electric cars kids can drive
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andres bon
Hello, I would like to have an idea to assess how much will be the best offer, living decently and at least to have savings in Edinburgh, Scotland. I plan to take my wife and 2 kids with me.
I read that tax will be around 20%.
Can someone please help me lay out as follows? On a monthly basis.
Groceries, school bus, transportation (Bus), Utilities(water,electricity,etc.) , Education ( elementary and pre school), Gasoline, health care, dining out like 2x a month and any other cost I am not aware of in Edinburgh?
I know it is quite detailed, sorry.
Answer
I lived in Edinburgh. But only as a university student so my take on things will be slightly biased.
VAT (value added tax): 20% on most goods and services -- https://www.gov.uk/vat-rates
Groceries: I spent about 30 a week on myself. I do not eat meat or dairy but do eat a lot of fruit and fresh vegetables. So that would be 120 a week for one person.
School Bus: If you are from the states the school bus system is not the same. Kids are expected to make their own way to school by walking, driving, or taking the public bus. The bus each way is 70p for children.
Bus: You can buy one way fair for an adult for 1.50. A day ticket for 3.50. A week's unlimited pass for 17 (13 for uni student and 9 for children). A month's unlimited for 51 (40, 39). A year's for 612 (468,324). more information at: http://lothianbuses.com/timetables-tickets-maps/fares-and-tickets
Utilities: I was a student so I did not have to pay for water or council tax. but in a three person flat the gas/electric was about 60 pounds a month total (and their was a set payment. you you obviously used less in the summer and more than that amount in the winter but it evened out in the end).
education: free school and university-> (for those living in scotland for 4+ years). private schooling available. Most public and all private schools wear a uniform.
Gasonline: expensive. 3.65 per litre. use an automatic and only drive when needed as filling your car will probably cost 60 quid. http://www.indianagasprices.com/Edinburgh/index.aspx
health care: free as long as you are a resident. but you can pay for it if you want. www.bupa.co.uk
eating out: I was a student so i obviously ate cheap. But I would say a main at an average restaurant (not a pub meal) would be 15-20 pounds and a fiver for a drink. So one main, one appetizer, one drink each for two people would be about 65 pounds.
check out this website for more information on cost of living. http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living
How can I make a homemade electric generator to power my house?
swaggerifi
I was thinking about buying used car batteries from the junk yard and connecting them with jumper cables then testing the connected batteries with a battery tester to see how many volts it has. I havent tried this yet so I dont know if it will work do you guys have any idea on how to make a generator so I wont have to pay for power
Answer
To make an electrical generator, you need to have a length of wound copper wire rotating inside a magnetic field (refer to elementary physics).
Gasoline/diesel/etc. generators run basically like your car's engine, but instead of turning wheels, it uses the motion to rotate the wire inside the magnetic field, producing electricity. Remember, energy can't be created or destroyed. The chemical potential energy in your combustible fuel is being converted to kinetic energy, which is being converted into electrical energy.
A wind turbine is more "free" in that you don't have to go out and buy drums of oil to make your electricity. But it works on the same principle, but in this case, it's the turbine blades catching the wind that spins the copper loop, creating electricity.
As far as your batteries go, you may be able to store it there, but to charge any battery, from AA to car, you need the correct circuit and voltage, or nothing will happen. So you probably can't use your batteries. But if you can, all that you an do is store the potential energy there, and use it at a later time.
But if you just want to play with making a generator, try this:
First, you need to choose the energy source that you want to convert into electricity. You can use a stationary bicycle, a water wheel, wind turbine, a bored child willing to do some menial work on a set of gears, or virtually anything else with a rotating axle. You do have to choose the source, because as I said - you can't get energy from nothing.
Take that copper wire that I talked about, and make that loop that I also talked about, but leave two ends free (you need that to form the electric circuit). The larger the number of turns in the loop, the more electricity you can generate for the same amount of rotation. Kind of like an electric pulley system, to use a bad analogy.
Take your loop, and connect it to your energy source. You need to be able to rotate the loop end-over-end, without twisting the two connecting wires about each other, because if they do, you'll get a short circuit, and boom, it's done. One way to successfully accomplish this is to connect one wire to the rotating axle and the other wire to a conducting "brush" that maintains contact with a second conductor.
Make sure that you've sufficiently supported the loop so that it's out of the way of any moving parts of the energy source (such as your legs and the pedals if you pay a seven year old to ride a bicycle that never goes anywhere - give them one of those hand-held video games, they'll never notice). To make sure that you get this right, you may need to reinforce your loop with plastic or another light (but sturdy) material.
Grab some magnets (permanent magnets), and arrange them around the loop so that the loop can rotate freely between them. Take care to ensure that you arrange the magnets to maximize the field strength. One good and simple method is to make the south end of one magnet face the north end of another.
Stick the two conductors on your energy source to a battery, circuit, chainsaw, whatever it is that you want to drive. Again, you need to keep your wires separate to avoid a short circuit, so you'll need to use some kind of brush mechanism again, or whatever more clever thing that you can come up with that I haven't considered.
Poke the kid and get him to start peddling, or release your turbine to the wind, whatever you want. The amount of energy that you get from your turbine will depend on the efficiency of its construction, materials used, and how much mechanical energy us put in to drive it and spin the turbine itself (a faster peddling kid will give you more electricity than a slower one).
Run with it. A home-built turbine is unlikely to provide your house with any really useful power, unless you've really taken some time, money, and thought into it (which is possible). But you might run some simple things from your standard knock-off generator, such as perhaps basement lighting, that kind of thing.
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