De Th!nk en ik
The importer of the Th!nk, Elmonet, was kind enough to allow me to test drive a Th!nk. The Th!nk is an electric two-seater with a maximum range of 180 km. Want to know what I thought of it? Read on!
Monthly Archives: Monday August 10th, 2009
Did a test drive in a Th!nk today
Test drive Th!nk tomorrow
Th!nk
Tomorrow is the day: I’m going to make a test drive in a Th!nk with Elmonet in Eelde. Of course there will be a extensive report.
Umicore Solar Team (Belgium) present Umicar Inspire
Umicar Inspire
After Solar Team Twente and Nuon Solar Team, it was Umicore Solar Teams turn to present their solar racing car last saturday, the Umicar Inspire. It’s a ‘classic’ design; a large, thin wing covered in solar cells, supported by three wheels and it has a small, streamlined cockpit all the way at the back. The concept is the same as with the Nuna 5, although they may be a lot of differences inside.
It’s nice to see solar racing cars rolling out here and there, although I can’t detect much activity at many foreign teams. Unfortunately the website of the World Solar Challenge’s organisation remains awfully quiet, I would like to see a list of participating teams so that I can compile a list of all teams and their cars again, like I did two years ago. I’ll have to be patient, I guess.
Philips EcoClassic light bulbs
EcoClassic30
Nearly all the lights on our home contain compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and that works great. It seems a lot of people have ‘something’ against CFLs, usually they complain about the color of the light or they think they’re not bright enough. Both complaints are easy to avoid: the first one by buying a slightly more expensive lamp which has better color rendering and the second by buying a slightly stronger lamp than the manufacturer advises.
Nevertheless, CFLs are not always possible or appropriate. Our extractor hood contains two incandescent lights of 40W each. The space for these lights is very small, the somewhat thicker base of a CFL won’t fit there. I also suspect that it gets quite hot in there, something I think is not good for the longevity of CFLs. Also, we use these lights not a lot, I estimate that they are, on average, switched on for only 15 to 20 minutes per day. Replacing both lights with CFLs would save only 2 kWh per year.
Yesterday one of these lights burnt out and instead of brainlessly buying the same type I sat down and thought about it. After searching the internet for a while I saw an interesting alternative: the Philips EcoClassic lights.In this case it’s a lamp which uses 28W of power but gives as much light as a regular 40W incandescent light. Philips did this by mounting a halogen light inside a normal glass bulb. Halogen light are substantially more energy efficient than normal incandescent lights, although not as efficient as CFLs. The EcoClassic lights are dimmable with a normal dimmer and cost about as much as a 9W CFL.
Every time one of the few normal incandescent lights we still have scattered through the house (the second light in the extractor hood, the toilet, hallway cupboard) burns out I’ll replace it with one of these Philips lights. We’ll still save some electricity without having to install CFLs in places where they’ll not work well.
Therefore, if you have a lamp in which, for whatever reason, you can’t or won’t put a CFL: these lights are a nice alternative which still save a considerable amount of electricity.
BOcruiser
BOcruiser
In 2007 Hochschule Bochum participated in the World Solar Challenge with their vehicle Solarworld No. 1, with which they reached fourth place in the Challenge Class. I though at first they were going to enter the 2009 Challenge with the same car, but now they have presented their their new vehicle: the BOcruiser.
The first thing that sticks out is that the BOcruiser is obviously less aerodynamic then most other solar race cars. Nearly all cars are optimised for three things: low air resistance, low weight, and a large flat surface for the solar cells and because of this nearly all cars feature a large wing for the solar cells, three wheels and as small a cockpit for the driver as is possible. This vehicle resembles a ‘normal’ car in shape and I think it shows that Hochschule Bochum wants to follow a different path than the other teams. Maybe they don’t expect to reach first place with this design but rather do they want to show that it’s becoming feasable to build an electric car which can travel long distances, and in this case even powered directly by vehicle-mounted solar cells.
Although the attention of the media seems focussed on the racing side the World Solar Challenge still remains that: a challenge. It would seem that at least Hochschule Bochum is picking up that challenge in their own unique way.
Hoewel de media-aandacht vooral uitgaat naar het race-aspect blijft de World Solar Challenge natuurlijk vooral een ‘challenge’, een uitdaging dus. Het lijkt er op dat in ieder geval Hochschule Buchum deze uitdaging op geheel eigen wijze aanneemt.