By Stefan Fassbinder / Published on Fri, 2008-05-16 15:45
Diesel fuel and heating oil are chemically identical. »Only« the tax rate the final consumer has to pay is (very much) different. But obviously the difference looks a lot different for railway fuel, i. e. the difference makes no difference there. This smart, modern German railcar of the Baureihe 612 series (google for »BR 612« for photos), which comes as a twin carriage (4 bogies / 8 axles) with 2 diesel engines (of 560 kW each!), has 2 separate tanks for engine fuel and for heating oil. But obviously it doesn’t matter what you fill in where.
If you have had the opportunity to join a locomotive driver on the predecessor, BR 610, then you may have seen that this series still used to have an engine power indicator, which was omitted later in the 611 and 612 series, and that the full power (»only« 2*525 kW on the 610 version and 2*540 kW on the 611 version) is only used for accelerating the weighty vehicle and for travelling uphill. To sustain its constant maximum permissible speed of 160 km/h in the plains an engine power output level of ≈35% is enough. Several kilometres before the next stop the locomotive driver disengages the engines, and the railcar rolls and rolls and rolls, you just don’t realize any drop in speed. Then the brake is operated, the train brakes and brakes and brakes, while the engines keep on running with their (though low – but technically at least during these stages totally avoidable) stand-by loss. But the »waste« heat is needed for the passengers inside – while simultaneously the brake disks need cooling.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Fri, 2007-09-21 11:01
The previous information age has spurred a tremendous growth in telecommunication in order to propagate, debatably, the single most important commercial resource of our time: information. In the current intangible economy age the focus has shifted to not only propagating, but also capturing this valuable resource and making it accessible around the clock in a reliable manner. Hence came forth the data center, also referred to as a server farm or, when dedicated to providing Internet-related content, an Internet Data Center (IDC).
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Tue, 2007-07-10 17:15
However, given the previous high levels of energy that favela residents are consuming, the electricity bills would be so high that few would be willing or able to pay, despite all of the advantages. ‘That is why we are putting so much effort into energy efficiency’, says Garcia.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Mon, 2007-07-09 15:09
Kurt is not only putting effort in optimizing the energy technology. He also tries to adopt good habits to minimize consumption. By installing a few kilowatt-hour meters, he is able to monitor the consumption of each energy function in the house. ‘This awareness helped us cut our consumption from 13,000 kWh per year to 9,500 kWh per year,’ he explains.
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