How far travelling a Hybrid with no petrol

If the can dodge the ban by installing a pack of AAs and calling it a hybrid, then that would be easier ;-)

Hydrogen is indeed one of the worst gases - hence only it and acetylene being in their own group for explosion risk purposes in industrial installations.

Unlike petrol it does have the saving grace of dissipating rapidly upwards and away instead of forming a liquid pool and a persistent surrounding vapour cloud.

All in all, highly explosive, needing little energy to ignite it, but rapidly dissipated after release.

SteveW

It leaks fairly slowly and dissipates upwards rapidly. Vents on the top of garages will let it go.

It is however very easy to ignite, needing only a very tiny spark.

If released in a crash it would be extremely explosive and esay to ignite, but on the other hand, unlike petrol, it would drift upwards and not maintain an explosive atmosphere for long.

SteveW

No, te fundamentali issue is they dont work very well in cars.

Bollocks Tim.

Racing drivers ahve burnt to death because methanol burns with no flame.

Its now fairly banned in the UK

Possibly the DSEAR 2002? There are lots of vague mentions of "guidance" from the fire service at the time that self-service pumps became common, rather then regulations.

Not from Historic Racing it isn't.

Methanol may be used in any class of machine (Pre 1973). An orange day-glow disc (minimum 3 inches diameter) must be affixed on or immediately adjacent to the Racing Number Plate on both sides of any machine using methanol. Nor from speedway / grass track.

Nor from Drag racing. Top Methanol Funny Car, Top Methanol Dragster

I can't think of any racing class for bikes or cars that was using it and has been stopped from using methanol in the last 30 years.

Seems to be easy to obtain in race fuel grade in UK.

The last supplier also lists dilution ratios for use in production of BioDiesel. You could have a 1000L ICB delivered on your doorstep in a few days, enough to make 5000L of BioDiesel.

But none of those re-fuel with quick fillers and a hot (running?) engine. (Only the Yanks?)

Nitromethane used in "top Fuel" drag racing class and model IC engines ("glow plug") burns to produce Nitric Acid. That's a bit toxic, drivers and fire lane crews wear gas masks.

Natural gas in domestic gas boiler will produce Formaldehyde during warm up. The flame is "quenched" on the cold heat exchanger, the reaction stops with highly toxic part products of combustion.

Many years ago my mum complained about a town gas leak venting from a tubular gate post. A bloke from the gas co came and inspected it. He wasn't bothered as it was vented and not collecting in an enclosed space. With the exception of Hydrogen most gas fuels have to be in an enclosed space to reach explosive mixture, otherwise they just dissipate. Heavier fuel gases like propane will flow along the ground and can then concentrate in drains which can then blow up.

I've driven cars since 1970 and until 2005 never had air conditioning. I didn't miss it, except possibly for one summer day in 1994.

However, since owning a car with a/c I do appreciate it, and can afford to buy a car that has it.

My point is that it isn't really necessary in the UK - unlike a heater. Having said that my father (now long gone) drove cars without heaters until about 1960. I think the mini in 1959 was the first entry-level saloon that had a heater as standard.

In your incorrect opinion. Fortunately that counts for nothing.

A/C is nowhere near as necessary as a heater. My first three cars didn't have it. I *think* my 1993 Mark III Golf had A/C. I know my various Peugeots (306 and 308) have had it.

I managed without until then. There were days when I got into an unbearably hot car and had the blower blowing "cold" (ambient air temperature) air onto me to keep me cool. There were a few days when this wasn't sufficient, especially if I was stuck in a traffic jam and had *only* the blower, without the added ram-jet effect of the car travelling along at 60 mph to force air through the dashboard vents.

When I got a car with A/C it made a tremendous difference. Firstly it kept the car to a bearable temperature on the relatively few scorching hot days. Secondly it dried the air which made it demist the inside of the windows a lot more quickly on cold damp mornings. I used to have to wipe the inside of the windscreen and side windows before it was safe to drive, and they quickly misted up again; now I have A/C, I put the heater on hot with A/C to get hot dry air, which demists the windows and keeps them demisted. Warm dry air is better than hot humid air for doing this (the A/C chills as well as dries the air, and the heater has to overcome the chilling).

A/C is very nice to have, but not essential like a heater is. I've never appreciated a heater more than the freezing cold day that the windows of my

1993 Golf spontaneously went down and wouldn't go back up, just as I parked at work. That lunchtime (*) I had to drive about 10 miles to the garage in sub-zero temperatures with the heater on full blast blowing very hot air out of all the vents to try to counteract the chilly air that was coming in through the windows. The fault was found to be a burned-out loom, and neither VW nor the branch of Halfords which fitted my alarm would accept responsibility, so I had to fork out about £400 for that.

(*) Fortunately when I explained what had happened, the security guys at work let me park right next to their office so they could keep an eye on the car, since it was insecure with the windows open (but the doors dead-locked so they couldn't be opened by anyone who put their hand in through the open window).

I asked someone who used to design petrol pumps, his reply ...

"it is a legal requirement, as part of the type approval of the pumps for self-service. Ultimately type approval is only central government guidance to local authorities who have the final say through the issuing of petroleum licences. So the legal instrument covering it is the licence."

Did he mention the Measuring Instruments Directive (EC)?

Did he mention licences being replaced by certificates ?

No, but I suppose neither were applicable back in the 80's when he was designing them ...

Back in the days of mechanical pumps there used to be a mechanical number display on the side, which was the actual total gallons dispensed, and a multiplication factor which was close (but not equal) to 1.

AIUI, because the pump accuracy was greater than the tolerance specified by Weights and Measures, it was possible to routinely dispense slightly less than was indicated. Not much, but enough to be worth doing.

Chris

I would suggest that a decent heat pump AC system is essential for battery powered cars! Since its a far more efficient way of heating and demisting. (also not many people would be so keen to buy a car without AC anyway these days)