebates for whole house fans. They are made a lot better than they used to be. They are quiet and are located inside of the attic with a duct attached to it instead of next to the ceiling.

Have a look at heat pump water heaters. They’re only just barely available here in the states, but a friend in Japan informs me they’re in heavy development and deployment there, thanks to government incentives (and they use CO2 as a refrigerant!). They have a typical COP (watts per watt) of 3 or 4, so you can heat your water efficiently with your PV system, and if you pre-heat the inlet water with solar thermal, so much the better!

Since most of them use air as a heat source, their natural byproduct (cool, dry air) can be vented into your living space in the summer.

For space heating, we recently installed SEER 21 ductless heat pumps in several rooms, removing our old gas furnace in the process.

Martin sez:

Cool. I looked into CO2 refrigerant for electric cars last year. I think this will be the way of the future for all automotive A/C, but the equipment is not quite ready for a production car. Give ‘em about 3 more years, I think.

I saw the Nova episode “Car of the Future” and it was excellent. Usually, I watch these “green” vehicle documentaries and can count the misconceptions and mis-statements on two hands, but they had a very balanced representation of the current technologies.

Photos of the Tesla Roadster simply do not do the vehicle justice – everytime I see video of the vehicle in motion, my jaw drops at how gorgeous it is.

Most amazingly, even though most all that video for that episode has been shot in the last year, the information was already outdated, as advancements and better understanding has sunk in, for instantce A123 and LG Chem have delivered “satisfactory” battery prototypes to GM, and GM execs are not letting up on a 2010 launch date.

If they replay the episode this week, make sure you tune in.

Hi Martin:
Just wanted to say I enjoy reading your blog. I learn so much when I come here.

Was just curious…you mentioned your coming electric car at the end of this column…Do you know when your Tesla may be arriving? When you get it, I hope you will chronicle your experiences in living with an actual electric sports car. Looking forward to reading about this!

Best regards.

Has anyone ever thought of two roof layers, separated by an air gap of maybe 10 inches? No fans needed.

Convection is nature’s little air mover. Seems harnessing that natural phenomenon is longer term solution, be it not high tech.

Top roof layer could be solar panels and shades an under-roof layer. Maybe that’s what insulation in the attic is supposed to do, but it seems convection would keep the underside of a upper roof layer cooler, and the lower layer would always be shaded.

Maybe that’s what clay tiles do in Greece?

Nova interview clips of Martin:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/car/open/clip-inte-eber.html

Makes me nostalgic for when I first heard about the company.

Hi Martin,

this post is a little off-topic, so I apologize in advance. Also, I realize that you may not be at liberty to discuss this, but there’s a question that’s been nibbling at the periphery of my thoughts for the last six months or so. Regarding the production delay of the Roadster. The issue causing the delay centered around the reliability of the transmission, right? As far as I’m aware there was no issues with the production of the chassis, bodywork, brakes, suspension, steering, interior, ESS, motor, etc., during the past six months. The “glider” that arrives from Hethel could have been built six months ago, and delivered to San Carlos where the drive-train will eventually be installed. I know that TM would have had to pay to store these vehicles for a few months, but at least they would have been ready to go as soon as the transmission fix was ready; no additional delays for production of the glider, shipping to California, or “extensive customization work”. Each additional delay seems to be causing a major public relations problem, and may even cost TM future sales. It also provides fodder to the rabid, anti-EV, fossil fuel boosters out there. The cost of storing 10 or 20 cars for 3 or 4 months would seem to be a small price to pay to avoid all this bad publicity. I guess I’m just wondering why TM would delay the production of the gliders until after the transmission fix is finalized. I would imagine that no matter what the transmission fix was, it would not involve modifying the chassis, etc., at this stage of the game. To put it bluntly, Tesla Motors appears to be haemorrhaging goodwill at this point, when it clearly could have been avoided, or at least mitigated, with a little careful planning. My question is “Why?”.

Perhaps I am missing something. There may be regulations that prohibit this. I don’t know. It just seems that new management could have spent their time more productively than whipping out the hatchet and chopping off heads, figuratively speaking. Anyway, I hope that you can provide some insight into this issue, for me and for many others who must be thinking the same thing.

All the best,

Chris H.

P.S. Since when did a different colour of grey and two orange stripes constitute “extensive modifications”?

short of actually doing something, spare us of these martha stewart home improvement tips
write about something solid like what amount of chemicals are in a LiFePO4 battery and what do they really cost. I got to thinking that even the cheapest chinese batteries are hideously overpriced compared to what the chemicals must really cost. and it’s not like it’s something hard to make like crystalline solar panels

Thank you very much for giving the talk at UIUC today. I look foward to hearing about your future ventures.

Martin,
Are your cooktops induction? While you need to be a little fussy with your cookware, they are extremely energy efficient and kid-safe. I believe they are about 85% efficient.

Rumor has it that Kleiner, Perkins et al is working with Martin and Martha Stewart on a designer line of ducts, elect. wiring, plumbing lines. etc. Stewart was quoted as saying, in response to skeptical critics: “sure you’ll never see this stuff after it’s installed but does that matter, I mean really!?-the answer is no “. At first they were thinking of doing a Frank Gehry line instead, but as Perkins said: “Frank, this is crazy-these lines are zig-zagging everywhere, colliding with each other, bisecting each other, full of holes even…! ” To which Frank (recklessly) interrupted: “so?- and your point iz !?”. A google image search of Gehry turns up a lot of his current stuff- I like it all, except for that white IAC bldg. (supposed to recall sails on the nearby Hudson River in N.Y.), which is lukewarm by his standards. I’d hate to be one of his semi-drone employees (of 175 or more) doing the nitty- gritty working dwgs., etc. on his bldgs., but the results are something else-for now and posterity even.

T.J., the boutique designer plumbing and wiring concept you joked about is already in place in the high tech world. A standard joke in that world is that physicists and engineers are just glorified plumbers, especially if you think of wiring as the plumbing of electrons. I deal with beautiful and very expensive stainless steel tubing and fittings, and beautiful deep blue semi-transparent ultra-clean plastic plumbing. The variety of expensive electrical and electronic hardware is staggering.

Although none of it is designed to resemble fish or sailboats, it’s so well crafted that I used to fantasize about using it in houses, and exposing it instead of hiding it inside walls. You could be proud of it instead of seeming to be ashamed of it.

The big downside is that it collects dust and is hard to keep clean. The scientific counterpart of that is in cleanrooms, where we keep as much of it hidden as we can.

Gabe,

Peak time use of power is the main issue utilities face and coal firesd or Natural Gas fired peaker plants to provide the boost are the norm. Precisely when this peak time use is needed is when solar generates its most power.

So while true that you use power from the grid at night, the offset of providing peak power duing the heavy use time is a much much better scenerio.

It’s kind of like you give me five dollars and I give you ten dollars. You are five dollars ahead and in much better shape than before.

Cheers
Peder

Martin sez:

Exactly so. When we have so much solar generating capacity that afternoon peaks and nighttime troughs on the grid are eliminated, then storage will become important. Until then, storing solar energy on the grid, as it were, is far more efficient than any battery ever invented.

Correction-nuke ship in question was the NS Savannah, about the nicest looking freighter (which also carried passengers) ever built, per google image search. Built around the time of the S.S. United States, another great ship that’s still around: which was built using a whole lot of aluminum, the ship still holds the “blue ribband” record for fastest atlantic crossing by an ocean liner.

Jason-as long as it works, and they say it does. Who knows how long it will finally take but the planet’s going as green as Ireland one day- I can smell it (smells like new-mown lawn ). Next will come the overiding concept of “planet management” where we get serious about population reduction and pockets of endless stupidity like Haiti- which was 60% forest in 1923, now less than 2%., where they make 2 bucks a day if they’ve even got a job (working making Disney & Nike apparel items, etc. for chickenchow ) and they don’t eat too well either-leading to tuberculosis, including the bad type. Of course closer to home we have Detroit. Throw the Haiti job to Oprah “as a warning to the rest of the world” the joint’s only the size of Maryland afterall-I can see it now: every clothing item her pal Vera Wang designs will be made in Haiti, and there will be an Oprah Roast gourmet coffee line, and the Oprah/Trump eco resort-and yearly “free Haiti” or “flee Haiti”, if “you live there and you can”) concerts by her buddy Bono’s U2. Yeah, like in London they used to paint on alley walls :” Clapton is God” now it will be” Oprah is God” (or, my personal choice: “Frank Gehry is God”). This world is swimming in so much cash in so many sectors there’s no excuse for Haiti: poorest country in the western hemisphere like, forever (but not much excuse for New Orleans either-at least Brad Pitt & buddies are on that case somewhat)- yeah, while alligator Birkin handbags go for $32,000-a guy on T.V. makes his living “cornering the market” on these things thru his “connections”-hey, “it’s a living”. The Birkin people should make them in Haiti, then they could make even more profit.

TJ,

I think people are finally starting to realize that their are fundamental cultural problems with a place like Haiti and Detroit, etc. These are cultures that don’t understand the basic concepts of property rights (in Lockean terms), and therefore, cannot identify and pursue those things that would grow an economy. Latte liberals would like you to think that these people only need solar panels, bio-fuel and the internet, and then they would be all set, but those things won’t get them to put down their machetes. I honestly don’t know how you convert a non-viable culture, but I am certain that non-viable cultures eventually get displaced.

Gabe: As many have mentioned there are ways to store energy without expensive batteries, like molten salt, pumping water upwards, old used batteries. There’s still a long way until there is too much renewable energy generation to make this into a problem. A stationary fuel cell and water electrolysis might even be usefull in saving energy from solar and wind. Still with a limited number of old-school nuclear or more likely newer Thorium based reactors as well as hydroplants should be able to keep us through the night. A coalplant if you pay for the CO2 you release is newer a good idea. Speaking of individual ways to save power, I don’t know if heat exchangers has been mentioned. That is very popular here in Norway at least compared to solar (for obvious reasons). They can even work without any expensive wells and just need a trinkle of power to keep the pump going.

My point was not that we shouldn’t invest in solar – only that reducing pollution isn’t simple.

A common suggestion that gets passed around in the general public is that switching to CFL’s reduces “such and such a number” of C02 emissions. This is a misconception of how energy production actually works.

Power plants run their stacks in order to provide power capacity – unless they see a long term trend towards less power consumption, they don’t reduce the output. For example, turning off all the power in your house for a day does not result in ANY carbon savings; the power plant continues to spew to generate electricity whether it gets used or not.

To reduce emissions, we need long term lower trends throughout the service grid. Solar accomplishes this, but has a floor: it can’t generate all the power you need.

Martin sez:

The San Jose Tech Museum has a great demonstration of this principal. They have a generator rigged to a stationary bicycle that you can pedal. From a console on the handlebars, you can switch in and out various loads – trying incandescent bulbs versus compact fluorescents, for example. The difference in load is obvious to the generator (you).

Chris H.
I don’t believe that the production of the Tesla Roadsters was significantly delayed by the transmission problems. In order not to delay production they have decided to issue the first cars with the 2-speed transmission and fix them later.

Martin’s house has a low carbon footprint-but should it become a carbon footprint (smoking variety) I’ll design a replacement free. I envision wood, like his current ranch house, I assume (oak floors and all) combined with some steel I-Beam action, per the ‘57 Classic Eichler home he had once. Yes, I can see it now: woodsy meets ’50’s modernist steel: kind of like Frankie’s latest-per google image search of “Frank Gehry London pavillion”, I like it. But fortunately for Martin, in more ways than one (perhaps !?) , I do believe the fires won’t take out his house, per latest news.

Martin, that might be so for small gas turbines – but for steam power, the (burning/reaction) of (coal/gas/fissionable material) requires more lead time (i.e. forecasting). Most power plants operate at 35-60% efficiency – some of which is the result of staying “hot” even when there are downward fluctuations in the resistance of the generator coils.

Flicking off the lights for a minute does reduce the amount of electricity being used – but it also lowers (by a minute amount) the efficiency of the generator, since they are producing less electricity for the same amount of fuel.

What matters is long-term solutions. My point about CFLs is that while the saved kw/h’s can be easily calculated, it doesn’t translate directly (and exactly) into C02 savings. The world is more complicated than that.

Gabe: You are of course correct in that whenever I turn off the lights in my house the net effect on the power grid is miniscule. BUT the effect on my power bill is immediate and probably even noticable if I’ve made logs of my daily draw. That means if you do save power you can get immediate feedback even though the CO2 savings are not immediate. The feedback is important because then more people will consider doing it, and then when 1 million people do it, the effect on the grid will be felt. It’s the same way carbon offsets usually means some Co2 will be spared somewhere, it might not be as much as they promise in comaprison if the money wouldn’t be there, but it will usually never increase CO2

“
Authorities said no homes have burned since the fire began Saturday.“

Steve: From your Hymotion link:

“The Hymotion module’s greater stored energy capacity allows the Prius to use electric drive more often and for longer distances, engaging the gas engine less frequently and resulting in large fuel efficiency gains over the stock Toyota Prius.”

This clearly states that the gas engine does not run all the time.

“USA Today” has article on SUNRGI company-making PV solar : “concentrating lense type” (”magnifies sunlight 200 times”) on solar cells-say on their website that end wholesale power cost of this system will be 5 cents per kilowatt hr. By mid ‘09 they will be making panels able to make elect. at 7 cents per kwh.- “that’s roughly the price of cheap coal-fired electricity”. They can get more power because they have a “proprietary system” to cool “their germanium-based semi conductor from 3300 degres to 20 degrees above ambient temperature” so high temp. doesn’t melt solar cell. Article also says: “Also pushing down costs are a highly efficient semiconductor that converts 37% of the sunlight to electricity, more than double the industry average. The unit’s compact size allows it to be made at electronics or PC factories, avoiding the need to build new plants”.

TJ,

Thanks for mentioning SunRGI, I’ve added them to my list:

Concentrix Solar
Emcore (dig for it)
Energy Innovations (sunflower product)
SolFocus (reflector type – light / cheap)
Solaria Corp (low profile grate)

This seems like a far better use of silicon or other semi-conductor materials than the normal PV’s, which only have one sun’s worth of energy input, instead of up to 500X input of these CPV designs.

The more players there are implementing these systems, the faster we move to economies based on limitless renewable energy.

Roy,

Sorry, we don’t seem to be able to understand each other’s perspective at all, not even close, so I’m going to give up after this message. I’ll just say that my friend ran out of gas in his Prius and it happily drove, on the battery alone, a few miles at highway speeds to a gas station.

Evidently Toyota designed their power control system around a smallish battery and no plug in capability. I was hoping that A123 did some reprogramming for their kit, or at least implemented the built in EV mode, but if they did they didn’t mention anything about it on their site.

When Toyota introduces their plug in Prius, it will fortunately still be a parallel and not serial hybrid, and it will be capable of highway speeds without using the gas engine, even when the gas engine hasn’t run out of fuel.

Over on the Tesla blog, the entry that includes shots of Bono sitting in a Roadster at a show in Monaco alleges that TM is up to at least P4 now.

Please tell us that they have approached you about delivery of P2!

Sounds similar to the remodeling problems I ran into in a San Jose house built in 1915. The wiring included old “knob & tube” wiring, some 1950s era Romex, and more modern wiring. I had to correct more than a few wiring faults!
The heating ducts were kinked, had holes, and one was disconnected. Rerouting the ducts eliminated an 8′ section of ducting!
previous remodels had added some insulation, but some outside walls were still uninsulated, so I tore off lath and plaster in a bedroom and the kitchen, put up fiberglass, added new electric outlets, then added 3/4″ foamboard and plasterboard. Made a big difference.

Now I’m in a 1973 home in Modesto, which has a open post and beam ceiling and NO INSULATION! Needless to say, it is way too cold and hot! I’m planning to install foam roofing for insulation, as I do like the looks of the ceiling.

One thing you should consider is solar water heaing. It is very cost effective, and can save even more energy than solar photovoltaics.

Martin and Carolyn,

Greatly relieved that everything turned out ok.

Hey Martin:

I just saw you in that PBS documentary “Cars of the Future:Engineering for the enviroment.” I thought you were a great presenter for Tesla. Of all the cars they showed on that piece, Roadster is hands down the most sexy. It’s kind of ironic after they showcased Tesla, they immediately went to the Chevy Volt. Apparently, the volt is still having a problem with the battery system. Are they joking? Is Chevy serious about making this car? If they are having problems why don’t they just ask you are other engineers for some guidance? I’m a bit skeptical about their sincerely.

Anyway, was wondering if Tesla finally fixed the transmission problem I heard so much about? I tried asking the question at the Tesla blog and just got snubbed. Really hoping the problem will be solved soon.

Would it be possible to abducate the acceleration from 0-60 in 4 secs to mayby like 10 seconds and have the transmission last longer? I’m guessing that that kind of a rapid acceleration is what is causing the rapid wear and tear on the transmission. But then I again, I’m not an engineer. I not even good in math. I still would buy the roadster even if it took 10 secs to reach 60. I think a lot of people would agree. Right?

Forbes Magazine W @ W report: In 1980 U.S. CEO pay=40 times avg. worker pay, in 2008=433 times. (W @ W= Weasels at Work).

Martin sez:

Not this CEO!!! How do I get a job like that

Martin- it’s usually not possible unless you have a higher percentage than normal of chimp genes- the other chimps on boards of directors can smell this and will let you into the inner circle. Jason-as Closseau would say: ” yes, you are quite correct-of this I can most assuredly assure you: 10x the value- for themselves and their swine minkey buddies !”

Martin sez:

TJ –
I didn’t know that you knew the Tesla board members!

Most of the CEO pay is the result of stock options, which encourage the CEO’s to grow their company’s value. This pay for performance, which also benefits all other stock holders.

This socialist attitude, that the boss shouldn’t make any more money than the worker, results in the most qualified CEO’s building their own enterprises, and allowing large corporations to collapse.

If liberals were sincere in wanting the worker to earn more money, then they would allow school voucher programs and reinstate tax breaks for company training programs. The ONLY way to earn more money is to create more wealth through increasing your own personal skill set. Anything else is just simple “looting”, as Ayn Rand would say.

Yeah- now that the “world is flat” and U.S. companies/ boards outsource jobs for competitve reasons, why don’t they insource CEO’s for the same reason, huh? -because the board members and CEO’s are all buddies, that’s why-looking out for each other until death or retirement (with or withhout golden parachutes) they do part: W @ W style.

Sorry, as John Blutarsky would say (don’t worry, I’ll vacuum up the guitar splinters and patch the wallboard on the stairwell later) but “while I’m at it/as mad as Peter Finch” this also bears mentioning: the Countrywide Mortgage CEO and his buddies in the industry (hedge funds, etc. too) through their greed and infinite wisdom (deserving of quasi -infinite pay) not only took down their own companies, or almost so-as the case may be -via all the subprime loan halibut they have taken millions of other people, around the world, down with them- to one degree or another-most of these people being average innocent bystanders. Whereas the Enron turkeys mainly ” just” took down their employees (and also the State of Calif. and various outside investment pension funds here and there )- as in: no company, no jobs, no pension money, pennies on the stock dollar that employees held- these latest Green Day style American Idiots have the economy teetering on the verge of recession-except for the “inconvenient truth” that a huge segment of the economy IS in recession: as in the construction industry/real estate development and everything asociated with and trickling down from this. Now banks either don’t have the cash and/ or don’t want to risk it to invest in even non-housing related projects. Instead of “being a responsible CEO” looking for “sustainable growth” the Countrywide weasel fed the housing bubble for all it was worth and when the halibut hit the fan, guess what it means to him: nothing, of course-he’s already made so much money he’s completely set for multiple lifetimes (try literally infinite, in fact, given a modest and reasonable return on his investment cash on hand of even, say , a lousy 3% ) . Yes, word on the street has it he’s frantically investing in anti-aging research ventures in a desperate attempt to further leverage his wonderful position.

Grouse all you want about CEO pay, but I wouldn’t take such a position without great compensation. The larger the institution, the more difficult the problems and the less nimble it is to respond. If, for some unforeseen reason, the company is headed off a cliff beyond anyone’s control, it may be your last job, so you have to think also about risk to your career.

I know, I know, I can give you a list of names as long as my arm of people who would be happy to grab the opportunity to run a large corporation for little or no pay, just so they can play CEO, and conduct their great social experiments – “if you just play footsie with the rank and file, they will carry you to success, no vision required”. Please, do, try that out for awhile, because you won’t get over the concept until the disaster lands at your feet, but let me ask you one simple question – Would you want to see a doctor for a life-threatening condition, who was placed in that position, because he was the low bidder? Certainly, you would be at a clinic with happy employees, who would give you a big fat smile and some lolly-pops, but in spite of all that cheer, would you be happy if they failed to treat you properly, and you went terminal?

Jason,

Leaders who have vision and capability are rare, and should be rewarded from the growth that they generate. If you recall, Ann Rand’s heroic characters were people who took great ideas and built companies from their ideas. Not managers who came in after the enterprise was huge and able to withstand terrible mistakes and mismanagement, simply because they had the advantage of franchise products and popular brands. The idea that managers should be entitled to huge negotiated lucre without accomplishing a thing, only because they are willing take on the risk of failure, does not sit well with me.

I’m sure you can recall many instances of managers being rewarded with boatloads of money that would be better deployed elsewhere. I remember seeing the close of a Maxwell house coffee ad a few days ago that had a voice-over saying “now with 100% Arabica beans”. I’ve read that in the 1950’s or so, that Maxwell house was awesome tasting coffee and grabbed up market share. However, managers kept asking how can we make this more cheaply. Eventually the specialty coffee makers became the major brands that today clearly dominate the market. A leader with vision should be compensated for their achievements. A manager who points at the value their experience and credentials should be shown the door without compensation.

In contrast the entrepreneur is not rewarded unless he is successful in the marketplace. Taking on an outsized risk is thus rewarded by success in the market, not by having copy cat compensation committees reporting to the cronies on the board. If someone with no vision and great credentials is rewarded with the wealth of a great corporation, for sitting in a huge leather chair and moving the enterprise backwards; Backwards under the mantra of shareholder value, then all receipt of compensation for diminution of shareholder value, is by definition looting.

Doug,

I’m sorry I couldn’t stop myself.

Martin,

I’m glad your fire danger ended when it did. The winds were fairly scary yesterday. A gentleman in my office had a home in your town and sold it in the last couple of years. Says it is the best part of so cal, in his opinion and he often wishes he hadn’t sold it, in between his raves about what a great car the Audi A-8 is. Personnally I’m looking forward to seeing the gray and orange roadster zipping up and down the 210, great motoring to you.

David,

If you ever want to come back to the IE, I have a house with great southern exposure and a roof at a nearly 37 degree angle by the town of Redlands. You could plug-in a smart electric that matches Roberta’s and even try it out on the track. Free nuclear power from a plant 93 million miles away and a convenient rooftop receiver. Question, if all of the pundits say that solar electric is 3 to 5 times more expensive than fossil fuels then how is it possible that installations pay for themselves in 15 to 25 years without subsidies and 10 to 15 with? If as Martin says, a modest house is worth possibly 10k more at resale how are folks calculating solar as costing 3 to 5 times more as is usually quoted? Even with opportunity costs and discounting future value of funds the 3 to 5 times line seems far overstated… So does a 2 Bdrm 1 Ba with plenty of sunshine and a bit of smog sound good.

Jeff Holman,

I absolutely believe in pay for performance, but there are some companies that are in serious trouble, or an act of God (9/11) hits, and the company needs to be competently steered through bad times, so how do you evaluate a CEO’s performance / pay in those circumstances?

By your example, should all employees go without pay when a company loses money in any given quarter?

My only point is this, if liberals are serious about helping the poor create their own wealth, then they should give school vouchers, so that the poor have access to the school of their choice, and Congress should reinstate tax deductions for companies who train new employees on the job. It is only through greater wealth creation that individuals can EARN greater salaries / bonuses / benefits. If the company doesn’t reward the employee, then they can find a better job with their new skill set.

Did google search on Tesla L.A. store opening-not much, except one site (”The Industry Standard”) shows a race shop looking interior theme-like old Porsche shop of ’50’s, with exposed wood trusses, industrial walls, columns, floors , etc.- hey Musk(rat)-that was my idea for a Tesla store theme-(which came from a big book I have on the complete history of Porsche-since I have a ‘58 356A and wanted to know wherein they came from). Yeah, I posted it long ago in another galaxy far (far) away on the Tesla site and meant for Martin’s edification- MuskratMan ! (in the 21st Century-him and Daffy Duck- my buddy Chewbacca may be paying you a visit. Hey Moe: the noive of sum guys !). Here’s an idea: JV with the Panoz guys on a four (five?) seat sportscar. It’s been done before, like there were 4 seat Austin Healeys and Jaguar XKE’s, and whatever. Don’t need Tesla’s vast expense via the large battery pack: have a generator on board that makes electricity when/if needed to power the elect. motor. Ferdinand Porsche’s very first car ran on a gas powered elect. generator that in turn powered elect. wheelhub motors in all 4 wheels-it won hillclimb races at the turn of the century and dwarfed the much later ( like over 40 years later) 356’s . I’ve seen some Beck 550 Spyder replicas and they are quite nice minimalist little cars-they also have a hardtop coupe I’ve seen in pictures. The Tesla is nice, in the modern car sense bells and whistles designwise, inside and out- but the other user- friendly alternate, which should be cheaper to make, put together and sell, would be the Spyder-style super ultra minimalist throwback ( but ultra pretty designwise, “to make up for it”) tack-not an exact throwback, and bigger, of course, but definitely recalling the time. Yes, this way people could afford an EV type car that could carry four or five and not be another dumb sedan or Smart Car type- I hate dumb sedans, so matter how nice they are- I’d rather have a sportscar that just happens to be a sedan.

Tesla apologizes –

“http://newspaperads.mercurynews.com/ROP/ads.aspx?”
“advid=%20833042&adid=6198598&cat=3347″

Martin sez:

Something is weird about this link. WordPress would not display it unless I broke it in half and put it in quotes, so you will need to copy it and paste it into your browser in pieces.

Steve S.

These guys make a Shelby Cobra EVX – 120 mile range high performance electric vehicle:

http://www.hstauto.com/

Did any of you catch BMW’s announcement that they are reviving the Isetta name with a new EV expected in 2012 to meet Car. They mention an expected 200 mile range.

Panoz on their website sez: “we will go to any lengths necessary to build a better automobile” . Well an EV or plug- in hybrid is a better car, so they’re running behind. Their cars have glued alum. frames, like Lotus Elise & Tesla and vacuum formed alum. bodies: poifect for EV type use. But due to heavy engine/transmission, I guess, 0-62= “only” 5.2 seconds. Car has a pretty long hood via the big V-8 & transmission. Looking at an overhead car photo on their website , you could take the windshield and move it to just behind the front wheelwell- add 2 back seats and have a happening “Sedan that is Really a Sports Car”- this via, of course, a smaller elect./gas generator engine combo upfront and batteries distributed front and back-and elsewhere (?). The car has the typical American style quite long hood, this new look would have a more european shorter hood look-which I like better anyway. The front design of the car is kind of strange/boring-seems tacked on-this could/should be fixed, of course-as well as the back look-which is “ditto: semi- boring”. But the interior is nice and the seats very, very nice. Ideal Panoz-Eberhard TRUE sports sedan: EV with an elect. generator onboard to fully power the elect. motor if/when charge runs out. The “generator bay” could one day be retrofitted with batteries when the day comes when batteries get really cheap-not like $20,000 per pack. Price the car at less than $50,000 via volume sales, then work on a real “minimalist version” (less plush seats and everything else all around) for $35,000-via even higher volume. Baring a JV , maybe Panoz would go for a Lotus type deal- building for Martin and the Fired Teslans Group (FTG Motors) -using chassis & the other relevant Panoz components – the FTG “Verdad” model 2+2 Sports Sedan (Verdad, of course being spanish for true- or truth with la in front). Yes- this would be a perfect way for FTG Motors to be up and running via “shortcut route ” without a federal case from scratch effort. However- it may well be that the Panoz Family are “the few, the proud-the Panoz” and wouldn’t go for a JV or a Lotus type deal. I was surprised Lotus went for that myself, since they could create a Tesla monster going head-to-head with their outmoded Elise and other cars. Panoz himself is definitely a maxed-out car nut to pull off what he did, so he ain’t no Musk(rat) I assume- but he may be thinking “what do I need any partners for anyway”. Which may be too bad ’cause it looks to me like the Panoz could be a great FTG (or Panoz-FTG) Verdad platform. I can see the advertising now: Verdad: -you want the truth? – Detroit can’t HANDLE the truth-but you can, CAN’T you !? Yes, Panoz-FTG: as Bogie said “this could be the start of a beautiful friendship” -but: probably not. Be that as it may, it looks like it could work for turning out a different & exceptional car.

Chris- yeah imagine 8 years of Gore instead of Bush. Half this country is, in effect/bottom line, no way around it in the end: nuts. I just toyed with some auto design off of the Panoz website- click on “automobiles” on the top of the home page, then “Esperante-photos”, go to photo #4 showing side view of silver convertible, click on enlarge image option. Then put a small piece of paper on the screen , over the top/ passenger area only- trace the windshield (and the seats too) and move it forward to starting right at the back of the wheelwell opening . Then draw a roof, sloping to a glass fastback/hatchback right to the end of the car. Yeah- check it out: a real 4 seat sportscar and a VERY nice one too: yes!- nice proportions, short front like a Ferrari or other european sports car. This could work: FTG Motors or Panoz/FTG could carve out a great new car niche (leapfrogging all the enormous “from scratch” development problems) based on a car that’s already requisite lightweight, alum.-and: happening/engineered/ most components already there, etc.

Gabe,

I agree that the Federal Government doesn’t have a great track record in many areas, and I also agree that there are a great many individuals out there doing amazing things for the benefit of our environment, and for us all. I also know that there are a great number of people who choose to drive around in giant SUVs by themselves, getting 9 mpg (or less), who take airplane flights just to rack up frequent flyer miles, and have no regard for how their activities impact the world around them. The regulation that I speak of would not reduce the activities of the altruistic individuals in the world who are trying to help solve some of our problems, but it would reign in the activities of the inconsiderate, the selfish, the self-indulgent, and the plain old stubborn, individuals who believe that just because they can “afford” it, they have a right to burn it. BTW, most of this self-indulgence is perpetrated with borrowed money (the U.S. currently borrows about $1 billion dollars per day from the rest of the world in order to sustain it’s decadent ways).

My point is that not all government regulation is inherently bad. Some of it is there to protect us from ourselves, or from the actions of our fellow citizens (aren’t you glad that there are laws against murder, or kidnapping?). The reasoning that you use, that the Federal Government has done some things badly, therefore it must do all things badly, is false logic.

I am a strong proponent of “Power to the People”, however, I also recognize that not all people will use that power wisely. Some will, some won’t, and that is why regulation will probably be required at some point to deal with an issue as important as global climate change.

Also, keep in mind that we are the ones who elect our governments (sometimes, at least), and perhaps we need to be more careful about who we put in power.

All the best,

Chris H.

??? “and even irrelevant…” in my first graf above should have been malevolent. I remember typing the latter, and how the former ended up in the post is a mystery — maybe my auto-replacement spell-checker is whacked. Or maybe it’s the “mad-cow.” (You Denny Crane fans know what I’m talking about. )

I agree with Chris- the bottom line is that our dumb fed, govt. is squandering, losing, etc. more money than anyone can ever count/find/etc. (and that includes Iraq, of course). If state govts. can do a good job promoting green tech. and if the German govt. , and the govt. of Iceland -”and so on and so forth” as Gov. Arnie would say- can do great jobs, then just what in the name of halbiut is wrong with OUR fed. govt. doing something right for a change? Thomas Friedman of the N.Y. Times keeps hammering the fed. govt. in his editorials-his latest one is titled “As Dumb as We Wanna Be”- about how if we don’t push green tech. in the U.S., the rest of the world will leave us in the dust “cause they don’t have this problem (caused by fossil fuel “lobbyists”) .The fed. govt. DOES do some things great- our military, for example, is the world leader by a long shot. As long as the fed. govt. is going to take our tax dollars no matter what, they should “divert a lot of tax money into green tech.” -if there’s waste, squandering, whatever-at least the waste will be part of a GOOD , progressive effort. As for global warming not being totally proven by climate scientists, as John McLauglin sez on the “McLaughlin Report” (and Dana Carvey too) : WRONG ! The diameter of the earth is only 7000 some odd miles-the livable atmosphere is as thick as the skin on an apple in relative size.The top of Mt. Everest, at 5.49 miles high, is the end of the line for living creatures (actually slightly past the end of the line)-if you could point your car vertical you could drive this distance in less than 5 minutes on the freeway. The oceans are very poor at co2 removal (which Roger Revelle first got a clue to in 1957)-ditto for plants. Yet humans have been putting out co2 24 hrs. a day (no time off- even for Xmas) for centuries now, in ever increasing amounts. You don’t have to be a climate scientist to get the jist of this picture- and, of course “9 out of 10 climate scientists agree”. I think “maybe” we’d better go with those odds-especially since there is no drawback at all, economic or otherwise, in the long run , for NOT going green on planet earth bigtime .

Here’s one thing the fed. govt. could do with no possibility of mucking up anything: like Germany the govt. could say that utilities, in every state, must pay people that put PV solar on their homes for any extra power that they generate back to the grid. I looked into getting solar on my home- but the local power company would only allow you to “cancel out” your bill. Except they really didn’t even let you do this-there would always be an $8 per month service charge. Seeing as how my power bill in the non-summer months is around $20 this don’t look too good. So I tried to get a truly “minimal” system installed (since cheaper Nanosolar isn’t here yet for home use) , but was told that if too small the “inverters” or whatever elect. stuff wouldn’t work. So even with rebates cost would be like $15,000 if I remember. But if I could have sold extra power to the power company during spring, fall and winter, like the G-now you’re talking.

Article online about beginning of Panoz Esperante- google search: “One man who’s doing it”, from 2000. Says that alum. modular spaceframe is made to be easily lengthened/altered. Yeah- you could pull firewall & windshield way forward on that car, with smaller elect. motor making for room (actually: motor in back, batteries/generator up front ?) -and lengthen a little if need be. Add 2 seats in back or bench seat for 3, fastback/hatchback, plus short rear suicide door(s) like on RX-8 and Saturns, improve front grille look-then find a way to bring cost down to $50,000. Yeah, how ? (what would higher volume do re. costs ?). Other than that small detail it looks ready-made for one nice EV type sports sedan-beating Tesla to market.

T.J.

I am not ignoring you. I wrote a long reply to one of your earlier posts yesterday with several links embedded in it. When I clicked the “Say It!” button, it just disappeared and did not show up on the blog. It may be waiting for some ok from Martin, I don’t know.
BTW, thanks for your support above. Consider this: Our government is not merely incompetent and sqandering money due to poor management, but instead is following a deliberate and premeditated plan to transfer money from the public purse into private (well connected) hands. Money doesn’t just disappear, but it can be moved from one pocket to another…

All the best,

Chris H.

Jason,

I don’t mean to shock you, but the U.S. is already facing an economic collapse, and it has nothing to do with environmentalists…

Keep in mind that if we experience an environmental collapse, you really won’t need to worry about the economy, national security, energy supply, etc.

All the best,

Chris H.

vfxx,

Hydrogen is certainly laggin Li-Ion adoption, but that is just the first stage of fuel cell adoption:

http://www.intomobile.com/2008/05/03/hybrid-fuel-cell-system-from-sony-combines-fuel-cell-and-lithium-polymer-battery-lasts-long.html

The series hybrid / range-extended electric vehicle will be the missing link between the ICE vehicle and the fuel cell vehicle.

The series hybrid / range-extended electric vehicle will be the missing link between the ICE vehicle and the fuel cell vehicle.

Other missing links include:

- a magic new way of making hydrogen that doesn’t waste 75% of the input energy,
- a fuel cell that lasts more than 2 years
- a means of making free platinum, so fuel cells don’t have to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars

There’s actually no conflict anymore between business and environmental groups, except for some diehard fossil fuel interests (coal and natural gas, I guess, mainly). I’ve noticed that very heavy hitter establishment powers that be firms are totally onboard re. environ./global warming, including: G.E., Goldman Sachs, Du Pont, Alcoa, BP and Shell even-Chevron is even touting their geothermal efforts. Then there’s people like George Soros (a card -carrying first team establishment agent) and various groups funded by people like this-such as Solar Nation. Also, all sorts of VC firms are jumping in (Tesla being just one example)and environ. groups like NRDC and Environmental Defense were originally set up, partly, by the powers that be-NRDC for halibut sure. Also, the controlled mass media is playing up green this & green that everywhere. Of course then there are powers that be dinosaurs like Geo. Bush & Co. Bottom line is that said powers that be were asleep at the switch re. global warming. The fat cats want a green U.S., only question is how deep a shade and how fast. Re. nuke power,France has the best system it looks like-since having no Exxon and coal companies, etc. they had no choice-but, as opposed to this country (what else is new ?) they did it right with reprocessing plants-so that their nuke waste is alot less than ours (a whole lot less by CBS “60 Minutes” report I saw). But of course I like what the Germans are doing-going nuts with solar: it’s quick and easy to install, decentralized or not, and pays the avg. Hans some cash for putting it on his rooftop.

Chris H.

Nice attempt at marginalizing there. But no cigar.

It is all well and good for one or another individual to say, “I’ll try … I’ll do my part,” and then follow up words with thoughtfully determined action. I’m all for that. I try to practice that in my own life.

It is quite another to say that, “as a society,” “we” should “try.” This invariably means that the people wielding force (mostly, the government) get to whip on people who are, under the prevailing definition, “not trying.” Such “trying” only succeeds by accident, unless it is based on sound thought. To suggest that “we,” as a “society” should thrash about wildly, in accordance with recommendations only a step or two above voodoo, in an attempt to escape the shrinking room of “global warming,” in which we are trapped with walls swiftly closing in all around us, is simply to issue a prescription that tyrants, great and petty, will rush to fill.

Have you ever been on the receiving end of governmentally wielded force that unfairly and permanently changes your life after inflicting years of suffering? If so, please explain the particulars and perhaps I might then be able to cut you some slack for the seemingly naive trust you place in governments, not to abuse the power ceded to them. On the other hand, I have been on the receiving end of that power, and so have millions of other citizens in the USA, whether the wielding agency was the DEA, the IRS, the EPA, the military draft board, or any number of other departments and bureaus. Some of us might still come away with kind thoughts about the ideal of government of the people, by the people, and for the people, which we continue to cherish. But in the real world, none of will any longer accede to any government your apparent level of trust that our rulers will always or even mostly do the most good for the greatest number. We can no longer willingly yield the requisite authority and power to institutions that we have seen with our own eyes to be broken and dangerous.

Unless you are a politician yourself, I find it hard to imagine that you could possibly have been mugged by government and still say what you are saying. So I suspect that your mugging may still be in the future. The people who founded this country fought a war to rid themselves of a government that was, in many ways, not even as bad as what we experience today, and they were not ready to be nearly as trusting and deferential — or as willing to believe that big, powerful government would get them what they wanted without exacting a terrible price — as you and others seem to be today.

You try to marginalize me and my argument by saying that my “criteria” would lead to the passage of no laws at all, and that is just thoughtless speech on your part. My point was not to say that there should be no law at all, but that we need to take more care in its crafting, so as to severely limit the possibilities for special interests to use it for mischief. To take murder as an example, of course we should have a law that punishes (and so, we would hope, deter) murder. But should we have a law that requires eye-for-an-eye vengeance within some short space of time after a conviction is obtained? That ignores exculpatory evidence once some statute of appeal deadline has passed? Unfortunately, such laws have killed innocent people in recent years. They need, at very least, to be re-crafted, and future laws of the same general class need to be more thoughtfully drafted and vetted before enactment. If such care leads to fewer laws being on the books — because it takes longer to pass them or because erroneous and outdated laws are more actively repealed — wonderful, wouldn’t you say?

You say, “I find it puzzling that you would be willing to risk triggering a runaway greenhouse effect …” when you are advocating policies, to be enacted via force, which will certainly affect the economy-as-we-know-it adversely — changing the lives of millions for a long time, if not permanently, and probably for the worse — without even the same certainty that the policies will have the desired salutary effect as we have that putting a dollar down on a lotto ticket will make us millionaires.

“Oh, but we have to try something, anything — the downside is just too horrible to contemplate.”

Through the butterfly effect, you could sneeze and knock down a building halfway around the world, too. So do we take all precautions to keep people from sneezing, “just in case”? Do I try to marginalize you because you would risk destroying that building just to preserve your right to sneeze? No. We would demand some kind of explainable, demonstrable causal link before passing what would seem to almost everyone as a silly law. In the case of global warming however, so many of us accept that the explanation for what we perceive as “bad” climate effects is too complicated to understand, putting the same blind trust in experts as in the government. When the experts have a hard time predicting events, no problem. When temperatures even appear to be heading down for a while (as we are now told will happen until sometime in the 2010s), no problem. Nobody questions that they’ll be going up again, soon, and much higher than before, unless we “try something, anything.” At least, nobody questions that assertion who doesn’t want to risk being marginalized.

Sorry, but it seems like hysteria to me, and hysteria has killed a lot of people, too, over the centuries, often at the hands of a frightened, confused mob or those acting in the mob’s name.

If you want to marginalize me, fine. Do the hard work of showing that predictions of future climate conditions actually bear out over a reasonable span of time. Make recommendations for dealing with the problem and demonstrate that implementation of those recommendations can actually have a desirable effect. Nothing will succeed in getting me to shut up like your success. C’mon, I’m rooting for you!

Right now, climate science or those who promote it are saying “trust us, even when we appear to be wrong.” At some point, though, if you want trust enough to determine public policy for 6+ billion people on the planet, you’ll need a better track record.

On the other hand, people who make up their own minds and act accordingly can make a difference. If they make just a small difference that can be confirmed, others who care will follow, and that may be all that we can hope for without causing perhaps as much or more misery and suffering around the globe than the anticipated climate catastrophe might cause. I think that favoring alternative energy sources and battery electric vehicles goes in a good direction. Let’s see what we can do to start a market “stampede” in that direction and see where that takes us. Frankly, I think that effort will be ambitious enough to require our full effort and undivided attention, if we hope for it to make a measurable positive change in the world.

“our full effort and undivided attention” should be “our full ENERGIES and undivided attention.”

Completely off topic (what’s new there?) -
Read the latest Tesla Motors blog? Both you (Martin) and Marc were mentioned and identified as founders. It’s a small step in the right direction, I think.

Tesla blog mentioned Martin as co-founder-technically maybe, but really he was the founder. I still like the idea of turning the Panoz Esperante into a 5 seat sports sedan EV of some kind (let alone “EV-ing”the Esperante as is, with a few happening design changes) -and shipping that (or those) to europe too-Panoz has good street cred there via Le Mans. The car looks really good from the side-as good as the Tesla in its way- could put an A.C.- like (or Aston Martin, or Lotus Elise-like ) kind of front on it, and maybe kick up the back a notch designwise . Tesla shouldn’t be the only game in town of its type. Panoz and FTG could pull off something really nice-of course they would have to be on the same automotive page, including Dan Panoz wanting to expand and also get with the 21st century.

Esperante weighs 507 pounds more than Tesla (3197 vs. 2690) -of course weight savings via minus: big V-8, transmission, driveshaft, gas tank, big interior center console, etc. -and if seats were thin Tesla type, weight gone there. But then add back , what, 900 lbs. of batteries ?

TJ,

I don’t know if you saw the documentaries of Luigi Colani’s automotive designs, but some of the vehicles in his garage are among the most beautiful that I’ve ever seen.

Martin,

Not that you shouldn’t get your car in a timely manner (if for no other reason that contractual obligations on the part of the seller), but how do you know that P3 was produced prior to yours? You obviously haven’t been actively involved in the process for at least a few months.

I just read Mr. Siry’s entry and while his reason sounds lame, it does sound reasonable.

Martin sez:

With regards to the P2-vs-P3/VIN whatever debacle, it seems like a really silly and strange thing to do. But here are some things posted on the TMC forum that support what Martin is saying.

Already mentioned in another part of this Founders blog, Siry said: “The sequence of VINs is totally separate from the sequence of production (we use the designation “P1,2,3…” to indicated production sequence and “VIN 1,2,3…” to designate VIN sequence.”
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/news-articles-events/958-tesla-twitter.html#post6522

Then this recent comment from a TMC member who attended the LA open house:
“As for the showroom, looked nice. Very open layout. They did have 5 cars there including one production model. One of the things I found most interesting is that the car’s VIN ended in 00003 but they referred to it as production model number #2. When asked why this was the case you got a blank stare for a moment and then a canned explanation that they are in the order of production and this one came through before the other and so the numbers are in order like that… Of course this made no sense whatsoever. Let the conspiracy theories continue. Where is the grey and orange number 2 that we all know exists? The gentleman also told us that the car belongs to someone from eBay.”
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/tesla-motors/341-la-sales-service-center-2.html#post7700
It all sounds rather nutty.

I started a thread to try to make some sense out of the Tesla VIN’s. It’s more out of curiosity, though, than conspiracy theory. I just want to work out the rationale behind their VIN scheme.
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/tesla-motors/1128-decoding-tesla-vin-s.html

Martin sez:

Of course I know who got VIN 3/production 2, and he is a good person whom I admire greatly. This has nothing to do with him, except perhaps Elon’s wanting to suck up to him while simultaneously slapping me one more time.

Jeff Skoll?

Jason-did google image search on Luigi’s cars-turn him loose on tweaking the design of the Panoz/FTG EV Sports Sedan, to trounce the forces of Darth Musk (he of the “Vader Black” Tesla chariot)

For the previous poster of SunRGI, here is more info:

http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/20737/?nlid=1055&a=f

Sounds like they’ve attached a heat pipe directly to the PV chip, and then are using fins, etc., to convect and radiate the heat out of the pipe.

If you’ve never messed with a heat pipe – it’s amazing. A fellow engineer handed me a cup of coffee in which he just dropped a heat pipe and asked me to stir it, and the heat pipe felt red hot. I was stunned at how a hollow pipe with just a couple drops of fluid could transfer so much heat so quickly.

Chris H.,
DOS attack?? Just kidding. The TMC site does get flaky every now and then. No idea why. I did see your latest comment there. Double posted there as well.

Well Martin, that sucks. You should definitely get a custom plate that says TeslaP2 (can you get seven letters in CA?) or just P2.

You could probably make a deal out of it, but hopefully they’ll just get you your car and that will be the end of it.

How about starting a high-end electric sport-bike company? Call it CrotchSparks.

I hate to say it (not) but I was right again. Earlier in the year on Tesla website I was way-stoked about the possbility of elect. and elect. hybrid airplanes – BBC online news sez: at 2008 Electric Aircraft Synopsium just held in S.F. Bay area they announced that the “Boeing Phantom Works”is working on an elect. hybrid plane with a range of 300 miles. Also, a company in Solvenia will, by the end of the year, be selling an elect. glider-the “Pipistrel”- that can take off under its own power and fly for 1000 miles-with a 30 kw elect.motor (photo shows it on pole on top of plane behind pilot), uses lithium ploymer batteries. They have a number of pre-orders. One day there could be elect. hybrid planes about the size of commuter turboprops, I predict ( up to even like De Havilland Dash 8 size, except a whole heck of a lot lighter/carbon fiber), using batteries plus ultrcaps or whatever w/ hybrid engines.

Time flies, along with planes-actually it was way back into last year on Tesla site when I was stoked way about elect. & hybrid plane potential. One day it will be a solar (plus similar green) & Nikola Tesla type world.

I’ve started my own electric car company and want Martin as CEO. Martin is such an inspiration and I hope he gets time to check out this link.
http://home.comcast.net/~murfsx5/EMF-1.html

It’s the another EV sport car concept. I’m neither a designer nor engineer and obviously did not stay in a Holiday Inn Express. Hey, I can dream

I have a “different” idea for the door on the Panoz/Martin Sports Sedan- I really like the shape of the big door on the Esperante. Instead of doing the suicide back door per Mazda RX-8, make the door extra long-huge -to go clear to the back seats (being alum. it will still be plenty light to open & close). Then make the end part of the door fold back (in) like the wingtips on aircraft carrier planes- so the door would project out into the street, or sidewalk, no further than and average car door does. This “wingtip” section of door could have window in it for back seats, like any other door. This would leave Esperante body shell, door profile same-just stretched, saving, perhaps, money & time-and making for a beautiful, unique door (good selling point for a high-end car). To get costs down would have to build like 10,000 cars or more, I guess (the Tesla sedan yearly target) , so suppliers would drop their costs on all components via the ‘chepaer by the dozen” m.o.-and also maybe could save on labor to build cars with a geared-up plant operation.

Actually the “wingtip” door section should probably fold outward, so the interior side faces out-so it can fold 180 degrees (if folded in, the thick interior “padding” would cause folding trouble)- for total ease of ingress/exit to the front seats-connect “wingtip” via a carbon fiber gear/shaft system to the front hinge area-so that no matter how fast or slow the door is opened/closed, the “wingtip” syncs totally with the door action. For marketing purposes, the first car, in “Champagne Georgia Peach” must be sold at cost to Little Richard since “this car rocks” and he is the original self-titled “Georgia Peach”. Then, for those preferring a more subtle shade, have a pale Georga Peach color-yes, who now needs a Tesla Sports Sedan (code name “Deathstar”) from Darth Musk & Assoc.) ?

Dear Martin!

Thank you for your interesting postings. Doing our part – this is an important thing, it’s important to do ANYTHING we can, every single step is an advance.
However, for me personally, as I am owner of a medical office, an important argument would be the possibility to assure an electricity supply which could work also independent from the grid. The combination of an electric vehicle with ability for P2G and solar cells would be very interesting.

This issues are not only theoretical. In a near future, the petrol supply could increasingly be disturbed by shortage. As a consequence the national supply with electricity will increasingly get under pressure by increasing demands.

And thats my proposal for a next blog: vehicles capable of P2G in combination with solar energy

All the best Felix

Keeping Things in Perspective…

Just one more thing. How many people out there drink Red Bull “energy” drink? Currently in Canada the price of one 355mL can of Red Bull is $3.99 + tax. So how does that compare to the cost of oil?

The price of a barrel of oil today is hovering around $125 USD. One barrel is equivalent to 42 gallons (US), or approximately 159 litres. If we consider the cost of a theoretical barrel of Red Bull, we come up with a figure of approximately $1800.00 per barrel, more than 14 times the cost of a barrel of oil, or 10 times the cost of gasoline (per litre).

Keep in mind that Red Bull is mostly water, some sugar, carbon dioxide, and a few other trace ingredients (including taurine, an amino acid that was first isolated from bull semen!). So what is the energy content of Red Bull? Most sodas contain about 10% sugar, which would mean that a can of Red Bull contains about 35 grams of sugar. Each gram of sugar contains approximately 17 kJ of energy, for a total of 595 kJ of energy (approx.). The equivalent energy content of the same volume of gasoline is approximately 12.4 megajoules, about 20 times the amount of energy in a can of Red Bull. So, if you want something with 1/20 the energy density of gasoline at 10 times the price, go and buy yourself a Red Bull.

As you are probably already aware Red Bull sales are very strong, and hardly anyone complains about the price.

My point is that the market will bear much greater price increases in gasoline before economic pressures force a change. We see a 25 cent increase in gas prices, and we think that is a big jump. Wait and see what is coming down the pipeline, NPI, and prepare to be surprised.

All the best,

Chris H.

Pete,

I agree with you 100%.

Chris H.

Before you gather up your torches and pitchforks against Exxon, Chevron, BP, etc., understand that it is our local, state and federal governments who reap the profits of oil production / consumption. While the oil companies earn 7.5 cents off every dollar of revenue, the local, state and federal governments receive 41.5 cents. Keep in mind that it is our local / state / federal governments who grant land and other rights with the expectation that the resources extracted will generate tax revenue.

Now that we understand that, let’s think of a future in which the government doesn’t generate much tax revenue from oil, as consumption drops. All state governments and our federal government are going to suffer serious shortfalls in tax revenues (if you think oil companies earn alot, you now see the governments earn even more.). Hopefully our military will convert to renewables faster than the private sector, so that those reduced fuel costs keep pace with the shortfall of tax revenues.

Ta is slang in England for thanks. I guess the substance was originally formulated in England, and the first guy to try it said:” Ta, urine ! -refreshingly different -is it bull?-silly question of me, but of course it is ! Ta-ta, cheers, and all that. “

For an example of hyper-curvy architecture that got built, do google image serach on “Nordpark cable railway”- skin is made out of something called “thermoglass”.

Online news story from Apr. 15 sez that just before Martin left Tesla he concluded that the Tesla sports sedan needed to be a serial hybrid-where gas engine only powers batteries-or generates electricity directly for the elct. motor ?),gas engine doesn’t drive car like parallel hybrid Prius. Yes-this looks like the answer, and I will say ( just once more) that the Panoz looks like a great sedan platform.

I printed photos of the e-bay cutaway car off website to test the design concept. Drawing over the side view (showing part of the back of the car)produced “stunning” (as the marketing mavens would say) results-with the windshield moved forward to the start of the front wheelwell and a fastback/hatchback drawn in, swooping down to within like 4″ of the end of the rear deck. A roof support pillar is added in the usual place, just back of the door, above the front of the rear wheelwell-and back of this pillar is the usual small, triangular window for the back seat passengers. The front door is made extra huge/long, with the folding “wingtip” idea seam, per prior post, added- just forward of the door handle. The front door /hinge starts like 2″ back of the front wheelwell.This car looks good, REAL good, in Sports Sedan form. The back lights aren’t on the cutaway design mule, which is good-the opening left suggests a nice, large tailight, to be added by the customizing shop design crew. (Panoz tailight design is pretty weak). It’s wunderbar: cut, print- build !

Snippet II- ” Revenge of the Exiled Teslans” : I sketched the roof on the Panoz mule photo using a black pentel, not coloring in the rooftop-the black looks good on the polished alum. car body. This suggests: 1). the entire roof structure-windshield, top roof, sloping hatchback roof area and vertical support “fin” pillar is one piece, carbon fiber, by outside supplier and epoxy glued onto car body alum. support framing-great for easy installation, weight & rollover too. Some people could order a car with this unpainted carbon fiber on an unpainted polished alum. body (sealed with a clear top coat). To save money might keep the stock metal windshield frame, unless weight consideration makes it worth ditching it. 2). Since I didn’t color in rooftop, this suggests a glass roof option-with the type of glass that turns silver opaque when elect. current is on it (or vice versa is it ? )- believe this is liquid crystal glass, like on calculator screens-it’s been out for years now, originally for use in buildings. Would be double glazed glass, silver good for sun/heat reflection. Standard roof would just infill a carbon fiber rooftop- sliding roof option with both, as usual. I drew in big, clean red tailights on photo with red pentel-looks very good. There might be 2 versions of the Sports Sedan: one that has Porsche-like small back seats, so that frame doesn’t have to be stretched at all (looks like this could work from photos) and the stretched “regular sedan interior room” version- so 2 “price points” would be available.

Abi, what’s that about Tesla apologizing? the link doesn’t work.

Martin, I see the gloves have come off a bit. nice to see a bit of truth. if you should ever hunger for some real truth, even though electric cars and helping the environment is good, you can take a look at god.tv. It can be watched streaming on their site if you don’t have the channel. especially every night these days, something big is happening.

Well, Martin, you may be waiting a while. According to the latest issue of United Airlines Hemispheres Magazine (http://www.hemispheresmagazine.com/2008_05/feature-lean.php):

“Tesla is planning to go public soon and expects to deliver its first production cars in 2009.”

What is it with sloppy reporting these days…

Sorry, of course English should be capitalized.

Question:

How long does it take to paint two orange stripes on a Tesla Roadster?

Answer:

___________________________________________

Let’s see what you can come up with guys!

All the best,

Chris H.

AutoblogGreen article on the P2-vs-P3 saga:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/05/12/tesla-saga-continues-when-is-production-car-2-not/

Of course the TMC site is down again. It might be that the host can only handle relatively low traffic. And maybe this story has generated too much traffic for the TMC host to handle. Who knows… I didn’t think ABG was popular enough to do that, though.

Again, all this upset over vehicle sequence deliveries is unfortunate. I could imagine being in TMC’s position, in which the vehicle intended for Martin had a quality defect (custom painted roof), and being left with the decision of withholding delivery of all vehicles until Martin’s car is delivered. The pressure to ship anything at this point must be enormous.

I can list one important impact of TMC not delivering a single vehicle since Elon’s Roadster – CARB opted to drastically reduce the number of BEV’s required for sale in CA, while allowing credit for hybrids. If TMC had been cranking out Roadsters, CARB might have had reason to believe BEV’s were viable now, rather than later.

Given all this pressure and need to ship, and the unfortunate quality issue with Martin’s vehicle, I just don’t believe it’s malicious to ship out of sequence. I can understand why Martin feels as he does, and I think any publicity on TMC’s lack of product shipments is a good kick in the butt to get the manufacturing planners to stop polishing processes and start building, so I hope Martin keeps speaking loudly about TMC’s failure to deliver.

Thanks Brent!

All the best,

Chris H.

teslamotorsclub.com (tmc.com) dns entry is defect atm. thats why you cant reach it. (no ip set for tmc.com, so your browser dont know where it can find tmc.com)
dont know how to correct that, maybe only the owner of tmc.com can reset it. so take your time and wait till its done.
happy monday
kasei

For what it’s worth, http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/is back up.

Jason, we’ve been using TMC to refer to the Tesla Motors Club forum website. To refer to the company Tesla Motors, we’ve been using TM. I suppose one could use TMC to refer to Tesla Motors Company, but at this point that would just be confusing. Anyhow, just a note of clarification.

Solution:Musk house,Bel Air, 3 A.M.,paint cans, orange, gray.

T.J.

Your solution is perfect! That’s just what I needed to lighten up about the depressing changes at Tesla.

GSP

Modern Marvels is running a documentary on Nikola Tesla at 8 pm and 12 midnight tonight.

IBM has CPV (concentrated photo voltaic) tech that allows a 2,000 X concentration of the sun:

http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2216678/ibm-liquid-metal-promises

Happy Birthday Martin!

I wish you had received your birthday present on time…

Hope you’re having a great day

Martin sez:

Thanks! Don’t know how many more years I can be 29 It’s getting pretty iffy with all this grey hair.

Congradulations Martin! According to the latest production schedule posted by Tesla on their blog, you should be receiving your car this week or next, “the actual delivery time will lag by about 8 weeks”.

Enough is enough already. If they don’t delivery by next week, I say we need to send a truckload of Jolt or Red Bull to TJ’s house and dare him to pop their server hard drives with posts.

>> ” Modern Marvels : Mad Electricity Airs on Saturday May 17 07:00 PM ”

Nikola Tesla quote seen in that show:
“If we use fuel to get our power, we are living on our capital and exhausting it rapidly. This method is barbarous and wantonly wasteful and will have to be stopped in the interest of coming generations.”

Here too as well.

I don’t know why HistoryHD channel continues to put letterbox bars to vertically squish their HD content. It made sense for 16×9 content on old 4×3 TVs but why the heck would they do that with 16×9 for 16×9 TVs and muck up the aspect ratio like that?

Hender wrote, “Now that capitalism has been clearly proven to be better…”

Why is it, then, that all of our major parties and candidates are calling for more and more socialist schemes? From so-called “libertarian paternalism” at one extreme, out-and-out government control and administration of whole sectors of our economy at the other, and every mercantilist, “mixed-economic” approach in between, we seem to be remaking ourselves in the soviet or nazi mold at an ever quickening pace. If capitalism is the winner, then let’s get fully behind capitalism and let it do its thing. The problem is, the people who shout loudly in public that “our capitalist, free-market system won, Ivan, boo-yah!” really don’t, in their private heart of hearts, seem to trust or even understand free-market capitalism. So we toss around regulation, incentives, and central-planning ideas, in an alleged attempt to “provide a safety net,” “curb potential excesses,” or “jump-start” a market. We’re not only not comfortable with “our own” system, we try deliberately to make it look more like the “losing” system, which we apparently like better.

If someone answers that there can be no pure capitalism and no pure communism, and any real-world economy must be a mix of both, then why claim a victory for “our” system, which now seems only a few degrees to the side of the one that we “defeated”? In the end, it just seems to come down to “our team” and “their team.” Rah-rah-rah.

“Today, Nanosolar and Tesla Motors are excellent examples of how Venture Capitalism is solving the problems that no government can.” I hope the can remain so. But lobbying for tax breaks and other incentives to kick-start the solar and/or BEV marketplaces is still dancing to the mixed-economy-leaning-socialist tune, it seems to me. I guess we’ll see what happens.

James,

The one significant difference betweem capitalism and communism / fascism, per the Book is Isms, 11th Edition, it that a capitalist society does not allow its goverment to own or control the resources, products and prices of its industries, whereas communist / fascist states nationalize their industries, control allocation of resources, wages, prices, etc. (which always end up in shortages, as enterprises that would lose money on a given arrangement simply stop producing). The US does set minimum wage and safety standards, but that is a pass through cost to the consumer, as the US cannot set prices.

The US does and should tax its citizens and enterprises, as long as those taxes give something back to those citizens and enterprises (security, opportunity, etc.). Where the US goes wrong, is that it poorly manages the taxes, so the return is rather poor (public schools, for instance). Even worse, they often just give money to those who don’t even contribute to the tax base, often locking them into poverty – that is socialism.

It is flat wrong to compare a handful of socialist policies in our free market capitalist economy, to communist / fascist states that nationalize their industries.

As for why politicians offer socialist give aways in elections, they are simply trying to buy votes. Those who are familiar with socialized medicine, can easily point to England, where people are now buying their own insurance, because of the poor service (long appointment times) from their state run clinics and hospitals. Most importantly, NO ONE is saying that the government should seize all medical facilities to control their operation – that would be communist / fascist.

I think this is along the lines of some of the earlier comments on this thread. This is an interesting concept to recover some energy currently lost from vehicle drag.

http://www.metropolismag.com/cda/story.php?artid=2466

The energy could also be fed to the grid and/or fed to EV’s via inductive charging in the long term.

Car “training” has been proposed in many ways but the biggest problems are with implementation. Wireless networking, electronic controls, and EV’s combine for a technically capable solution. How can roads be designed and rules be made to allow for safe and effective entering and exiting the “train” lane. I see it being particularly difficult in metropolitan areas where it could do the most good. I think it maybe possible in less dense areas with longer distances between exits.

Energy Independence is in the Air!

Self Powered Systems™ include a revolutionary, patent pending, technology, which converts ambient heat into electricity. This non-magnetic breakthrough has the potential to go to production in the near future. The system has proven capability to recharge batteries from heat extracted from the air; an alternative to the need to plug-in. This technology can also be configured to produce stand-alone power. It can give electric cars unlimited range, as well as turn them into power plants.

Prototypes of the non-magnetic system have been in operation for more that one year and successfully run an electric car for more than 4,800 miles with no need to plug-in.

These are a few lines from our updated Executive Summary.

They are certainly hard to believe. We expect Lee Felsenstein will have some modules to test this week. If, as I anticipate from what we have learned so far, the tests go well, that can open a path to more rapidly reducing the need for fossil and nuclear fuel.

Martin, if you have not firmly decided what to do next, please contact Lee later this week.

Others willing to sign a NDA are welcome to contact me through our website.

Martin sez:

Hmm. Sounds a little like perpetual motion to me. I am not even sure what the phrase “heat extracted from the air” means. Sounds like you would be cooling the air. And to cool the air below ambient (as I understand the laws of thermodynamics) either requires a cold heat sink someplace or it requires energy. Can’t see how one could extract heat from ambient air.

Martin,

In case you would like to read the entire article on Second Law by Dudley, the URL is:

http://www.execonn.com/maxwell/maxwells_demon.html

Chris,

We are a commercial firm developing products.

There is no interest in arguments with scientists. That is why we call the polymers Ultraconductors rather than superconductors, even though they appear capable of doing everything a SC can do – at ambient temperatures – up to 200 degrees C.

The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article by David Lazarus about Magnetic Power Inc., September 7th, 2005. The following is an excerpt:

Matt Aldissi, who runs a Florida research firm called Fractal Systems, reproduced Goldes’ UltraConductor as part of work on conductivity he was performing for the U.S. Air Force.

He told me that he visited Goldes’ Sebastopol lab a few years ago and was impressed by what he saw.

“Is this guy legit? Yes,” Aldissi said. “The work he claims to have done, he’s done it.”

All of the articles mentioned on our website are available through the firm. Not all have been publicized.

We do not expect anyone with scientific background to accept much of what we claim without evidence.

Fortunately, products are moving toward the market that will make that easy.

The first such examples are likely to be thermoelectric modules that absorb ambient heat and convert it to electricity with high enough efficiency to recharge batteries with no need to plug-in.

These are expected to be in pilot-plant production before the end of the year.

They open a door to electric cars with unlimited range.

Moreover, using technology already developed and tested for electric buses, to 150 kW, they can wirelessly transmit power to the local utility when suitably parked.

If Kempton, at the University of Delaware, is correct that a plug-in hybrid, with a two way plug capable of 20 kW, can sell power worth $4,000/year to the local power company – then fully electric cars would appear capable of providing at least 50 kW, with an annual value of $10,000 or more.

This would suggest future electric cars might pay for themselves.

Two large utilities have signed NonDisclosure Agreements in order to monitor this work.

The many advantages to turning future cars into power plants are obvious.

Skepticism is welcome and anticipated.

Hector,

That is in the works.

Lee Felsenstein knows both Martin and myself and is an excellent, tough, critic.

Modules will be in his lab shortly.

Here’s an interesting story about MA using flywheels to balance out supply and demand on the electrical grid. I’m kinda disappointed they never used the terms kinetic energy or angular momentum… but what can you expect.

http://www.necn.com/Boston/Business/Beacon-Power-puts-new-spin-on-clean-energy/1213409435.html

Brian, Martin,

Ah, but there is indeed a gradient.

Prototypes are en-route.

Lab results will tell the tale.

No point in argument.

If the performance is as claimed, electric vehicles will supersede anything that needs fuel.

An early market will be plug-in hybrids that can dispense with any need to plug-in.

Martin sez:

My goodness, if this system really works, why waste your time with the additional complication of making cars? Why not build a huge system in a “black box” building and sell electricity onto the grid? There is already a system and rate structure in place to do so – you have an instant customer for all the electricity that you can generate. Since there are no emissions, you can locate these generators right in the middle of cities, where the need is highest. Since your energy is free, you should become instantly rich beyond the dreams of avarice.

Mark,

Why bother with ambient heat? Why not just take energy from the quantum vacuum or use zero point energy – two ideas your site mentions as research projects.

Also, there is a wonderful bridge outside of NYC, in Brooklyn actually, that I happen to have the deed for…

If you can draw power from ambient heat, then it makes sense that a warmer environment would produce more heat.

So all we have to do is find a nice warm place in which to locate, perhaps even insert, your device…Right?

Martin sez:

Be nice, Gabe…

Mark.

If you’re not interested on becoming instantly rich then you can choose to be recognized as the person who saved the world.

Just give your technology away, put in your web page instructions on how to build it, go to all recognized universities with a working prototype and show them how it works.

Having the amazing technology you have you could get both things; money and recognition…

In the moment you prove your claims to be true the whole world will pay attention.

Facta non verba!

Mark,

I just wonder for how long you’ve been saying that one of your inventions is going to be available in a matter of months… years perhaps?

Please, prove me wrong. I want to see at least a working prototype… now!

Mark,

Could you please be more specific… Why don’t you put dates on it.

Will Lee finish testing on Jun/29?. Where are his results going to be published?. What date is EarthTech getting the prototypes?. When will they finish testing the prototype?. Will you have a public demonstration once the prototype is tested by EarthTech?

Regards

Mark,

Hmmm …going back to the same… please, less words and more facts.

I guess I don’t have any other choice but to wait for the ‘products’ to become a reality…

I think I’ll wait seated.

Anyone who believes there is a free lunch has obviously never been an entrepreneur.

An update of Bridgewalk – The Brooklyn Project
can be found on renewablenergyworld.com if anyone is interested.

As it turns out Mark Goldes claims to Hector concerning independent tests were not true.

Just noticed your post Hector.

Yes, we have been overly optimistic as to timelines. R&D resists being done on a schedule.

However, as the latest Summary on our website suggests, we are in sight of our goals.

Barring major surprises, independent laboratory tests of some of our technology will take place before this summer is over.

GSP, better multi-crystalline panels such as those w/ Q Cell are 14-16% efficient, which translates to 140-160W / m^2 or 14-16W/ft^2. SunPower makes mono-crystalline cells that are 21% efficient. Thin film and cheapy multi-crystalline cells run in the 6-8% range.

Steve, thanks for the interesting link. T. Boone is a very smart guy, but there are a few serious problems with his plan. If I write about them, though, a troll who’s been harrassing me will counter with a bunch of ridiculous disruptive nonsense. The moderator of this blog says he just doesn’t have the resources to deal with trolls, so I’m going to leave it up to others to discuss the problems with T. Boone’s plan, and the self-interest involved.

Oh, grump! When I first drafted the previous post, the second paragraph said “T. Boone Pickens’ plan is intended to….” I reworded it as I didn’t like the way it flowed, and left the now-inappropriate apostrophe there. One of my pet peeves is the misuse of apostrophes, and now I’ve gone and done it myself by being careless.

Steve U,

We seem to be on the same page on T. Boone’s plan, except I have to say that you are more knowledgeable, thoughtful and articulate on the subject.

I was going to say pretty much the same thing in different words. We taxpayers would get stuck paying for an ultra-expensive fueling infrastructure, and buying millions of expensive new vehicles, without the efficiency and emission control advantages of EVs and plug-in hybrids.

Natural gas has one of the same problems as hydrogen: It can’t be stored as a liquid at ambient temperatures, so requires heavy and expensive high pressure tanks, and has the attendant range limitation.

A big concern is that wind power (solar should be mixed in there too, in any major construction project, because they tend to complement each other) and natural gas should be used to replace a lot of the coal in power generation. Coal is the bad player.

On the positive side of T. Boone’s presentation, I wasn’t aware (if it’s in fact true) of the huge impressive region so favorable for wind power generation in the middle of this country.

Hmmm, the lightning is expected to be at least 2x the price of the Tesla Roadster. I would say given their battery chemistry and supplier there is no possible chance they will ever be cost competitive. The main claim to fame is rapid charging; something that is not possible at home and for which no infrastructure currently exists. I am a fan of non Tesla EV efforts; however, you appear to be incorrect regarding the price point and future potential of the Lightning.

I do like that they are using hub motors because you get AWD and the ability to use extremely strong regen. I wonder what the efficiency will be overall compared to the tesla roadster (in theory lower due to smaller motor but then they will likely see much larger gains in regen to offset this)?

Martin sez:

Ugh. Unsprung weight. Will handle like a truck.

The hub motor proponents don’t seem to get either the unsprung weight problems, or the environmental exposure problems hub motors present. Unsprung weight aside, personally, I would be very hesitant to locate a bunch of fragile neo magnets in the hostile vibration and shock environment of a wheel hub.

Here is a more direct link to California’s driveclean Roadster page.

On that list, the Roadsters fuel cost is listed at 139 per year. How the heck did they come up with that number? At three cents per mile, its only like 4000 miles per year – or is that what Tesla expects the car will be driven annually?

That was based on a approx 3 miles per kilowatt hour and ten cents per kilowatt hour. I think the $.02 per mile IS based on having a deal for low cost night charging.

It just seems like an odd and arbitrary number to use, and they don’t explain where they got the numbers for it.

Clicking on the fuel cost link gives the formula, but not the source of the variables.

I suspect the 3 miles per kWh comes from 220 miles per charge and 70ish kWh per charge. That gives ou 220/70=3 miles per kWh.

As for the cost per kWh, the PG&E E9 rate varies with time-of-day, season-of-year, and amount used-per-month. The rate runs from 5 cents per kWh (well, 4.999, if you actually look at the tariff) and 52 cents per kWh.

Yes, they show the gasoline calculation formula, but not for EVs. Perhaps we need a couple more EVs in the top 10 before they bother to explain their formula. By the way, I found a number of resources that project yearly average mileage between 10K and 14K. For instance, here they say “The number of miles driven per year is assumed to be 12,000 miles for all passenger vehicles. This number is based on several sources. Calculations from EPA’s MOBILE6 model show an average annual mileage of roughly 10,500 miles per year for passenger cars and over 12,400 miles per year for light trucks across all vehicles in the fleet…. FHWA’s National Highway Statistics contains values of 11,766 miles for passenger cars and 11,140 miles for light trucks across the fleet.”

Another way to look at it:

12000 miles per year / 220 miles per charge = 54 charges per year
54 charges per year * 52 kWh per charge * $0.05 per kWh = $140/year.

All just ballpark, but no matter how you look at it is is just a small fraction of the $1000+ you expect to pay with a gasoline vehicle.

According to this story, 1/3 of all US power usage is for lighting. There has been a push to use CFLs recently, but LED lighting, or plasma is probably an even better way to go. So along with PV & EV, more efficient lighting is somewhat of a “no brainer”.

As gasoline powered cars should fade into history, so should the incandescent light-bulb…

Mark Goldes said on July 12:

Comment by HectorRV September 3, 2008 @ 1:24 pm

Hector it gets better than that. In late October Mark Goldes stated 10/29 that MPI had shelved the magic Genie device because it has “proven more difficult to bring to market”. It seems that’s always the way that it is with nonexistent perpetual motion machines.

Puhleeze! Right here five months ago you tried to create the impression that Lee Felsenstein was testing one of your generator and that within a few days it would head off to ETI for independent test. Lee never got a device and neither did ETI. You later declared that the device had “proven more difficult to commercialize” and that you had binned it. That’s the device that you declared in 2007 is much simpler than your previous claimed transformer technology.

Let’s talk about movement and progress or the lack thereof. Why don’t you list the goals that you’ve published and met in the past one, two, three, four years? Over four years since you claimed to have working OU devices, you’ve presented exactly zero evidence supporting your claims.