Comments by "Tim Murphy" (@timmurphy5541) on "Engineering with Rosie" channel.

  1. Thank you! I think I can watch this with my daughter and she will a) understand much of it b) see that she too could be an engineer.
    22
  2. I keep wondering about heat pumps (in the UK) and whether there's a way to feed them waste heat of any kind so that they operate in their most efficient mode - so I'm really wondering if a system like this could be plugged into an air-source heat pump to any benefit in a colder climate.
    9
  3. People talk about blockchain a lot but it's not easy to understand how it delivers and what precisely it offers. I think it's rather a black box which we don't question a lot because it's "cool". At some point human effort is required - all the cryptography does is ensure that records aren't changed and that they were created by known people. It doesn't prove that those people are honest.
    8
  4. From what I have read there is a big problem with nuclear in that many countries build different plants every time so that every one of them is a huge learning experience which is then lost when they don't build the next one exactly the same. I read that they also get built mostly on-site and the geology etc of the sites make each one slightly different even when they're the same basic technology. It seems to me that there's scope for remedying some of this.
    8
  5. It's not just politics - these connectors offer a wonderful target for an enemy. I think they are still far to attractive to give up on.
    6
  6. It's not so much about palatability - we have a fixed amount of effort we can deploy - so many engineers, so many skilled workers. Nuclear engineers are going to look at nuclear solutions probably but the rough conclusion from this video is that everyone who can look at wind, solar and storage probably should be spending their time on those.
    4
  7. Drop them on the sea floor to make artificial reefs perhaps? That could be very cheap if you put them near the windfarm itself - and useful for sea life.
    4
  8. I love your videos. Always interesting and realistic.
    2
  9. I've been reading some challenges with gearbox life in some of the larger offshore turbines - would be interested in what you thought about this. i.e. whether it's a big challenge or just one of the more minor issues.I was intrigued by one company that has a magnetic gearbox for wind turbines and I always wondered why that idea got stuck in the "valley of death." It's not dead but one might imagine it getting a much bigger boost if the problem was really that bad.
    2
  10. I'd not be surprised if the worst problem isn't financial - there such a lot of competition in the steel market anyhow, isn't there? There has to be an incentive to toss out the old processes and put in the new. Also the first company to invent some process needs to not throttle the market by overcharging to license it.
    1
  11. I'm interested in Magnomatics who have a magnetic transmission for wind turbines (i.e. replaces the gearbox) and it's interesting to know that there is a good reason for them to be at least trying to make gearboxes smaller and lighter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAELukfr2oY They have what looks like a direct drive - i.e. it looks like a motor that doesn't need a gearbox but really the gearing is just achieved within the motor so it's a Pseudo-Direct Drive. Obviously in reverse it's a generator.
    1
  12.  @anydaynow01  shakers could do it if it's worth it - a motor with an unbalanced load.
    1
  13. you can create a big site and put one reactor in at a time - that might reduce the capital cost without increasing the planning problems. The main issue is that one needs technologies that we can spend money on now, as you say so we should be spending the most on solutions which are already mature
    1
  14. Well, you've said that there are bad ones but it's not really as useful as telling us about some good ones.
    1
  15.  @solarwind907  Thank you!
    1
  16. Relying on Russian gas is far worse, surely?
    1
  17.  @dmitripogosian5084  I don't know how deep these places are but we do sometimes sink ships to make artificial reefs.
    1
  18. Would be interesting if they got excess electricity - what would they do with it?
    1
  19.  @hughmarcus1  I assumed so but at least it could be mixed with the rest of the air going in so that it could help the heat pump to be efficient. Another thing one would want is to mix stale, old air that has come out of the house be mixed with the air coming in to the heat pump too.
    1