Yep it's true that a hybrid has batteries and motors and they weigh more.
Busses do a lot of breaking though and that's a lot of wasted energy.
Recapturing it really can make up for the difference in weight, and then become
more efficient in the end.
Useing technology like when braking or coasting to a stop, the hybrid uses its
electric motor as a generator to produce electricity, which is then stored in
its battery pack, as opposed to transforming that energy to heat that is then
dissipated into the air as a conventional bus does. They also can have better
transmissions, like locomotives, which by the way are almost always hybrid
electric diesels for that reason.
That's not to say a hybrid is an end all to pollution, and future engine
technology may some day replace it. But I'm happy to hear that Metro Transit is
doing something to help make the city more breathable with the technology we
can currently buy.
Tom Holtzleiter
King Field
From: Dyna Sluyter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Mpls] Re: Busses and Pollution- Has Metro Transit
found a perpetual
motion machine?
Date sent: Wed, 28 Feb 2001 20:11:08 -0600
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Hmm... has a small diesel engine, batteries, and electric
motors, and uses less fuel and pollutes less than a diesel bus? Has
Metro Transit found a loophole in the basic laws of physics? I think
not- The power ultimately has to come from the diesel engine, whether
you demand a constant 100 horses from it and store said power in
batteries for peak demands or intermittently ask for 200 to 300
horsepower. In fact the current standard Metro Transit bus's engine
is of about the optimum size for efficiency, at about 1.7-2.0 liters
per cylinder. Smaller (car and light truck) and larger (locomotive)
engines are usually less efficient.
Perhaps Metro Transit needs to drug test some of it's
administrators as well as the drivers...
peace,
Dyna Sluyter from Hawthorne
--
Dyna Sluyter
friend of Bill W. and Harry B.
USPS TTO, 554 MVS tour 3 operator, 6610142('96 Mack MR tractor, 2.8m
wheelbase ) de N0EGF, qrv 70cm, 2m, 10-80m
proud IBT and APWU member for over 20 years, solidarity forever!
mk.1 Mini Cooper S, mk.2 Golf diezel, Ranger XL 4x4 longbed ("da
service truck")
R100GS mit seitzwagen, R65LS
Teledyne Titan, Santana, Trek 7300
Quickie GP, Fortress AeroEdge
running C/PM, DOS, Linux, and Mac OS. Micro who?
Amtrak 1007, highball!
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