RambleOnNW
Pacific Northwest
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Joined: 08/06/2010
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LindsayRichards wrote:If 6.3 kilowatts sounds like a lot of energy, it isn't. The average home consumes 27 kilowatts of power each day. Far more than the 6.3 kilowatts that will be produced by the new solar panels adorning the White House. According to TradeWind Energy, "one 50-watt light bulb running for 20 hours will use one kilowatt-hour of electricity (50 watts x 20 hours = 1,000 watt-hours = 1 kWh)."
In other words, the White House installed enough solar panels to power six 50-watt bulbs for 20 hours each day. And if you've ever been inside the White House, or seen it from a distance, you'll notice it's lit up like a klieg light. Excerpted from Boston.com:
You are mixing up units, comparing 6.3 kilowatts (the maximum panel output) to kilowatt-hours (power X time). A 6.3 kilowatt set of solar panels in Washington DC, according to this solar calculator, generates an average of 28 kilowatt-hours per day.
28 kWh is enough to run 127 11-watt LED light bulbs (60-watt incandescent equivalent 800 lumen output) 20 hours per day.
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tomman58
Southeast Michigan
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Joined: 06/12/2005
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Vikrv, so much for my fun with some on this board. Sometimes I bait and wait and this time you came in and torpedoed right off the bat LOL.
2015 GMC D/A, CC 4x4/ Z71 ,3.73,IBC SLT+
2018 Jayco 338RETS
2 Trek bikes
Honda EU2000i
It must be time to go, the suns out and I've got a full tank of diesel!
We have a granite fireplace hearth! Love to be a little different.
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southwindsteve
Georgia
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Joined: 02/29/2008
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Ok folks, here is what I'm seeing. Fuel prices have done nothing but get higher since I have been alive. Sure, they will inch up or down over the weeks, months, and years. But the main thing to keep in mind is that they have and will always continue to go UP. So the fact still remains that the only people that really and truly don't care about the fuel prices are the ones that have LOTS of income or money. They don't care if the price of gas is $10 a gallon. But the majority of the RV owners are probably not in that category. So we have the "oh look the price just fell 2 cents, I was worried that it was going to keep rising and I couldn't use my RV anymore". Well guess what....the price of fuel WILL keep rising as long as there is any left in the ground. The price keeps going up and down to keep people confused as to where it will be next week. So they hang on to the hope that it will finally come down and stay down so they can afford to fill up their gas guzzlers and keep on traveling in them without suffering. Guess what......the oil companies, traders, or whoever is doing the manipulating is laughing all the way to the bank......which they probably own also.
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tomman58
Southeast Michigan
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southwindsteve wrote:Ok folks, here is what I'm seeing. Fuel prices have done nothing but get higher since I have been alive. Sure, they will inch up or down over the weeks, months, and years. But the main thing to keep in mind is that they have and will always continue to go UP. So the fact still remains that the only people that really and truly don't care about the fuel prices are the ones that have LOTS of income or money. They don't care if the price of gas is $10 a gallon. But the majority of the RV owners are probably not in that category. So we have the "oh look the price just fell 2 cents, I was worried that it was going to keep rising and I couldn't use my RV anymore". Well guess what....the price of fuel WILL keep rising as long as there is any left in the ground. The price keeps going up and down to keep people confused as to where it will be next week. So they hang on to the hope that it will finally come down and stay down so they can afford to fill up their gas guzzlers and keep on traveling in them without suffering. Guess what......the oil companies, traders, or whoever is doing the manipulating is laughing all the way to the bank......which they probably own also.
Try to take into account inflation over the years, wars, then of course greed. Gee how long did it take you to catch on?
RV when you can and often. When I hear of someone that is not going to be able to go on vacation because gas went up 20 cents I think maybe they need to think smaller, cheaper or tenting, but go. For the rest of us , grin and bear it. When I did my retirement budget in 2006, I allotted $5.50 for fuel (diesel) for a 10 year outlook and guess what I am not sure we will get there, hope not.
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Desert Captain
Payson
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Joined: 02/19/2011
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We have been on the road for 11 days and 2700 miles from Tucson to DC. Best price was in central Virginia - $3.28. Worst was Asheville NC -$3.57. It has averaged $3.39. I expect it to go higher as we head up into New England. Glad the V-10 runs so well on regular.
Best mileage has been 10.4 - the worst 8.28 (driving up and down along the Blue Ridge Parkway out of Asheville. Overall we are consistently seeing 9.4 in our 24'Class C with the cruise control set to 62 - but I leave it off in hills... and there have a lot of "hills"! ![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/biggrin.gif "biggrin")
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southwindsteve
Georgia
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I have known about this trend..... like I said.... all my life. I was just commenting on the way some of the people report that fuel is up or down 2 cents or 35 cents. It's like a roller coaster that will not end....except on the more and higher prices.
And to restate, a few folks don't even look at the pump or worry about it when filling one of the fuel guzzlers up, because they have plenty of income or money to do so and not bat an eye at the prices per gallon. Just need to face reality....fuel prices will never go down and stay down they will always come back up and higher in the end.
If I were driving an RV and the price of fuel at a station were $5.50 a gallon I would turn it off and and leave it. Let's see...at $5.50 a gallon for gas that would be about $300 for about 55 gallons for the typical class a, maybe even more with a bigger tank or on dead empty (they are around 75 capacity). Now....a diesel is going to be a little different. I think the usual capacity for their tank or tanks is about 100 gallons or more. So it would be maybe around $450 for smaller tanks and maybe $800 for bigger ones.
I am not trying to be argumentative correct me if I am wrong about these figures.
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tomman58
Southeast Michigan
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Southwind steve, No point in arguing just fill'er up!
I also have a hard time in folks chatting about up a penny or down a penny. This is just nothing to chat about.
I will say that I rarely fill up at those truck stop unless they post a price comparable to the other gas stations. Many, many times when pulling off for diesel I look and see a station that is a dime or 20 cents cheaper and will go there. I also don't make it a point to get off at those trucker stops for the same reason.
The point here is when you need it or slightly before look for the best deal.
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pianotuna
Regina, SK, Canada
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Joined: 12/18/2004
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Hi,
Recently where I lived gas costs went up 12 cents overnight. That was 12 cents per LITER!! That works out to about 45 cents per gallon.
Regards, Don
My ride is a 28 foot Class C, 256 watts solar, 556 amp-hours of Telcom jars, 3000 watt Magnum hybrid inverter, Sola Basic Autoformer, Microair Easy Start.
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Fezziwig
SF bay
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Joined: 07/25/2008
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LindsayRichards wrote:So you are OK with the unsubsidised ROI of the numerous wind and solar plants we have built?
I'm generally against all subsidies, especially subsidies to purely commercial companies. Some subsidies may be required for municipal functions like fresh water and waste water handling because such a profound common resource as the water cycle is involved.
Subsidies to commercial operations means that the government is picking winners and losers, which undermines enterprise competition, the sole justification for capitalism, thus presaging violent bloody revolution, nobodies favorite. Thus, everyone loses.
If we subsidize sea shipping we must subsidize rail shipping, and then trucking, etc. Maybe if subsidies were limited by duration or something, they would work better, and then lapse. But that's not what we do. Once a subsidy is created it lives on forever, like an automaton.
Subsidies have dreadful consequences, so it would be best to eliminate unfair subsidies, but instead we add new subsidies, believing that subsidising everyone will be as good as subsidising noone, but we're wrong.
Unfortunately, the system that allows Chevron to make $40billion in profits to shareholders without collecting a cent of taxes for corporate profits must also subsidize a potential competitor like solar or wind, else it risks getting it's "fair and balanced" certificate revoked.
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SRT
Head of the Lakes, MN
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Seems that the fuel prices have been stable for a few weeks. Gasoline remains at $3.43 to $3.49. Diesel at $3.99. But we can bet prices will increase when it warms up some more.
As to alternate fuels..... Seems I saw or read something that somebody was putting up some hydrogen refueling stations for the hydrogen fuel cells. So maybe there will be some real-life testing.
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