stillp

In the 70s I fitted a few Lucas 11AC alternators. 60 A, and a separate regulator (4TR?) that could be fitted somewhere cool. Pete

Stef, the inverter doesn't make any energy, in fact it consumes some. It just changes the DC from the battery into AC to run the appliances. Pete

Yes Tim, repairers do it all the time. Pet

Silver Fox was one of the colours that used to peel off Ford Cortinas (and other models) in the early seventies. Apparently is was transparent to ultraviolet light, which affected the undercoat, turning it water-soluble! It was replaced by Platinum Silver. Blue Mink had a similar problem. I had a Mk 1 Escort estate in silver fox, which was a bargain because the paint was peeling off. Luckily a friend of a friend was a rep for the paint manufacturer responsible for the Platinum Silver, so I acquired a 5 litre sample! Pete

Interesting...

Welcome back Pete! Pete

That's kW Keith, power, not kWh, which is energy. You're right though, the infrastructure cannot support significant numbers of EVs on fast chargers. The DNOs (Distribution Network Operators) in the UK plan for an average consumption per house of 6kW, somewhat less than the requirement for a fast charger. Of course, when they've persuaded everyone in your village to have a smart meter, your electricity supplier will be able to switch people off to keep the total demand down and prevent the wires glowing red hot... Pete

I think the Haynes manual is better than the Brooklands, but not as good as the original factory manual. Pete

I thought she was in Brussels negotiating with Donald Tusk... Pete

I once studied sociology with the Open University. One of the lecturers said that there was only one true socialist society in the world - a small tribe deep in the Amazon jungle, who have no words in their language for ownership, and cannot understand the concepts of "mine", "yours", etc. Pete

I went to an EV seminar a few years ago, when I worked for a company who makes EV chargers for many of the big names. One of the speakers was suggesting that Heathrow should have all the roofs, and the empty spaces around the runways, covered with solar panels. EVs could be offered free parking if they allowed their battery charge to be used to power the airport during the night, on condition the battery was fully charged when the owner returned. Seemed quite logical, sine the airport has a pretty good idea when the driver of each car plans to return to the airport. One of the additional problems with EV charging in a domestic situation is that most installations will not have the capacity for fast charging. There was a case a few years ago where an EV manufacturer was offering to install free chargers for their customers. One chap lived on an upper floor in a block of flats, and the cost of the cable from his flat to his parking space would have been £6500! Pete

Interesting that they recommend a voltmeter with what they describe as 2 digit resolution (they mean 2 decimal place resolution) but don't mention the temperature coefficient of the battery voltage! Pete

Yes, I used a proper motor factor, not Halfords!

I went to my local motor factor and bought the thickest they had. Pete

From Wikipedia entry on CO poisoning: "On average, exposures at 100 ppm or greater is dangerous to human health."