Know How... 113

How does FedEx save money by going green, tips to help you survive Destiny, and the best upgrade for you PC finale.

FedEx

FedEx's deliver fleet is truly impressive:

• 47,000 vehicles
• 700 aircraft
• All to deliver ~4 million packages per day.

All that activity means a fuel bill that rivals a military.

• FedEx burns over 1.5 Billion gallons of fuel a year
• So the idea of having more efficient vehicles isn't just a matter of being "green"
• It's BIG money!

They're saving a lot of money by replacing their old 727s with 757s. They're also replacing their MD-11s with 777. They've changed policy to NOT run the APUs at the gate, eliminating 1.5 hours of engine use which has saved the fleet one million gallons of fuel per month.

And now... they're looking at expanding their hybrid and electrical fleet... already the biggest in North America

• FedEx is working with Silicon Valley company, "Wrightspeed" to create a fleet of hybrid diesel trucks.
• The fleet -- starting with 25 sold as a pilot program, uses a Hybrid design
• The drivetrain has a 39KWh battery which should be enough juice to take a loaded truck about 30 miles
• It has regen braking, which could add another 2-5 miles.

30-35 miles is not nearly enough range for a deliver truck... so it has a diesel turbine! A small diesel turbine is located to the front of the vehicle that turns a generator that can generate enough power to keep the truck moving AND recharge the battery. Unlike a parallel design (like the Prius), this is a Serial hybrid -- The turbine has no physical linkage to the transmission.

There are a lot of advantages to this approach

1. Serial hybrids are, at least on paper, more efficient than parallel hybrids
2. Turbine engines (like the ones in M1 Abrahms tanks) require complicated linkages and super-strong transmissions -- Using a turbine to turn a generator is much simpler.
3. In a serial setup, the turbine can be run in the "golden zone" the entire time.
4. A small turbine has lower maintenance costs than a large diesel engine.

And they've tested it! FedEx purchased two Wrightspeed units last year as a test. They dropped them into the regular fleet and were so impressed that they bought 25 more.

The retrofit is about $100k (not including the price of the rig). That's far more expensive than replacing and engine and transmission, but it has great long-term potential.

PC Upgrade

By the numbers
The Best performance was also the best buy

• 16GB of memory + NVIDIA 770 + SSD
• 21.94% performance Increase
• $615 == .036% increase per dollar spent

The Second best performance was also the second best buy

• 16GB + SSD
• 9.45% Performance Increase
• $285 == .033% increase per dollar spent

The WORST buy

• 32GB of memory
• 1.53% Performance Increase
• $330 == .005% increase per dollar spent

The second WORST buy

• 32GB + NVIDIA 770 + SSD
• 8.46% Performance Increase
• $825 == 0.01% increase per dollar spent
• ALSO THE MOST EXPENSIVE!!!

A Few Interesting Facts

1. The SSD was the single best upgrade
2. The Video Card gave the single biggest boost (486) -- But ONLY when paired with 16GB of memory and a SSD
3. The memory would APPEAR to be the most useless upgrade, but the best and 2nd best performance increases and %-per-dollar both involved a 16GB memory upgrade

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• Transcripts: Know How... 113 (Transcript)