[LINK] ultracapacitors

[Craig Sanders]

On Wed, Sep 05, 2007 at 11:38:47AM +1000, Richard Chirgwin wrote:
> Karl Auer wrote:
>> They say that it will be safer than gasoline - hm - I sure wouldn't want
>> to get a hit fom a charging connector! And if the cables need that much
>> cooling, I wonder how much energy is being wasted. I'd have thought
>> they'd want BIG cross-section connectors to avoid that...
>>   
> Yeah. Big, thick copper busbars (ha! there's also probably not enough 
> copper lying around to kit out millions of homes with the ability to 
> recharge something like this!).

you're assuming that the plan is to recharge at home. very few homes
are going to have the wiring or anything else required to deliver that
much power in such a short time....most likely what they'll get is an
immediate crash-course in applied running-and-screaming while burning to
death.

IIRC, the plan was to have fast chargers at petrol stations where
drivers can "fill up" on electrons in the same way they currently fill
up on hydrocarbons.


note: i'm not saying these ultracapacitors are viable. i don't know
enough about them to tell (although i've been reading with interest
whenever they appear on the geek news sites). my point was that it
doesn't have to be rechargable at home on a normal 240 (or 110) volt
outlet to be feasible.



(i can also see plenty of scope for Evolution In Action when you're
talking about mixing ordinary citizens with extraordinarily high
currents).

craig

-- 
craig sanders <cas at taz.net.au>

BOFH excuse #78:

Yes, yes, its called a design limitation