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G. David Felt

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Everything posted by G. David Felt

  1. G. David Felt
    Very cool to hear about your initial impressions of the CT6, I like many have high hopes for the car. Very Cool Indeed.
  2. G. David Felt
    Very true, If Cadillac had the balls to do this right, they would take and put in one of the readily available 500+hp and over 700lbs of Torque electric engines with a slew of 400Ah battery cells into the bottom of the Escalade and have a 300 to 400 mile range Luxury SUV that people would line up to buy and spend money on and it would Hurt Tesla. This would do nicely, as a starting point for an EV Escalade. 420HP, 560 Lbs of Torque. with awd, this would move.
  3. G. David Felt
    The thing is, while Lutz could be counted on to get engineers to do the right thing in a typical car, the market is quickly leaving him behind. He'd be the man behind the development of the world's greatest flip phone and doesn't understand what all this Apple fad is about. Guess that does make me officially old as I have yet to figure out the apple fad. The product is over priced, the design is for small hands only and the interface is a messed up jumble of Icons that does not communicate to me what it is supposed to do. On the other hand I am young and bleeding edge with my Samsung Note, Linux and windows machines that make sense to me and the world of Scale Out Software based Storage like EMC ScaleIO and Isilon. Nerd is still alive in me, let me think and use my brain, no thank you to the apple interface.
  4. G. David Felt
    What is going on in Japan, the auto's are getting uglier and uglier every year.
  5. G. David Felt
    It does have the Big Mouth Billy Bass look to it.
  6. G. David Felt
    WOW, that is the most hideous car I have ever seen. Take the large ugly vents from their Hydrogen car, add an oversized Predator mouth grill and TaDa, Massive Ugly! I cannot see the 1% spending money on this ugly monster. But then this does go with the October month of Halloween. Maybe they have some monsters of their own they are trying to scare away.
  7. G. David Felt
    Nice looking concept but Damn, that rear blind spot due to the stupid Coupe roof line.
  8. G. David Felt
    I like the concept of the WALL from Tesla, this could be an outstanding way to live off grid if one wanted to and could afford a big enough bank for the house with solar grid.
  9. G. David Felt
    1) Very true, but Tesla for now has decided to buck the current trend, so this is going to be interesting if he can make the 2nd attempt work or not. 2) Yes the Bolt is a Leaf killer but also does zero in on Tesla and their cheap version they have always talked about. This should be noticeable as they push to have more EVs on public roads. 3) Agreed, I thought it was interesting to see him mention cheap gas. 4) I can only think that he sees this as a brain drain on the company but a positive for the rest of the auto industry. After all we have heard of plenty of Tesla engineers going to work at Google, Apple and even the rebirth of Fisker and especially GM on their new EV programs.
  10. G. David Felt
    By now Rudolph is Deer Jerky!
  11. G. David Felt
    Is a good looking concept, not a fan of the eye lids over the front head lights and clearly the dash is not airbagged so a clean concept approach. Bigger question is how are they going to get the MPG and the clean emissions out of the Rotary. Mazda has failed to get their Skyactiv Diesel emissions legal and they have stated that the rotary is not a future motor due to the inefficient use of petrol and emissions. So I am wondering how they will get it to market. Here was a chance for Mazda to bring back the RX but with a future power train like a VOLT type power train or a pure Tesla like EV powertrain. Sad that they did this with an outdated motor. This feels more like just a paper bag concept to keep people excited till they figure out what to do for the real product line they are selling.
  12. G. David Felt
    Very cool, let me know when we can play with it to test it for you. Once a QA Engineer, always a QA Engineer. We strive to Break things so you get Perfection!
  13. G. David Felt
    Found this great write up by Bob Lutz Industry auto Czar who thinks Tesla is Doomed and he gives some damn straight points to back his editorial up. 1) Distribution, Factory car shops are very expensive and Elen Musks Factory sales shop experience at Porsche ate through millions. So far this is not a sustainable model for auto's. 2) Once OEM existing auto companies get serious about long distant EV's they will eat up Tesla. Bolt is expected to be the first warning shot. 3) Cheap gas is not helping Tesla. 4) Auto companies who invested in Tesla did so to get R&D done without losing billions. Now many have left Tesla to go to work for the bigger auto companies like Toyota, GM, Ford, etc. Bob says he likes Elon and knows history is full of Great Products run by Brilliant people that died. Full Story Here!
  14. G. David Felt
    Yup an ugly mess that is going to stay around for a bit.
  15. G. David Felt
    This is the legacy of old GM cutting corners. I am sure they will have a fix soon. But sad to see this especially when there is clear superior products to fix this.
  16. G. David Felt
    ^
  17. G. David Felt
    So I had a look at doing Solar on my roof, The quote came in at $25K which would give me a solar grid that is 35 feet by 65 feet on my roof. The big benefit is that the Utility is required to pay you the same rate they charge you for electricity, so based on how big my solar roof would be, I would actually break even each month if not have a positive gain being paid back to me. In 2014 the rebate was up to $6500 but for 2015 they only went with a maximum of $2K. There is a big push to up the rebate again but it will not be taken up till January 2016. So be interesting to see what they offer. Plus there is the federal 30% installation cost coverage to take into account also.
  18. G. David Felt
    Yes, Washington state is pushing hard on the Solar rebate front also. So here is the rebates for Washington: PV: $300/kW-DC per unit installed, so this goes up depending on how big a system you install.Residential PV: $2,000 for installation Eligible System Size: PV: Up to 100 kW-DC Incentive Amount: Refrigerator Recycling: $30 per unitInsulation: 50% of job cost Double-Pane Windows: $6 - $8 per square foot Duct sealing & insulation: $5 per l.f. Geothermal Heat Pumps: 50% of job cost Heat Pumps: 50% of job cost Lighting: $20 discount Home Energy Saving Kit: free Maximum Incentive: Insulation: $1,200 (Attic), $1,800 (Floor), $1,000 (Wall), $400 (Ductwork) Windows: $1,000 Air-Source Heat Pumps: $2,500 Ductless Heat Pumps: $1,200 Geothermal Heat Pumps: $2,500 Duct sealing & insulation: $800 There is also the federal rebates on Solar which is they will cover 30% of the purchase price. http://energy.gov/savings/residential-renewable-energy-tax-credit
  19. G. David Felt
    WOW, Thank you for posting your costs on electricity. My average electric bill over the year is just under $175 per month. Course we never have the cold winters you have and I do have Natural Gas as a heating but even during the coldest parts of winter combined I never go over $300 combined electric and natural gas bill. A $1,000 monthly electric bill is just amazing to see.
  20. G. David Felt
    Thanks Drew, agreed, this is a much better and interesting thread on this topic. I just posted in the other, please move my response over as I think many will find it interesting. Thank you,
  21. G. David Felt
    Agreed that there is a big push to support more and more EV auto's. Web site of incentives by state for EV auto's. http://www.ncsl.org/research/energy/state-electric-vehicle-incentives-state-chart.aspx Washington state has these specific incentives: $100 registration fee since you pay no fuel tax. No sales tax on an EV purchase, current state sales tax is 10%, we have NO income tax. Alternative fuel purchase credit of $5000 for autos up to 14K pounds, $10K on auto's 14,001 to 26,500 lbs and $20K on auto's over 26,501lbs. Incentive to go with EV, CNG, BioDiesel or Propane. PSE, out local utility with the state will pay for a Level 2 charger installed in existing homes. State starting with 2015 requires all new homes, condo's and apartments to have Level 2 chargers installed. Federal Incentives are as follows: $2500 to $7500 credit based on the price of said alternative fuel auto's up till the manufacture hits 200K type auto's sold and then it is no more. So what this means is that you can buy a chevy VOLT here in washington and get $12,500 off at time of purchase at the dealership, pay no sales tax and have the state with PSE install a Level 2 charger at your home. Makes a VOLT very enticing. Makes one excited for the BOLT also.
  22. G. David Felt
    That is a lovely Mutang +1 for posting the beauty!
  23. G. David Felt
    +1, pensions are a dying dinosaur. They are not sustainable.
  24. G. David Felt
    Yes...we also have that concept in Quebec. I dont think its mandatory...yet...for new home contractors to comply in building energy efficient homes , but if a home owner buys an energy efficient home, he gets subsidized by the Quebec government. Tax breaks and Welcome Tax rebates are applied. Novoclimat is what this standard is called in Quebec. My home is a Novoclimat home. What the government gives you back: http://www.efficaciteenergetique.gouv.qc.ca/en/my-home/novoclimat/homes/#.Vi-kaCum3aQ http://bonestructure.ca/en/ecohomes-through-novoclimat-20certification/ Now...what are those standards in insulation and stuff? Im trying to find a website to list those standards, but I cant find any at the touch of my fingertip. I need to dig deeper. The Quebec Government also subsidizes home owners that wish to convert their older homes into energy efficient ones also. Washington does not give any rebates for home owners to update to a more efficient home but I would love it if they did. Here is a web site that does a good job explaining the R value and how thick each value is. http://www.buildings.com/article-details/articleid/6109/title/understanding-the-r-and-u-values-of-insulation.aspx
  25. G. David Felt
    Back on Consumer Reports rating: So I found the following story that is supposed to explain how CR tests their auto's and yet with reading it I find many things stated by CR to be a bit fuzzy and confusing. This is a quote from the story: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/buying-selling/consumer-reports-automotive-ratings.htm Types of Consumer Reports Automotive RatingsWhen you check into a vehicle, you'll be able to drill down to many different specific parts to see how they fared in tests and surveys. Here's a list of the various vehicle areas rated by Consumer Reports: Engine: major Engine: minor Engine: cooling Transmission and clutch: major Transmission and clutch: minor Drive system Fuel system Electrical Climate system Suspension Brakes Exhaust Paint, trim and rust Body integrity Body hardware Audio system Consumer Reports requires a minimum sample size of 100 cars to publish auto reliability information; however, most models have much larger samples numbering into the thousands. Over all it leaves one to believe they try their best but clearly work in a grey fuzzy world.
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