Electric Scooters

Eped City, Electric scooter, Epeds UK Ltd
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Many people love the freedom of riding a motorcycle as well as the economical value it offers, especially now with fuel costs at an all time high. However, some people just aren’t comfortable operating a motorcycle. A great alternative is to choose an electric scooter. They are also very economically as well as easy to operate. This is a great option for riding around town. I know many parents who compromise purchasing their teenager a scooter rather than an actual motorcycle. Scooters also cost less than a motorcycle.

Safety is still a necessity while operating an electric scooter. It is important that you wear a helmet as well as long sleeved shirts and pants to prevent road rash. You also need to follow the rules of the road. Too many people have the misconception that a scooter can be operated like a bicycle rather than a motor vehicle on the road. In many states you have to obtain a motorcycle license to legally operate one on the street. Children must be the legal age to drive one as determined by their state regulations.

Electric scooters are frequently referred to as mopeds as well. They are very environmentally friendly so you don’t have to worry about pollution issues. Many of the features on these scooters are similar to those of a motorcycle including the seat, brakes, tires, and turn signals. While scooters are definitely easier to learn to ride, they won’t offer you the same speed as a motorcycle. Don’t expect to get on one and take off like the wind. You also won’t want to ride them on the highway or interstate as they just aren’t designed for that type of speed or travel.

Depending on the type of electric scooter you purchase, you can anticipate spending from $200 to $1,000. The prices are very reasonable, so that your time finding one that fits you perfectly. There are many styles and colors available from a variety of manufacturers. Many women love operating a scooter as opposed to a motorcycle because of the weight difference.

You will also find scooters that feature a stand up or a sit down design. The younger kids definitely seem to favor the stand up type but it certainly isn’t going to be comfortable when you are on it for a length of time. You also won’t have the storage space if you need to carry anything with you.

Most electric scooters require very little maintenence, further adding to your transportation savings. In most cases you will be able to do the basic maintenance and even repairs on your own. You may be wondering how fuel efficient an electric scooter is. While the specific savings will vary by model, many of them can get 60 miles per gallon of fuel.

Since electric scooters don’t take up much space and they are light weight, may college kids prefer to use one instead of a car. They can even ride it around campus and secure it on the bike rack. Most of them can get up to 30 MPH so a quick trip to town or the grocery store is even possible with one.

Electric scooters have continued to grow in popularity in areas where the fuel is high and the weather is nice most of the year. Consumers are looking for an economical means of transportation and they have found in with electric scooters. You can find a great deal of information about them on the internet as well as motorcycle and electric stores.

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Download Ebooks: Basic Environmental Engineering

Environmental engineering is one of the most popular, complex and fast growing disciplines in engineering. The scope of environment includes issues from public health, aesthetics, and impact of all development activities, pollution control legislation, standards, regulations, guidelines and their enforcement. Traditionally the application of engineering principles for the protection and enhancement of the quality of environment and protection of public health was called as sanitary engineering or public health engineering. Around 1968 this was changed to environmental engineering.

For conceiving environmental engineering, one has to consider the definition of engineering itself. Engineering may be defined as the application, under limits of scientific principles for the planning, design, execution, operation and maintenance of structures, equipment and systems for the development and benefit of the society. Here the word benefit is more important than the development. The so-called development in some cases may not be in real benefit of the society.

The environmental engineer plans, designs, executes, operates and maintains the water, wastewater and solid waste management plants. Clean, bacteriologically safe, potable drinking water protects and enhances public health. Liquid and solid waste management is a necessary step for healthy living. They also deal with air pollution control. The resulting pure cleaner air is conducive to people’s good health and prevents the building and other materials from the harmful effects of air pollution. The environmental engineer cares for the energy requirements of the society and the ways and means to protect the environment against the various pollutions created through the production and consumption of various goods and comfort conditions. It is the duty of environment engineer to assess the environmental impacts of the various development and other activities. In general one has to work to have sustainable and holistic development. Of course there are always constraints of resources, knowledge, human nature, social and racial considerations that limit the achievement of these goals.

Therefore the environmental engineering is defined as the application of scientific and engineering principles, under limits, for the protection and enhancement of the environment that includes the biotic and abiotic both components.

The environment exists in dynamic equilibrium of its biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) elements. The solar energy induced photosynthesis synthesizes the carbon as the plant tissue and we get matter in various forms from the trees. The carnivores, humans and animals consume the edible matter. They convert it into the energy required to sustain their lives. Their excreta comes near to the nature and the natural scavengers, bacteria and others convert it into inorganic matter like nutrients due to the biological decomposition. The roots of the plants, to form the edible matter again, extract these nutrients. Like this the nutrient cycle, material cycle, energy cycle and other cycles like hydrological cycle keep on existing until there is a great shock given by the human beings.

“Nature has enough for satisfying everybody’s need but not for anybody’s greed”. Human beings have lost their natural wisdom in want of power to overcome the nature. Since mid century the word has lost nearly one fifth of the topsoil from its cropland, a fifth of its tropical rainforests and animal species. Rapid industrialization and urbanization has increased carbon dioxide levels to the
point where global climate is being affected. The protective ozone shield is being depleted because of the chlorofluorocarbons. The forest, which is a complete ecosystem, is being converted into dead forests. The biodiversity is reducing everywhere in the world.

Biodiversity gives strength to the ecosystem against crisis. Only a well-diversified community can sustain against the extreme conditions. In quest of comfort conditions and well-secured life we have adopted a system, which is completely away from nature. We have made computers for paper less office work but the energy in making and running the computers is more than the savings made.

Of course there are other advantages of computers in computation, up keeping of data etc. But the materials used in making the computer and the disposal of the obsolete ones are drastically against the environment.

The quest of more and more comfort has fetched us far away from natural environment. The input of energy in building sector is increasing day by day. The requirements of both heating and cooling are becoming more and more energy exhaustive. At present the energy requirement in whole world is mainly met by fossil fuels. Nature has created the coal and petroleum in millions of years and we have exhausted them in hundreds of years. In the last 300 years we have consumed most of the coal and almost all of the petroleum products.

Out of the 1,30,000 MW installed capacity of electricity production in India about 66% is by fossil fuels (coal+ petroleum products), 24% by hydropower, 4% by nuclear means and only 6% by renewable energy resources like solar, wind, biomass including small hydropower plants. Still there is a very large potential of renewable energy resources unutilized but the present availability of fossil fuels and the present high cost of electricity production through R.E.S. has restrained their share to only 6%. With the advancement of technology and scarcity of fossil fuels the cost of RES will come down and there share shall increase, but is it the sustainable development? In modern context the idea of sustainable development immerged in the Earth Summit at Rio-De-Janeiro in June 1992 that let us plan a development in which the generations to come, may not become deprived of the resources which we are using today. To achieve this aim we have to control our present rate of consumption of the available resources like the fossil fuels, ground water and conserve the bio diversity and the natural cycles like the hydrological cycle.

While considering the production, consumption or utilization we have also to consider the other part that is pollution. Mixing of unwanted hazardous elements in anything is known as pollution, like mixing of sewage in fresh body of water, mixing of gases, like oxides of nitrogen, oxides of sulphur etc. in the air, increase of noise level etc. Actually the present trend of living is a serious cause of creating pollution in all spheres of life. Today the prosperity, wealth or living standard of a country is measured in terms of the per capita electricity consumption per year. That way India with its per capita consumption of 350 Kwh per year is considered far behind the U.S. which has around 20 times more than this. The advancement of a society is measured in terms of the measures of comfort like air conditioners, or conveyance like bigger and bigger expensive luxury cars. Taller buildings, more and more precious artificial fabric and so on. Production and maintenance of all these has created so much land, water and noise pollution that has overcome the advantages of all these so called advancements. Thus the challenging aspect of environmental engineering is to make balance between the rapid changes in the field of science, technology, health etc. and the very existence of life. Though environmentalism or the environmental consciousness is ancient the environmentalism became an organized force only in 1960s. It started with the publication of the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson on the pesticide DDT in 1962. Actually the exponential growth of population and the worldwide consumerism imposed a great load on earth’s natural resources and waste management systems.

This text aims at the fundamental, primary knowledge for every one who has a concern about environment. The chapters have been designed to quench the thrust of knowledge of a person, let it be a scientist, an engineer or any one who is concerned about protection of environment and thus a well wisher of society.

This book has been written after gaining 10 years experience of working in the public health engineering department of Rajasthan and 20 years experience of teaching civil engineering students, subjects like environmental engineering, ecology and environmental dynamics, solid waste management etc. Recently environmental engineering has been introduced as a primary course common to first year students of all branches who opt for it. This text is on basic environmental engineering that covers the syllabus of first year semester scheme of the Rajasthan Technical University and other universities. Some portion of the martial presented in this book has bean derived from the work of others, their contribution is greatly ackoweldged. The recommendation of manual of water supply and treatment, manual on Sewerage and Sewage Treatment and manual on Solid Waste Management prepared by the Central public Health and Environmental Engineering organization, Government of India, Ministry of urban development have been closely followed.

I acknowledge my debts to my parents for their blessings, my wife Bharati for her constant support, my daughter Ruchira for her help on computer, my son Saurabh and daughter-in law Surabhi for encouragement. I express my deep sense of gratitude to my teacher Prof. Damodar Sharma, Vice chancellor Rajasthan Technical University, Kota for being a constant source of inspiration for me. I thank Prof. M. P. Poonia Principal Engineering College Bikaner for his valuable suggestions. I thank Dr. A. K. Mathur and other colleagues of my department for their help. I thank Mr. S. Gupta, Managing Director, New Age International Publishers, New Delhi for prompt publication.

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Car Engines

Engine Fundamentals

Atoms are the building blocks of the world. Any substance that is made up of only one kind of atom is called an element. Atoms of different elements can connect up with each other. This process is called a chemical reaction. The burning of fuel in an automobile engine is a chemical reaction. We normally refer to this chemical reaction as combustion. Automobile fuels are made up mostly of two elements hydrogen and carbon. These are therefore called hydrocarbons. During complete combustion in the engine, these two elements unite with a third element, the gas oxygen. Each oxygen atom connects up with two hydrogen atoms to form water. Each carbon atom connects up with two oxygen atoms to produce the gas carbon dioxide.

During combustion of gasoline in the engine, the burning gases get very hot. Their temperatures may go as high as 3319OC. This high temperature produces the pressure that makes the engine run and produce power.

With ideal, or perfect, combustion, all of the hydrogen and all of the carbon in the gasoline would combine with oxygen to form harmless water and carbon dioxide. However in the engine we do not get ideal combustion. Instead some of the gasoline does not burn. Also some only partly burns producing carbon monoxide. The unburned gasoline and partly burned gasoline cause pollution of the air as they exit through the tail pipe with the exhaust gases. This is the reason that cars are equipped with anti pollution devices called emission controls. These devices reduce the amount of pollutants coming from the engine.

The concepts involved are expansion of solids with heat. Any solid like the metal in an engine piston, expands and gets larger as its temperature increases. However the piston must be free to move up and down in the cylinder, even if it gets very hot. The piston is designed so that it does not expand too much. If it did it would stick in the cylinder and the engine would be damaged.

Fluids also expand with heat. The rules are pressure increases with increasing temperature. The rule works the other way too. The second rule is temperature increases with increasing pressure. Both rules are at work in the engine cylinders. First a mixture of air and gasoline vapor is taken into the cylinder. Then the piston moves up to compress this mixture. Compressing the mixture – increasing the pressure on the mixture – makes it hot. Next, the compressed mixture is ignited, or set on fire. It burns producing a very high temperature. The high temperature causes high pressure. The high pressure pushes the piston down. This motion is carried to the car wheels so that they turn and the car moves.

Other concepts involved are the thermometer, the thermostat, gravity, atmospheric pressure, vacuum and humidity. The atmospheric factors affecting combustion in the engine are changes in temperature, atmospheric pressure, and humidity. They affect the way the fuel burns and the power output of the engine. Accurate testing of the engines requires that all readings be corrected to account for temperature, atmospheric pressure and humidity.

Internal Combustion Engines

Automotive engines are called internal combustion (IC) engines because the fuel that runs them is burned internally, or inside the engines. There are two types, reciprocating and rotary. By reciprocating we mean moving up and down or, back and forth. Almost all automotive engines are the reciprocating type. In these engines pistons move up and down, or reciprocate in cylinders. This type of engine is called a piston engine.

In this way scientific and engineering principles help us understand how engines work.

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Modern Mazda Catalytic Converter for Powerful Internal Combustion Engine

To effectively reduce the pollution levels coming from your engine exhausts, your vehicle employs a highly efficient Mazda catalytic converter to reduce the toxicity of emission gases. In any internal combustion engine, the use of catalytic converters comes necessary to pass the required emission tests so you can legally drive in any highway or street. Due to the advent of emphasizing the need to address the environmental issues, EPA has already tightened its regulations in limiting the combustion by-products that are released through the atmosphere. As among the forefront innovators when in comes to automotive engineering, Mazda has equipped their excellent lines of automobile with catalytic converters that feature advanced exhaust purification and emission reduction capacities with the company’s standing quest in delivering the best possible fuel economy they could create.

To efficiently facilitate chemical reactions among fuel exhausts, catalytic converters have gone a long way since their power-sapping and pellet-style versions. Now, newer honeycomb converters have been developed to deliver precision flow of exhaust gases while cleaning up your engine from nasty pollutants. Your powerful engine may employ oxidation or three-way type of Mazda catalytic converter. To regulate the toxicity of exhausts, an oxidation converter takes main focus on the carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon contents of gases. As the name implies, this type of converter makes use of an oxidation process to speed up the rate of converting carbon monoxides and hydrocarbons into harmless water vapors and carbon dioxide. The three-way type facilitates an oxidation process similar to the oxidation type. Only, it also takes focus in the reduction of nitrogen oxide levels. The inside shell of the part has BB-sized or Monolithic substrate that serves as effect agents that significantly makes the combustion by-products more acceptable to the environment. The substrate material is plated with thin coating of rhodium, platinum, or palladium to assist or speed up the chemical reactions required to reduce emission levels.Because the part constantly handles harsh working conditions, damages will come inevitable once it has served well and long enough. Broken or rusted out converter body is a clear indication of an already failing part. To have early Mazda catalytic converter diagnosis that is to be followed by timely repair, you must be sensitive enough to the indications delivered by your engine OBD systems. The system makes a great tool in offering accurate and enough information to help qualified service technicians properly diagnose and repair converters during routine checks for maintenance. Because the system is designed to alert you once something goes wrong in the emission control system mechanisms, it could help you optimize the efficiency and service life of your stock converters. In case the part goes beyond repair, you must immediately find new and precision fitting replacement to maintain engine precision and enjoy excellent fuel economy with powerful engine performance. Prolonging the use of an already inefficient converter could cause serious engine damages due to failure and imprecision. A high flow Mazda Catalytic Converter make a great valued investment you can reward your vehicle. Aside from keeping your engine and exhaust clean, the part could yield substantial increases to horsepower and torque so your Mazda ride follows the course of your driving style with no fail.

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Eco Friendly Clean Green Driving – Endless Car Fuel Saving Tips Part3

At the time of writing this article, the Dow plunged another 500 points and we are now around 8,500 points. How much have we lost in our stocks, home values and how much disposable income can we squeeze from our existing situation to save and spend less? You exceptionally feel the crunch when you belong to the middle income household, paying a hefty home loan installment, private schools for your children and 2 cars loans.

Today, we continue with part 3 of this series of “Endless Money & Fuel Saving Car Tips” to help you tie over this long recession period. Check out the following simple yet proven effective ways on achieving fuel efficiency, conserving gasoline and attaining cost savings the easy way:

First, if you Do Not need 2 cars, get rid of 1 of them. If your kids need to get to college daily, get up earlier and send them to school before you make your way to work. That could save you a good few hundred dollars a month.

And have you ever considered car-pooling with neighbors who work around your office? If you have to send your kids to school and your wife needs to get to work at the same time, this would be the perfect arrangement, and could even end up helping you fully pay for your gas consumption too!

Did you know that most cars are made to run on regular unleaded? And I got this right from the guide pack from the petrol company’s website! Check it out with your friendly neighborhood mechanic; most will tell you that getting premium unleaded is merely paying extras for cleaning agents that are probably not required. As long as you do regular maintenance checks and tune ups every season, it should surfice.

Get a car with high MPG, miles per gallon. Or better still, check out the GPM, gallons per mile the lower the better. The lesser the gasoline usage, the more miles you cover and the more goes back into your pocket!

When driving, unless you are in the habit of stress testing your engine and gearbox, do not travel in low gears at high speeds. This wears down your gears very fast and hurts the engine performance as well. And, keep good driving habits. Do not reeve your engine before switching off the vehicle. Accelerate slowly when picking up at the stop light.

Never do a jack rabbit start, as it not only consumes much more fuel, it leads to greater carbon monoxide emission and air pollution. Also, you tend to wear the tires out too.

Do regular tune-ups. Check for worn spark plugs, brake pads, low transmission fluid; re-align your wheels, rotate your tires, replace the air filter whenever required.

Do regular oil checks and replace the oil and filter regularly to ensure fuel economy as well as engine longevity. You can also use recycled oil as replacement but ensure that you get them at specialist workshops that does them.

Be a “greenie” and love your environment and save money. Ride the bicycle for short distance travel and whenever weather permit. Better still, walk, the exercise could do you a whole lot of good! And you get to enjoy the scenery too! Always keep your car in good tuned up condition. Smooth running cars utilize much less fuel. A good mechanic is worth a million dollars, or the value of your car really. Check out more Save Money and Fuel information at my website.

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Environmentally Friendly & Green Driving – Save Money & Car Fuel Part2

The latest economic rescue package is not helping much for the general public, at least for a good half a year before we see effects of an slight economic turnaround. Fuel prices are still escalating, food prices has not fallen, you still need to travel to work, to school and earn a living.

This is part 2 of that endless car fuel saving tips which I have started to help us tie over the money crunch.

Below is an added list of ways on achieving fuel efficiency, conserving gasoline and attaining cost savings the easy way:

Set Cruise Control At A Fix Level For Consistent Fuel Usage when driving a stretch of long freeway (or highway). This helps to reduce the intermittent and inconsistent fuel injection by human manual driving which could cause greater wear and tear to your car.

Combine Several Short Trips Helps Save Fuel And Save Money. . Once your engine is warmed up they generate less air pollution, so keep it running over a few so combining several short trips into one can make a big difference.

Park it in your Covered garage.Yes, you can save fuel and energy simply by parking your car in a covered garage whenever possible, especially in winter and summer. You would then avoid exposing your car to harsh winter snow and ice as well as the torturing summer sun. This helps you warm up the car faster in winter and cool it better in summer.

Remove Excess Baggage. Get rid of items not required on a daily basis. The most common are golf sets, snow chains, fishing gear etc. Reload on a need to use basis.

Catch that Greyhound Bus. I am not selling for The Greyhound here, but if you have to travel across states or provinces, consider taking the coach. The scenery could do you some good, not to mention the stress of driving across unfamiliar towns and provinces.

Avoid Keeping Your Engine in Idle Mode for long periods. If you are stuck in traffic and you don’t think you are going to go anywhere in the next five minutes, you may want to turn your car off. New cars do not need to be warmed up for long period of time. So as much as your pocket can help it, change to a new car. And a New Hybrid Car at that too.

Keep Good Car Habits. Before you switch off your car ignition, remember to switch off all electrical units like the car hifi sound system, air conditioning, heating gadgets, compartment lights as well as head lights. This avoids drain on your car battery, reduces maintenance costs.

Communal car pooling is definitely a viable solution to if you could find like minded colleagues who are neighbors living within your vicinity willing to pool resources.

Avoid Rush Hour. And yes, that is the very famous but always ignored suggestion. As much as procrastination gets you, try harder. In countries where they install electronic road pricing measurement ERP gadgets, you could find yourself doubling your fuel consumption, doubling your fuel costs and your travel time. Worst of all, the electronic road pricing slaps an additional toll charge whenever you pass a particular gantry at rush hour!

There are more tips to come at the next episode of Endless Money & Fuel Saving Car Tips. So stay tuned. And also visit my site for more information on car tips and hybrid cars.

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