Reduce, Recycle, Re-use
Proposition 65
October 9, 2022Measuring Things
October 8, 2022
'Greener-shams' |
From August keep an eye out for our hard-working reps out in their new vehicles.
After another great year, the Management team decided to both upgrade the vehicles and to go with a greener solution. Hence our reps will now be driving Hybrid Vehicles.
The hybrid engine, in this case the Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive (HSD) in the Camry Hybrid, is a fascinating technology and we felt it might be of interest to our customers/readers, to give a technical overview, as the instrumentation is quite wonderful.
We also wanted to ‘celebrate’ the small Eco choices we’re trying to make to encourage others. They’re small efforts, but as the mantra goes, “Think globally”, act locally” therefore we are endeavoring to Reduce, Recycle and Re-use".
- Recycling our used dry-cell batteries (previously we were simply binning them)
- Recycling our used toner cartridges (previously we were simply binning them)
- Replacement of ink-jet printers with Laser (thanks Ricoh!) for less consumables
- Responsible disposal of chemicals through respectable agents (prevention of environmental contamination)
- Recycling all our scrap metals
- New energy-star, high efficiency heat-pumps in our showroom and lab for reduced energy use (thanks HPAC!)
- And of course the new Hybrid vehicles (read more below)
HSD (Hybrid Synergy Drive) Technology – Toyota Camry Hybrid
An overview for our Instrumentation Customers and those with a general interest
The Toyota Camry Hybrid combines an “Atkinson Cycle” Petrol Engine** with an electric motor and combines or alternates these for high efficiency and lower emissions.
** The Atkinson engine was invented in 1882 by J Atkinson as a more efficient variation of the Internal Combustion Engine - we find this amusing as Homershams manager is J Atkinson!
The Atkinson engine differs from a conventional petrol engine (Otto Cycle) in the way that the intake valves are held open longer. This increases efficiency at the cost of some power output.
In the case of our new Camrys, the 2.5-litre petrol engine only produces 118 Kilowatts (the cars it replaces are 2.4 litre conventional petrol and produce much more power at 131 Kilowatts) but then the electric motors add 33 kilowatts for a total power output of 151 kW.
So while the new cars are quicker, they produce less Greenhouse Gas and use far less petrol.
The epitome of the hybrid vehicle is the Porsche 918 Spyder. This ‘beast’ of a vehicle uses 4 electric motors for power and performance rather than economy/ecology savings. They’re worth well over a million dollars now (only 918 were made) and although our reps are hardworking, they’re not THAT hard working! Also 650 Kilowatts and 340 km/h we felt might be overkill!
Check out this Hybrid car in action – surely this is ideal for Homershams??
The key components of the HSD engine are:
ICE - The Internal Combustion Engine (i.e. 2.5 litre petrol engine)
MG1 - Motor/Generator 1
MG2 - Motor/Generator 2
HVB - High voltage battery. No 12-volt “sissy” batteries here! 1.6 KW/h 460-volts!
As its name suggests, the system delivers true synergy between the two power sources. When the engine is running, it charges the battery via the generator; when driving conditions allow it, such as in slow-moving traffic, the generator can cut out the petrol engine and let the electric motor take over for zero-emissions travel.