{"id":3114,"date":"2019-10-04T17:03:05","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T16:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/outsidethebubble.net\/?p=3114"},"modified":"2019-10-04T17:03:07","modified_gmt":"2019-10-04T16:03:07","slug":"small-really-is-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/home-5009482728.webspace-host.com\/wordpress\/2019\/10\/04\/small-really-is-beautiful\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Really Is Beautiful."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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2-seat all electric Renault TWIZY, under 0.5 ton.

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4-seat all electric Mitsubishi_i-MiEV, about 1 ton.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Restricting the use of large heavy internal combustion vehicles on\nour roads can have a dramatic effect on our consumption of fossil fuels and the\ngeneration of both CO2 <\/sub>and a range of damaging pollutants in the\nurban environment.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There is broad agreement among scientists\nthat climate change and rising levels of CO2 <\/sub>in the atmosphere are\nlinked.  Only by reducing CO2<\/sub>\ngeneration might we stabilise and hopefully reverse some of the effects we\nassociate with climate change.  Governments\nacross the world set targets but it is absolutely essential that we do as much\nas we can sooner we can and not wait for \u201cthe authorities\u201d to actually do\nanything.  It\u2019s just too important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the UK a major part of our energy\nconsumption is the petrol and diesel fuel used for transport.  Climate change activists insist there should\nbe wholesale movement away from private cars to walking, cycling and public\ntransport.  Walking and cycling is fine\nfor those who are young, fit and healthy and preferably live in a flat\ncity.  Make sure you don\u2019t have small\nchildren or a lot of shopping to carry and certainly don\u2019t live in a country\nwith often pretty ghastly weather.  Public\ntransport is often little better than taking us from somewhere we are not to a place\nwe don\u2019t want to be at a time that is inconvenient.  For many, these aspirations are a bit like St\nAugustine\u2019s famous words \u201cOh, Master, make me chaste and celibate-but not yet\u201d.  Many activists are happy to encourage others\nto make changes but are somewhat slower with their own responses.  Few have the dedication of Greta Thunberg!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We Love Our Cars!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The motorcar has given vast numbers of people the\ncapacity to be mobile, to go where there are jobs, shops and\nentertainment.  It allows families to\ntravel together and it is na\u00efve to think that a society like ours will give up\nthis capability quickly or easily.  It\ndoesn\u2019t have to but it does have to be managed. \nUltimately widespread availability of low-cost electricity from\nrenewable sources will help greatly but in the meantime there is a lot that can\nbe done now to accelerate these changes and deal with two major problems we\nhave now: consumption of fossil fuels and urban pollution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How big is the problem? There\nare approximately 31.5 million cars (82.5%), 4 million vans (10.5%) and 0.5\nmillion heavy goods vehicles (1.3%) in the UK (from DoT, 2019).  In total they generate about 120 million tonnes\nof CO2 <\/sub>per annum (UK DoBEIS, 2019). \nThe weighted average combined fuel economy of cars and light trucks in\n2016 was about 22 miles per gallon and the average vehicle travelled about\n11,500 miles per year.  The fuel burned\nwithin the engine generates the heat used to propel the vehicle.  There have been significant improvements in\nengine efficiency in recent years but it is still the case that typically 25%\nof the energy actually propels the vehicle. \nThe remainder is heat which is dissipated through the exhaust and\ncooling systems of the vehicle.  Electric\nvehicles transfer the pollution away from the vehicle to where the power is\ngenerated.  If the source is renewable\nthen the pollution produced is low.  The\nefficiency of electric motors is very high indeed and, particularly if breaking\nregeneration is used then electric vehicles are dramatically more energy\nefficient than fossil fuel.  The spin\naround renewable power is somewhat different from the reality.  About 30 % of electricity generation is\ncurrently renewable, but it\u2019s only less than 12% of the energy provided by\npetroleum (petrol plus diesel).  Building\neight times as many wind farms or solar panel farms would be an enormous\ninvestment and take many years.  However\nit turns out there is a great deal we could do now to halve the energy used for\ntransport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Motor vehicles are also responsible for\nanother major problem, that of pollution particularly in the urban environment.\n That pollution is a combination of\nexhaust fumes, both gas including CO2 <\/sub>and nitrous oxide as well as\nparticles from diesel and from the tyres which inevitably wear away on the road\nsurfaces.  In several British cities\npollution levels regularly exceed permitted safety levels.  In addition, surveys indicate that the noise\nfrom vehicles significantly affects the quality-of-life of around 30% of people\nin the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Heavy Vehicles Waste Far Too Much Energy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now for a bit of physics. The energy used by\na vehicle allows it to accelerate.  The\nenergy needed to double the speed of a vehicle goes up in proportion to the\nsquare of that velocity so it takes four times as much energy for a car to\nreach 60 mph as it does to reach 30 mph. \nOnce it has reached cruising speed a significant part of the energy is\ndissipated to overcome wind resistance. \nThe kinetic energy of the vehicle is reduced whenever the brakes are\napplied and that energy turned into heat which is wasted.  In the UK the average length of a single trip\nfor a vehicle is only about 8 miles.  85%\nof trips are less than 10 miles and 95% are less than 25 miles.  A typical trip involves several\nacceleration\/braking cycles wasting considerable amounts of energy and\ntherefore generating considerable amounts of CO2<\/sub>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typical cars sold in the UK now weigh up\nto 2.5 tons.  That weight has crept up in\nrecent years because of the popularity of larger SUV type vehicles offering\nbigger load carrying capacity as well as greater levels of comfort.  Most journeys only involve a driver with\npossibly a single passenger contributing an almost negligible additional weight\nto the total.  Older readers may remember\nhow cars became much more sluggish when laden with three or four\npassengers.  This is not something most drivers\nexperience these days now that cars are bigger, heavier and more powerful.  Every additional kilogram requires additional\nenergy to accelerate it.  Reducing the\nweight of the vehicle will improve its energy efficiency markedly.  A mass move from internal combustion\npropulsion to electric will take very many years to complete.  I will argue that motorists and city planners\nneed to do their bit to encourage strongly the use of smaller electric vehicles.\n This is something that can be done\nsimply by banning internal combustion and bigger vehicles from inner-city\nregions where pollution and noise are problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the UK the average car is over 8 years\nold.  Worries surrounding Brexit have\nreduced new car sales significantly so we can expect a jump in sales once\nBrexit is resolved.  Anything you can do\nby choosing a lighter, smaller car next time or persuading others to do so will\nmake a significant contribution towards reducing our national carbon footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Small Electric Vehicles Are Increasingly Attractive<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the electric vehicles manufactured today are\nexpensive and targeted at the luxury end of the market.  They are big, heavy and although electric\nstill consume unnecessary levels of energy. \nCars used to be much smaller but would this be at all practical to move\nto much smaller electric vehicles? Small, efficient\nall electric cars are already in production. \nManufacturers greatly prefer to sell large vehicles with big\nengines.  Many have already produced all\nelectric variants on their main ranges but surprisingly little effort seems to\nbe going into making much smaller vehicles. \nOne exception is the Mitsubishi i-MiEV introduced 10 years ago.  This is a five door hatchback weighing only\none ton.  It has a 16 kWh battery giving\nit a range of up to 100 miles.  The\nability to go for 5 miles on one kWh can be compared to the typical level that\nwe get on a modern car of about 1 mile\/kWh. the Mitsubishi vehicle can carry\nfour.  An even smaller all electric\nvehicle that can carry two and is less than half a ton in weight is the Renault\nTwizy, currently selling for around \u00a37000 in the UK.  It has a range of about 60 miles with a 6kWh\nbattery giving a consumption of around 10 miles\/kWh, a tenfold improvement over\na typical modern car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reducing the mass of our cars has a dramatic effect on\nour national energy consumption.  If we\nimagine replacing our cars with others half a ton lighter yet continuing to\ndrive them in the same way we do now we would reduce U.K.\u2019s energy consumption\nby 10%, cutting CO2 <\/sub>production by\n40 million tonnes per year, saving each of us perhaps \u00a3800 per annum.  If we all managed to reduce the weights by a\nfull ton it would cut option by 20%, reducing CO2 <\/sub>production by 80 million tonnes per\nyear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Persuading\nPeople to Change Their Habits.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What could be done to encourage and indeed accelerate\nthe move towards such a reduction in energy consumption as well as effecting a substantial\nreduction in pollution that damages so many urban environments?  It should be clear from the above that\nencouraging the use of smaller and lighter vehicles would make a great\ndifference.  Further, requiring that\nthese smaller vehicles were either fully electric or hybrid so they could be\noperated without liquid fuel would be even more effective.  The most direct approach is to plan a phased\ntightening of the controls on vehicles entering and being driven around key\nurban areas.  Start by limiting larger\nand heavier vehicles so they cannot be driven around in the restricted urban area.  Next insist on electric\/hybrid operation\nexclusively initially during core busy hours but eventually at all times.  The size limitations could be progressively\ntightened.  One of the key features must\nbe the development of substantial pressures on automotive manufacturers to\nproduce small light and economic city vehicles. \nAt present electric\/hybrid vehicles are very much positioned at the top\nend of manufacturers range rather than at the bottom end which is where there\nwill be most impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is even more that can be done.  City cars do not need to be built to reach 80\nmph (as does the Mitsubishi one above). \nHaving a lower overall performance allows the vehicles to be made even lighter\nand cheaper as well as being more reliable. \nElectric motors give good silent acceleration but city cars don\u2019t need\nto exceed 50 mph. The cost of these vehicles will be key to ensuring that they\nbecome generally acceptable and eventually highly desirable. There will be\nconsiderable opposition to these moves from oil companies, automotive\nmanufacturers and parts of the public who feel their divine right to drive a\nvast vehicle through the centre of our ancient cities must not be\nviolated.  However we can only deal with\nclimate change if we genuinely start to make changes like this.  It is not a complete solution but it is a\nstart.  Many realise that it\u2019s just not\nenough to be careful with plastic waste. \nAll around us we can see that the motorcar is a significant part of our\nproblems and this is how we can start to manage it in a way that will work for\nthe UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Restricting the use of large heavy internal combustion vehicles on our roads can have a dramatic effect on our consumption of fossil fuels and the generation of both CO2 and a range of damaging pollutants in the urban environment.  There is broad agreement among scientists that climate change and rising levels of CO2 in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/home-5009482728.webspace-host.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/home-5009482728.webspace-host.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/home-5009482728.webspace-host.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home-5009482728.webspace-host.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home-5009482728.webspace-host.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3114"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/home-5009482728.webspace-host.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3125,"href":"https:\/\/home-5009482728.webspace-host.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3114\/revisions\/3125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/home-5009482728.webspace-host.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home-5009482728.webspace-host.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/home-5009482728.webspace-host.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}