I like how at some point, they decided to weld on a safety screen and give the driver gloves... After many tests with no windscreen at all...

Guessing Russian, they seem to have a healthy disregard for workplace health and safety...

Meh, just weld on some armour plate.

I'm still waiting on someone in the walking dead using my idea of harvesting walkers to create bio-diesel. I find it hard to believe no pragmatic-minded people survived the outbreak.

I use slightly less than that myself on average, but we have solar water heating (supplemented with gas), so that's a good savings (especially since it also heats the hot tub), and we replaced all our light bulbs with led bulbs when they became feasible last year. Now, we usually read between 400 and 1000 watts during the day (depending on how many lights I have on, and if the refrigerator is cycled on or not.) That's running a big screen TV, computer, and often ps4 almost all day, every day. We also have electric stove and oven...and I weld, adding somewhat to our total.

Yes, my battery bank is only useful for power outages. It's enough to keep the lights on and the fridge from thawing, but not much else. We get about 3-4 hours out of it if I don't notice the power went out, but can make it all night if we conserve. Our system is grid tied, and first powers the home, then tops off the batteries, then sells any excess to PG&E. To date, I've never drawn the batteries down to zero...but we do have a small generator to supplement it when the power's out for days. The average home would certainly need more, but a 10kwh battery should be plenty to make it through an average night without AC (we don't have AC here).

My current system could not produce that much, but close. I live in N California, one of the foggiest areas in the US. Because we have a renter, an electric hot tub, dishwasher, and electric washer and drier, we use slightly more than we generate at this point, but my system is upgradeable to 6500 watts of generation (I have less than 1/3 of that now) when panels get cheaper...and when I can find space for more.

My system is not flat to my roof, and I have 2 strings of 8 panels. With the solar water tubes, it takes up most of the south 1/2 of my roof (1200 sq ft home). I could maybe fit 4 more panels up there and still be able to walk around them to clean them, but any more and I'll need some mounting structure. I really want to add a small wind turbine to generate at night or when there's a storm...solar doesn't work in the dark.

In America, we still have some rebates for people adding solar to their homes, but they are drying up fast. 15-20 years ago, you could almost do it for free if you got every rebate available.

We used to have about 1-2 weeks of power outage where I live per year, and that was part of why we did they system. We hated having no power and losing food every year, and also hated paying the ever rising cost of electricity. Before adding our system, we had $4-500 a month electric bills, now we have <$100 in winter and sometimes a negative bill in summer...we pay our bill once a year now, lump sum at the end of 12 months.
On to your second post....
I often think...electric cars were popular and the norm in cities before Ford came along. It's still astonishing to me that it was basically dropped for a century as a technology (with minor exceptions). I'm glad someone had finally gone back to it and is trying to fix it's issues. If I could afford a Tesla, I would have one.

I also agree, people won't adopt the technology as long as they have to sacrifice lifestyle for it. I said the same thing, but I found that I don't change my lifestyle at all with my solar system, I just pay lower bills. I determined that buying a system would pay for itself in under 10 years, with the lifespan of a system being about 20 years, that's 10 years of free electricity! That all assumes electric rates didn't go up, and they certainly have gone up...but not for me. You just need to be sure you install enough panels to supply all your power, and you're there.

The battery thing is really mostly for non-grid tied systems, or emergencies. Most people don't use batteries at night, it's simpler and cheaper to just sell power to the grid during the day and buy it back at night if you can, using them as your battery. Perhaps this battery will change that, but with lead acid, it's hard to make them worth the cost.

Panels aren't that expensive, really. In many areas, with rebates, they can be near free. (some companies will even give them to you and split the power generated off your roof). It's a myth that solar is expensive...when compared to non-solar. Mine are paid for by bill savings already (8 years + in) so I'm saving money with them now, and my lifestyle has not suffered in the least. I have lights on if its dark, I watch TV all day, and use the computer all day, have tons of electric devices I use, and soon will power a pond, etc. I often think that my life is a much better example of how you can be 'green' without much change than Gore's. He really doesn't seem to walk the walk, but he can sure talk the talk.

Upvote for his facebook name alone.
His show is OK...not great, not bad.
I'm surprised he doesn't make the body of his swords out of aluminum or magnesium, then use an exotic welding process (like friction stirring...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friction_stir_welding)
to attach a stainless steel edge for strength. It would make them more wieldable with an interesting look.

Neat. Does the entire system *draw* 1kw, or does the beam actually deliver 1kw (seems unlikely)? Either way, it must require massive off-camera cooling equipment. I've seen arrays of LEDs used for welding before and that was impressive.

It must be a prototype because the company that makes it doesn't list this model, and don't give much information on the models they do list. And, of course, it doesn't look remotely practical, awesome as it is.

edit:

After a bit more reading, maybe it does emit 1000 watts. Also, look at this thing from their webpage:

http://www.nortonsandblasting.com/images/lasr-backpack_unit1web.jpg

That is a straight up proton accelerator if I've ever seen one (okay, maybe photons, but close enough) and I damn well want one. I promise to use it responsibly and never cross the streams.

All too fast I sail,
to a shore that holds my doom.
Soon your time will come.

Poems about dead ships?
All our talents are wasted
posting comments here.

Wordsmiths at their forge,
Welding thoughts of love and hate.
We should be ashamed!

The prop, yes.
The gearbox....there ISN"T ONE!!! These motors are usually direct drive to the flywheel, no gearbox at all. It's a motor with a shaft welded/bolted directly to the flywheel and a prop on the end of the shaft. You take it out of 'gear' by lifting the prop out of the water. (no reverse)

I saw this at siggraph about ten years ago. Thing is effing loud as all get out. Also, you had to wear a welding mask to operate it.

The Thai have a lot of practice with these. They start with car or motorcycle engine, mount on a boat and then weld a rod with a prop to where the gearbox would normally go.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-tail_boat

AHA ! No one in my family remembers, but I had a toy that used linear friction for welding. It was called Spinwelder and it was the awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnWpcwnR2YA

Your video, linear friction welding, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Friction Welding Machine has been added as a related post - related requested by oritteropo.

linear friction welding has been added as a related post - related requested by oritteropo on that post.

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The explosive welding process in action has been added as a related post - related requested by newtboy.