Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: SpazMan on August 08, 2008, 10:46:56 AM

Title: Oil Down Again
Post by: SpazMan on August 08, 2008, 10:46:56 AM
Oil dropped $4.00 to $115.00 a barrell and I saw a gas station here in NY with gas priced at $3.99 a gallon.... :aok  Ok fellas time to break out the V-8's, SUV's, and Pick-up trucks and burn some gas...... :lol
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: Bronk on August 08, 2008, 11:40:18 AM
damn those speculators. :noid
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: REP0MAN on August 08, 2008, 12:46:19 PM
Filled up today in Broken Arrow, Ok. for $3.40 a gallon

Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: Redlegs on August 08, 2008, 12:47:50 PM
Oil dropped $4.00 to $115.00 a barrell and I saw a gas station here in NY with gas priced at $3.99 a gallon.... :aok  Ok fellas time to break out the V-8's, SUV's, and Pick-up trucks and burn some gas...... :lol

Man nearest gas station near me is still in the $4.30s.
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: SpazMan on August 08, 2008, 01:16:59 PM
Man nearest gas station near me is still in the $4.30s.

In Henrietta it's $3.88 a gallon. I may have to stop at Gander Mountain then fill up.... :D
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: Hornet33 on August 08, 2008, 01:20:40 PM
Topped off yesterday at $3.63 at a 7-11 in Chesapeake. Noticed the BP near my apartment in Virginia Beach was $3.61 this morning.
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: mensa180 on August 08, 2008, 01:23:56 PM
3.59 here.
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: avionix on August 08, 2008, 01:25:21 PM
In wonderful Plant City Florida, it was $3.71 and in Lakeland (a ten minute drive) is is $3.77.  Guess the Saudi shiek might have to pull that 24k gold toilet out of his 747.  Blue water must be getting expensive when us evil westerners don't buy much gas.   :D
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: Hawker25 on August 08, 2008, 04:34:39 PM
all i can say is bring on hydrogen.  Kudos to Honda for bringing out an oem car that runs on H. If we pick a fuel we couldn't pick a better element.   It is the most abundant element in the universe and its only byproducts are pure oxygen and pure water.
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: mora on August 08, 2008, 04:44:56 PM
Hydrogen is just a battery. And an inefficient one, escpecially when used in an internal combustion engine.
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: Dowding on August 08, 2008, 05:58:24 PM
Quote
It is the most abundant element in the universe and its only byproducts are pure oxygen and pure water.

It may be abundant, but it's locked in compounds such as water. It takes energy to separate it...
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: john9001 on August 08, 2008, 07:08:00 PM
It may be abundant, but it's locked in compounds such as water. It takes energy to separate it...

they invented something called photovoltaic cells, they use sun light to turn water into hydrogen, look up a company called honda.
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: Holden McGroin on August 08, 2008, 07:51:08 PM
they invented something called photovoltaic cells, they use sun light to turn water into hydrogen, look up a company called honda.

ok  I got in trouble for bring math into another discussion, but here is a back of the envelope estimate...

say you use 40 hp to drive for an hour a day.

40 hp = about 30 kw  30 kw hrs...

solar 12 hr of production,

appx 1 kw per M^2 of sun energy hits the ground.

a good tracking solar panel is 25% efficient.  Fixed Panel... lets say 50% of that.

12.5% efficient.  A good hydroysis is 50% efficient...  maybe 80% in a few years.  call it 80%.

.8 x 12.5% = call it 10 %

30KW hrs / 12 hrs = 2.5 kw.  25 kw solar needed to make up for efficiencies.

current US price $8 per Watt.... $6 after tax incentives. 

6 x 25,000 = $150,000 for the solar collector... how much for the car?

 



 

Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: rabbidrabbit on August 08, 2008, 08:06:27 PM
Nuke plants?  Electrical grid?  No one is saying you have to do it exclusively at home although it would be an added bonus.

Don't you get very efficient energy out of a nuke plant?  If you are not transmitting the power and directly generating Hydrogen, what does it then cost?  Could you not distribute that out like gas is now?

You are looking at one option and dismissing out of hand. 
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: Nashwan on August 08, 2008, 09:10:34 PM
Quote
Don't you get very efficient energy out of a nuke plant?  If you are not transmitting the power and directly generating Hydrogen, what does it then cost?

1 kg of hydrogen has about the same energy as 1 gallon of gasoline.

At 10c per kw/h, it costs about $6 just for the electricity to produce 1 kg of hydrogen. That's without counting capital costs or profit.

And that kg of hydrogen is a gas. It needs to be heavily compressed or liquefied to make it useable in a car. About $1.20 - $2 to compress or liquefy the hydrogen.

Even with economy of scale, about $10 for the same energy as a gallon of gasoline.

That's why they are looking at fuel cells for cars. They have the potential to be 2.5 times as efficient as a petrol engine, so it could be as little as $4 for enough hydrogen to drive a car as far as a gallon of gasoline. Fuel cells are currently very expensive and nowhere near efficient enough, though.
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: rabbidrabbit on August 08, 2008, 09:59:59 PM
According to a quick Google search, costs per KW to produce energy for nukes is between 3.5-5 cents.  That does make it pretty competitive.  I'm not saying its the solution but it has a significant potential given a few improvements.  I would much rather get my energy from a local source than someone who is happy using my money to kill my family.

1 kg of hydrogen has about the same energy as 1 gallon of gasoline.

At 10c per kw/h, it costs about $6 just for the electricity to produce 1 kg of hydrogen. That's without counting capital costs or profit.

And that kg of hydrogen is a gas. It needs to be heavily compressed or liquefied to make it useable in a car. About $1.20 - $2 to compress or liquefy the hydrogen.

Even with economy of scale, about $10 for the same energy as a gallon of gasoline.

That's why they are looking at fuel cells for cars. They have the potential to be 2.5 times as efficient as a petrol engine, so it could be as little as $4 for enough hydrogen to drive a car as far as a gallon of gasoline. Fuel cells are currently very expensive and nowhere near efficient enough, though.
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: CAP1 on August 08, 2008, 11:00:03 PM
Filled up today in Broken Arrow, Ok. for $3.40 a gallon



cheapest in south jersey so far is $3.53
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: CAP1 on August 08, 2008, 11:01:57 PM
Filled up today in Broken Arrow, Ok. for $3.40 a gallon



funny thing......when they raise the price immediatly when they hear that oil goes up, and i do understand why. they need to price their product acording to what it;s going to cost them to re-supply.

 but then it should make sense that when it goes down, then they should be lowering their prices just as fast, for the same reason.
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: CAP1 on August 08, 2008, 11:03:22 PM
they invented something called photovoltaic cells, they use sun light to turn water into hydrogen, look up a company called honda.

bmw and saturn too
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: Getback on August 09, 2008, 02:02:05 AM
Filled up today in Broken Arrow, Ok. for $3.40 a gallon



You rotten son of a gun. Our gas here in Indy shot up 20 cents because of the pipeline catching fire. Even this morning after it dropped again it was down only about 5 cents.
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: Holden McGroin on August 09, 2008, 08:53:09 AM
You are looking at one option and dismissing out of hand. 

No, just putting John's PV idea in perspective estimating the cost of PV solar.  Ther may be somebody out there who will do it.



Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: rabbidrabbit on August 09, 2008, 09:23:00 AM
Thanks, and I appreciate the perspective.  Whats your thoughts on nuke generated Hydrogen?  Using Nashwans breakdowns it seems expensive but looking at other published cost estimates, it seems like a viable solution if there were dual fuel or infrastructure changes.

Another note Nashwan, are you sure about 1.20 to 2.00 just to compress?  Wouldn't running a steam powered industrial compressor at a nuke plant be in the order of a few cents per gallon?  You have virtually endless and very cheap steam off the reactor and no loss for transport if connected.  Unless I'm wrong, one of the biggest costs of nukes is regulatory and licensing.

For a homebuilt option...  I have natural gas piped to my house.  How much would it really cost to power a natural gas car?  Gas costs is .77 per therm.
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: Nashwan on August 09, 2008, 09:37:24 AM
I don't think you can just take the cost of a nuclear powerplant as baseline for electricity. Even if you do, you then have to allow for the costs of transporting the hydrogen from the nuke plant to the filling stations. It would probably be cheaper to transport the electricity via the grid and make the hydrogen on site.

Compressing the gas isn't as satisfactory as liquefying it either, because you don't get as much range with compressed hydrogen. Compressed to 10,000 psi you need about 30 litres of tank space for the same energy as 1 gallon of gasoline. That's about 8 times as bulky. Even liquefied hydrogen needs almost 15 litres to equal a gallon of gasoline.

Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: Holden McGroin on August 09, 2008, 10:10:30 AM
Thanks, and I appreciate the perspective.  Whats your thoughts on nuke generated Hydrogen? 

Nuke and wind power are probably the only reasonable way right now to produce Hydrogen.

Wind because thw wind (at least in the Columbia River area) picks up at night, just when the electricity demand falls.  Last night we were producing over 1500 MW peak generation in the four states I have information on.  Right now we are doing just shy of 1000MW.   We were probably giving some away last night.

Producing Hydrogen or water pump storage could take the peak generation and store that energy for later use.  Storing it in hydrogen form might make some sense.

Nuclear plants like to run at base load and don't produce CO2 or acid rain.  Turn them on and leave them at capacity and they like to draw a straight line power production curve.  They don't changing load too much.  At night when the grid requires less power, the power the nuke plant produces in excess of the grid demand could go to hydrogen production.  The nuke plant would like that.

 
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: rabbidrabbit on August 09, 2008, 10:22:04 AM
Like us, many people don't need range for many tasks.  I'm not saying its preferable but let me give an example.  We have 3 vehicles for my wife and I.  She commutes about 50 miles per day and I work from home for the most part.  Our Pick up acts as a spare vehicle, transporter of "stuff" and towing for our boat.  If you look at our usage profile we could easily do with one of our vehicles with somewhat limited range ~ 100 miles if it was economically viable.  While I don't mind burning gas, I do mind paying foreign sources money especially when it amounts to extortion to fund international terrorism.  If I could plug a car into electrical or natural gas outlet in my garage and pay a local source I would do so.  For us, I think the largest cost is conversion.  It would costs us substantially more to convert than operate.  If there was a multifuel vehicle available next time we purchase that gave us an option we would take it.

The short side of the argument is most people don't drive more than 20 miles per day.  The catch for many is the potential need for a longer trip and how to replenish if needed as many lack extra vehicles.   
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: Speed55 on August 09, 2008, 10:24:50 AM
funny thing......when they raise the price immediatly when they hear that oil goes up, and i do understand why. they need to price their product acording to what it;s going to cost them to re-supply.

 but then it should make sense that when it goes down, then they should be lowering their prices just as fast, for the same reason.

A friend of mine told me this when i asked the same question, true or not, i don't know, but it makes sense.

What if the gas station filled all it's tanks at the higher rate.   If they sell at a deflated price, then they are going to lose profits.  
So what happens is that they wait until the next refill and then adjust the prices.
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: Holden McGroin on August 09, 2008, 10:25:51 AM
I assume your cost was .77 Euros... is your therm the same as an english therm or is there a metric therm?

If it is the same,

a therm is 100,000 btu

a gallon of gas has about 125,000 btu

125,000 / 3.785 = 33,025 btu

so 3 litres per therm.

By heat amount, switching to Nat gas look pretty good.  
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: rabbidrabbit on August 09, 2008, 12:24:02 PM
I live near Seattle so I'm assuming English therm and dollars..

So..  I'm paying .77 cents per therm delivered to my house via pipe.  It currently powers my heat, hot water cooktop etc and could be plumbed out to my garage or any other point to use as a refueling point.  Given 1 gallon of gasoline = 125,000 BTU's then I'm paying about 96 cents per 125,000 BTU's for Natural Gas VS. around 400 cents per gallon for Gasoline.  It sounds like a pretty compelling argument if my conversion or adaption costs were reasonable.  An added bonus would be the efficiency of refueling at home instead of driving to a gas station.   What am I missing?
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: Holden McGroin on August 09, 2008, 12:41:38 PM
 :lol

I was looking at your avatar and though I was talking to some guy from Norwegia.
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: evenhaim on August 09, 2008, 12:43:56 PM
7 nis a liter here
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: 007Rusty on August 09, 2008, 01:15:26 PM
$ 3.57 here a u.s. gal.  http://www.gasbuddy.com/  good site to find the cheep stuff.  (http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c135/007rusty/salute.gif)
Title: Re: Oil Down Again
Post by: rabbidrabbit on August 09, 2008, 01:56:07 PM
:lol

I was looking at your avatar and though I was talking to some guy from Norwegia.

Like a garden gnome, he pops up everywhere.