Battery Power

Anyone who owns a smartphone will know that the older it gets, the more time it spends plugged into the mains, charging. The same holds true for the plethora of portable electronic devices that we own, like tablets, fitness trackers, wireless headphones, and the like.

 

Our urge to replace some devices is now probably driven more by the fact that the battery life has plummeted rather than because an improved device has come on the market. All smartphone manufacturers release new models regularly, yet it seems that the improvements are marginal. I have had my Samsung Galaxy S7 for nearly four years, but have little desire to replace it since so far as I can tell, subsequent models have little or no better or advanced functionality.

 

What would prompt me to replace my relatively old phone would be an improvement in battery life, but with even new phones now somewhat unambitiously advertised as having an ‘all day battery,’ I am disinclined to shell out several hundred pounds for a new device as my now relatively elderly device still manages to last all day under normal usage.

 

The makers of smartphone batteries reckon that on average, a battery has a lifespan of 300-500 charging cycles, so that’s probably less than two years. And even if they could increase the lifespan, it isn’t really in their interest, which is exactly what lightbulb manufacturers did with their product a century ago.

 

Back in the 1920s, lightbulb manufacturers like Philips, General Electric, and Osram formed an alliance – the Phoebus cartel – as a result of technological advances that significantly increased the life of lightbulbs. Faced with longer lasting bulbs that needed replacing less frequently, thereby reducing sales and profits, the cartel actively reduced the life of bulbs (the industry standard of 2,500 hours in 1924 fell to 1,000 by 1940), and made them more fragile.

 

While I now find myself having to charge my phone daily, I have also noticed a more frequent need to charge my tablet and my Fitbit, which used to last at least five days between charges, but now seems to have to be plugged in every three days. Even my trusty Kindle, which would go for a month between charges when I first got it, now needs charging more frequently.

 

Having so many devices that need to be charged so frequently makes me grateful for the fact that, unlike the 1970s when they were a fact of life, power cuts are now few, far between, and usually short-lived (I’ve jinxed that now, haven’t I?) But, even if my smartphone runs out of juice, or my Fitbit expires, or my tablet gives up the ghost, all through lack of power, I am marginally inconvenienced at worst, but the life of a battery in an electric car is something different.

 

In just ten years time, in 2030, it will not be possible to buy a new car or van powered solely by petrol or diesel in the UK, with the sale of new hybrid models allowed only until 2035. Even though existing petrol/diesel vehicles will still be allowed on the roads, a shift to all-electric for new cars in ten years is mightily ambitious, especially when one considers that only 1% of the cars currently on Britain’s roads are powered solely by electricity.

 

Aside from the issue of the number of miles an all-electric car can travel on one charge, and the time it takes to fully charge these vehicles, I also foresee an issue with home charging. For home owners like me, with a driveway, I would not have a problem charging an electric car from my domestic supply, but there are many car owners who can’t even park directly outside their property, far less on a drive. A colossal effort is going to be required to provide the infrastructure to enable 32.7 million drivers in this country to charge their vehicles.

A vast investment will be required to provide Britain with enough fast
charging points if the electic car is to fully replace petrol driven vehicles

I cannot help thinking that the headlong rush to switch to all-electric vehicles, together with our insatiable demand for new gadgets that rely on rechargeable batteries is simply swapping one set of problems for another, as this tweet eloquently demonstrates.

 

And aside from the heavy industry necessary to mine the elements required for these batteries, and the collateral human damage caused by the slavery that the mining industry relies upon, there are other factors. Yes, electric cars won’t pollute our streets, but unless the electricity that charges them comes from renewable, sustainable, non-polluting sources, we are simply shifting the damage to the environment from one location to another.

 

Again, there is the issue of battery life, which is even more significant in a car costing perhaps £28,000, which is the current list price for an all-electric Nissan Leaf (a petrol driven Nissan Micra costs about £15,000 on the road). As we know from our smartphones, sooner or later the battery life renders the device unusable, and so it will with electric cars. The ingredients of its battery means that an old smartphone can’t be thrown out with the rest of the rubbish, and electric cars will have to have their batteries safely disposed of, whether they are replaced or if the whole vehicle is scrapped. This will not be cheap, and for that matter, what is the resale value of an electric car that is otherwise in good condition, but which has batteries that have a much reduced range?

 

The Government’s plan to phase out the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles is part of a ten-point plan for a ‘green industrial revolution’ that includes investing in renewable or clean power sources, making homes more power efficient and less polluting (including an ambition that by 2025, no new homes will be connected to the gas grid, with gas central heating replaced by heat pumps, electric boilers, or solar heating systems).

 

Also part of the plan is a desire to make cycling and walking more attractive ways to travel, and to make public transport emission free. This is where the Government’s plan is probably not ambitious enough. Switching from petrol to electric cars merely swaps one problem for another, a truly green industrial revolution would be predicated on removing our reliance on the private car completely. We now live in a society in which the motor car is so completely embedded, for practical reasons and for convenience, that weaning the majority of us off them – even simply converting us to electric vehicles – will require a Herculean effort, which together with this Government’s propensity to perform U-turns, makes me think that their 2030 target to go all-electric may come and go without sales of petrol vehicles being completely wiped out.

 

 

 

 

Lockdown 2: Back to The Chase

When the first national lockdown started in March this year, and our reasons for leaving the house were limited to shopping and an hour’s exercise each day, Val and I took to walking through Eastbrookend Country Park and The Chase, the areas of open space that are practically on our doorstep. [1]

 

Pretty soon we worked out a route that took just over an hour to complete, and we have been walking it on almost every day since. Calling this blog “Back to The Chase” is a piece of poetic licence, since we’ve rarely stopped walking the course we devised a few months ago.

 

The seasons have wrought a few changes of course. When we started walking The Chase the ground was soft from the winter’s rains; gradually it firmed up as the summer sun did its work, and now large areas of it have become a quagmire as autumn has brought more rain.

 

As the hours of daylight shorten, we’ve adapted the time of our walk. It was our habit, back in the late spring and summer, to go out in the afternoon, when the heat was abating, and catch the last of the afternoon sun. Now, with the sun setting shortly after four o’clock, we have changed our hours and leave the house shortly after first light. Apart from the contrast in the colours of the leaves, and with the ground now appreciably softer, the light is very different too.

 

Most of the pictures here are mine, but this one was taken by Val who has been a prolific photographer on our walks

There has always been something appealing to me about the light of an autumn morning. There are the days when the sun reflects off a heavy dew, or days when it is watered down behind a layer of mist, or peeps thinly through the trees, or best of all, the crisp, bright mornings when your breath condenses and the sights are pin sharp in the early sun. And as the sun rises the contrast between the russet and golden leaves against the deepening blue of the sky is a wonder.

 

As pleasant as a morning walk through The Chase is, there is little that is pleasurable about wet feet, and my shoes have sprung a leak. Squelching home, I have sometimes felt that I must be at risk of trench foot. “Get some waterproof socks,” suggested Val. Waterproof socks? I scoffed, sounds a bit gimmicky (for which read, expensive and no damn use). Having seen a YouTube video of someone extolling their virtues, I bought a pair (from Amazon, naturally since all the shops selling such ‘non-essentials’ are closed thanks to Lockdown #2). Just the one pair, at £20 a go, it’s a lot to splash out on a pair of socks that may not actually do the business.

 

The socks - SealSkinz Hydrostop Ankle Waterproof MTB Socks – turned up in a couple of days after ordering them. Going by the size chart, I ordered medium and they are a bit on the tight side, but I have to say, they do what it says on the tin; they are completely waterproof, so yomping through the mud and puddles is now a much nicer experience than it was.

 

If there has been any upside to the original lockdown and now the new one, it has to have been the opportunity to get outdoors and enjoy what is on our doorstep. The Chase has plenty of wildlife, remarkably so for somewhere as close to a built-up area. We’ve heard  (but not seen) cuckoos, seen pheasants and herons, multitudes of parakeets and rabbits galore, loads of waterfowl, even a carp that leapt out of the water.

 

There is a calming element to being out in the country park. There’s a woodland area – Black Poplar Wood – that is too swampy to navigate at present, but which was beautiful during the summer. Walking through the trees with the sunlight dappling between them is relaxing and rejuvenating. There are credible health benefits to be gained from walking through wooded areas, reducing stress, making your brain work better, even boosting your immune system.[2]

 

And supplementing our walks through the country park have been the BBC programmes Springwatch, and Autumnwatch, which I have watched in the past, but which have gained a lot more relevance this year. Val and I once met Chris Packham, the host of both these shows, many years ago on a cruise, not that we knew who he was at the time. He joined our quiz team one evening, but made no mention of the fact that he was a presenter of BBC TV’s wildlife programme, The Really Wild Show and was on board giving a series of presentations. We only found out who he was later in the cruise.

Chris Packham

The other day someone asked me how I was doing during this second lockdown, and I had to answer that in all honesty there’s not only no difference for me between the first one and this one. In fact, just about the only difference between the lockdowns and the period between them is that from mid-August to late October I was able to go to watch Romford FC’s football matches.

 

One key difference between the March and November lockdowns is the prevalence of mask wearing. Back in March there were few circumstances under which wearing a mask was mandatory; now, we are required to wear one on public transport, in pubs and restaurants (not that either are open at present), and in shops (unless an exemption applies). Although such things have been reported in the media, I’ve yet to see anyone throwing a tantrum about being required to wear a mask, although I have seen plenty of people not wearing them, and many not wearing them properly.

 

Sadly, I have also seen many discarded masks. On a recent walk into town, I counted more than twenty masks that had been simply dumped on the pavement, including ten in a stretch of about a hundred yards just outside our local hospital. And there are plenty dumped in The Chase too, so much so that Val has taken to carrying a bag to collect them in so that she can dispose of them properly (she uses a stick or suchlike to pick them up by the loops in case you are wondering). Criminally, we have seen some dumped just a few feet from litter bins. It makes one wonder what goes through the minds of people who think this is acceptable behaviour.

 

Although there’s been little or no difference between lockdowns for me personally, a key difference is that whereas the March lockdown had no definitive end – it was reviewed periodically until restrictions began to be lifted – this one has a supposed end date of 2^nd December, although Michael Gove, speaking on The Andrew Marr Show at the beginning of November hinted that it could be extended. No doubt our Prime Minister would not want that as it would spoil the “Boris Saves Christmas” headlines that would result from lockdown ending.

 

This week’s hopeful news about a vaccine (let’s not get carried away, but it’s nice to see something positive in the news), and lockdown’s end couldn’t come at a better time for our beleaguered Prime Minister, although a stampede to the shops at the start of December as Britain does its Christmas shopping could set us back and result in the third part of the Lockdown Trilogy.

 

We aren’t out of the woods yet, and neither am I, I’ll be back over The Chase in the morning, and tramping through Black Poplar Wood as soon as it dries out a bit

 

 

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[1] See https://rulesfoolsandwisemen.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-chase.html

 

[2]  See https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/7-amazing-health-benefits-walking-the-woods-you-probably-dont-know.html and https://www.explore-essex.com/blog/6-surprising-benefits-of-going-to-the-park-in-winter?fbclid=IwAR32r9SD2Wy76IkD2TUFiiiCcYryHv2LoOsddaCEeBJSY1i_ri5DvlWkpnU