Who killed electric car? Part2

About a week ago, California Air Resources Board voted to lower the target for ZEV (zero emission vehicles) program. The target for hydrogen fuel cell and electric vehicle has been lowered from 25,000 (set in 2003) to 7,500...substantial setback.

It's hard to see from the pic, but there were many electric vehicles parked outside Cal/EAP building in Sacramento, CA (where CARB is located) to protest the decision....including fancy Tesla electric car.

This is not new. CARB did the same thing a few years back which is rememberd as famous "who killed electric car?" story. It seems that there will be no leap forward on this issue.....at least for coming years.

Well, that is sad and bad, because ZEV is better than conventional cars.

But No car is even better than ZEV. And a lot better.

However, if you are a Californian who don't live in San Francisco or Berkeley (pedestrian-friendly communities), you can't really scream "I want to be green and I want to live without a car!"

Things are build sparse, and public transportation is not very convenient. If I choose to live without a car, I'd be struggling to run errands. But if a community is re-designed in a way that everything is nicely concentrated, then you can walk, ride a bike or use trams to access many different places. And owing no car is far more affordable than purchaing a cutting-edge ZEV!

Investing in ZEV is one option for reducing emission from vehicles, but investing in public transportation and re-designing community is another way to do it. What should I do if I wanted to vote for the latter?

Eco-cute: Next generation water heating system

When I first saw the product, I thought there was nothing cute in it. But it turns out that they named that way because the Japanese word "kyuto" (water heating system) sounds like "cute".



This is next generation water heating system for residential use.


What's so revolutionary about this product???

It collects ambient heat in the air. Then with the aid of electricity, 1 unit of electricity input achieves 3-6 output to heat water. Or, 1 electricity + 2 ambient heat = 3 unit capacity to heat water.

At least three times more energy efficient than just using electricity!

"Heat collector" along with water tank is installed outside the house to provide hot water for bath, kitchen and so on.

Collecting ambient heat sounds like a great idea. I didn't have chance to ask a question to the researchers, but Eco-cute can collect waste heat, even better. For example, if it can collect the waste heat from air conditioner, that is almost like a closed loop system!
Another breakthrough about this product is that it uses CO2 as coolant. It substitutes other common coolants such as CFC...which are ozone depleting agents. Eco-cute uses "waste CO2" from production process.

Okay. I am still not very impressed with the name, but the technology looks very promising. Right now, it is offered about $5000-6000 per unit (per house). Price might go down if gains more market share. Not sure if it is offered in US.

Unfortunately, no video in English. This animation might help understand the technology.