04-10-2020, 03:22 AM | #21 | |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The Kingdom of Insignificance
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Re: [AtE] Heirloom tech?
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My queries as expressed upthread are driven by my need to quickly develop a setting for an AtE campaign. I intend to set it in a semi-arid / sub-humid clime (aka Australia), in the middle of a 100km wide plain. There are mountains to the South (the Grampians) and a range of hills to the east (the Pyrenees). If necessitated by PC wanderings, I'll plonk a hydro/micro hydro set up in both/either.
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04-10-2020, 04:02 AM | #22 |
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
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Re: [AtE] Heirloom tech?
Solar panels could survive if they were not in use, possibly in storage or covered by an apocalyptic dust storm.
Some fuel cells might last as well. Especially ones that were designed for stationary use.
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04-10-2020, 06:20 AM | #23 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The Kingdom of Insignificance
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Re: [AtE] Heirloom tech?
Just enough for the occasional warlord to have as a status symbol, perhaps.
I'd forgotten about them. The trick would be the collection and storage of the hydrogen. Thoughts?
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04-10-2020, 06:32 AM | #24 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Re: [AtE] Heirloom tech?
There are fuel cells that run on ethanol or methanol.
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04-10-2020, 06:47 AM | #25 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The Kingdom of Insignificance
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Re: [AtE] Heirloom tech?
Total aside; light bulbs.
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04-10-2020, 06:58 AM | #26 |
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: [AtE] Heirloom tech?
Fuel cells are not long-lived. My undergraduate school produced two high-profile fuel-cell researchers who continue to work in the field today. I was privileged to sit in on their research, and I have a friend who remains in the field.
If you get 10,000 hours out of a fuel cell – any kind – you're doing well. This isn't a technology that would provide you with endless power . . . you'd be looking at ~1.2 years of continuous use, or perhaps 15-20 years of life in a car used mostly to commute to/from work. Then you'll be stuck trying to replace catalysts, which isn't just a matter of finding a lump of platinum. Real-world catalysts are synthetic materials that use particulate metal deposition to produce a high effective surface area. Solar cells degrade more in use, but even in protective wrappers, decay begins at the moment of production. This is usually cited at 1% per year. So after 75 years, assume 1/4 the original efficiency. I'm with malloyd: Hydro. Obviously, you can switch on cinematic "slow decay" or even "no decay" rules that protect any technology you want to be a plot device. Just be aware that fuel cells and solar cells don't enjoy that benefit in the real world. One of the biggest real-world hurdles facing both is the need to dispose of or recycle a fair quantity of environmentally unfriendly stuff – and while we're more worried about what's used to manufacture these things now, when they're relatively young tech, the bigger problem is what these items decay into, because they do decay and in fact seem to decay faster than originally estimated.
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04-10-2020, 09:29 AM | #27 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: [AtE] Heirloom tech?
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Though I suppose a solar thermal system - using mirrors to boil water - would be pretty durable too.
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04-10-2020, 11:03 AM | #28 | |||
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: The Kingdom of Insignificance
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Re: [AtE] Heirloom tech?
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Also, ta muchly re: the heads up on the fragility of fuel cells. Given the requirements for generating and storing hydrogen, ditching them is a no brainer. Quote:
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Iffy in the intended setting. Supplementary microhydro might be viable, but the abundant resource in the setting is IR, so malloyd's suggestion above is potentially more viable.
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04-10-2020, 02:06 PM | #29 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho
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Re: [AtE] Heirloom tech?
Depending on when/how far in the future the cataclysm occurs, there are a couple interesting items under development as we speak. One in particular is the US DoD’s micro-nuclear reactors that are to be air transportable in 40’ containers, produce 1-10MWe, and be on/off button simple to start. They also don’t melt down and can run without water cooling. One of the ideas is to have a number of them on standby in inert environment pods for deployment as needed.
So a scenario you could have, is the PCs find a large crashed cargo plane sitting out in the middle of the desert (or it emerges from a lake that has started going dry/being drained). Pilots and crew are dead from the crash landing, and there is some marginal salvage in the cockpit and crew areas. But filling up the back is a large (8’x10’x40’) metal box that weights in at about 40-tones (if they have a way to try to move it), with some impressive locks that will take a lot of effort to bust through. Once the very determined salvagers open the box, they are confront by a small closet size room, which they will get to see briefly before passing out from the off-gassing oxygen-free storage gas. After they wake up they will find simple setup instructions for attaching a diesel generator (which they won’t likely have access to) or the emergency solar panels (provided in a side compartment) to start the 2MWe-MNPG. If they follow the instructions, they will have at least 3 years (running full out 24-7, 365) of more power than they could every use. |
04-10-2020, 03:02 PM | #30 | |
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Re: [AtE] Heirloom tech?
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However even small amounts of power by current standards can make major improvements in lives. So a two megawatt community solar plant that by our standards powers powers 350 houses can at ten percent provide 200 kilowatts and gives one 1000 watts to 200 homes. The savings on fuel for lighting and some cooking is huge. Probably not spread evenly, power a community bakery with a goos chunk of it and such. |
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