FranktoidTM No. 4 - From Hybrid Cars To Solar Powered Homes, What's Next?

By now, everyone has either seen or read about hybrid vehicles. Weather it's gasoline/electric or pure battery powered, folks seem ready to accept these vehicles as the next generation of personal transportation. While they haven't perfected the solar powered car yet, the solar powered home is a reality and available to almost everyone. With battery technology advancing in leaps and bounds, it makes you wonder what's next on the horizon. Well, would you believe a battery powered building? That's right, a commercial building that has been converted to run off of batteries.

What I believe is the first building on the West Coast (and maybe in the United States) to be battery powered, Winston Chung Hall is located on the University of California, Riverside Campus. Named after the billionaire entrepreneur and businessman Winston Chung, this research facility now houses some of the most advanced batteries in the world. Inside sources confirm that only the first floor of the building will initially be battery powered, with the other floors to be added at a later date pending further battery installations as determined for power usage.

For all the tech hungry people out there, here are some specs on the power source. First off, these ain't your grandfather's golf cart batteries. They were developed and manufactured by Winston Global Energy, which also makes electric taxis (currently for use in Europe) and a state-of-the-art electric R.V. chassis. The buildings battery pack boasts 330 batteries producing a total of 1.1 megawatt hours. Each unit is 1000 amp hour, yttrium-iron sulfate construction. Projected power demand reduction is 185 kw at a savings of $22,000 per year. Now I know what you're thinking, these things must be massive, right? To quote Frank the Pug from the movie Men In Black: "You humans. When are you gonna learn that size doesn't matter? Just 'cause somethings important, doesn't mean it's not very, very small." I think Winston took the pug's advice, as you will see in these exclusive photos.

Your looking at 40 feet of batteries in a standard hallway.

Here is a close-up of the battery packs. They look like giant Lego blocks...

These are the massive transfer switches that will handle the switching from the grid to battery power and vise-versa.

This is one of the European all electric taxis. It's even right hand drive! That's an all electric big rig in the background.

Here are both taxis that were on display. These were not small and looked very roomy.

FranktoidTM No. 2 - AMC's Amitron

 
Did you know that AMC debuted an all electric commuter car in 1968? The Amitron, a three-passenger electric car, was jointly developed by American Motors and Gulton Industries. With a range of 150 miles and an average speed of 50 mph, the Amitron was way ahead of it's time. Of special interest is that it was equipped with lithium-nickle fluoride batteries. Can you imagine if they had continued to develop this car where we would be with battery technology today?

Looks kind of like a mini AMC Pacer...

Pain in the Gas

I don't now about you but I am sick and tired of getting gouged at the pump. I put gas in my car today and paid $3.69 a gallon! Gas has been going up about 3 cents every other day. Why don't they just jack it up to four dollars so the price will stay the same for awhile. Why is it that the price goes up instantly but takes so long to long to come down? The oil companies know that there is nothing we can do about it, and that we will continue to buy their gas no matter what the price.


I wish there was an affordable electric car that I could buy. One of the least expensive out there is the GEM vehicles which are distributed through Chrysler. I would buy one of these but they are a total piece of crap. I drive one at work everyday and they are constantly breaking down. My employer has one of the largest fleet of GEMs around so I have seen first hand how bad these vehicles are. The batteries constantly need to be replaced (due to the rough ride), the frames crack (their aluminum), the wheel cylinders leak almost as soon as you replace them, the battery charger has gone out twice, and the main electrical plug outlet (where you plug in the cord) burns up! Let's not forget the clear coat problems and the random cracks that the body has at most of the mounting points. I know that GEM stands for Global Electrical Motorcars but they really should have named it TURD.


Hybrids are another story. Toyota held the crown for top mileage for quite a while until BMW recently unveiled a 5 series that beat it. The BMW 520d with a 2.0-liter diesel engine and regenerative braking posted an impressive 41.9 mpg - about 0.9 mpg better than a full hybrid Prius. Not a huge difference but keep in mind that the BMW is about 500 lbs heavier. Plus, which would you rather drive, a BMW or a Toyota? BMW also built a V-12 concept car that ran on hydrogen. Imagine filling your tank with the water hose! Sound too far fetched? Check out these sites I found for converting your car to run on water:
Click Here!

and here's another one:
Click Here!


I checked out both sites and it looks like the conversion is in addition to gas, so your car is like a hybrid of sorts. It got me curious and made me want to convert one of my older cars, but it sounds a little too good to be true. I will be doing some investigating on this and will post my results when I have them.