Win a Solar Go Go Car to celebrate The Future Car Challenge

Petrol cars have no future. That is a fact, in 50 years time there will be no crude oil left on planet earth (assuming current consumption rates don’t decrease) therefore there will be no oil left to make petroleum or diesel.

Biofuel, hydrogen, LPG and electric cars are the future, there is no doubt about that. Right now there are many hybrid cars which use petrol with another power source, but in the future, petrol from natural oil will be no more.

There are of course other ways you can power cars, using compressed air is one method as is water-cell technology. These are not however currently concepts in mass production. If you follow those two links, you will find posts written by Jonny on the concepts mentioned.

Arguably the greenest option for the future is electric cars. The electricity used to power the cars can be generate from renewable sources, (it isn’t necessarily, but that is an option) and electricity from renewables is a lot less damaging to the planet than energy generated from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels – be it in on the micro scale inside an engine of a car, or on a macro scale in a network of power stations.

Electric cars are starting to look more and more normal, (in the past some have looked somewhat abstract!) and are becoming more efficient every year.

The Future Car Challenge

This year, British Gas (the company who installed Remote Heating Control in my home) became an official partner of The Future Car Challenge. The Future Car Challenge is an annual event, which showcases the latest developments in the electric car industry. This year, members from the British Gas team drove fro Brighton up to London, with the aim of using the least amount of energy as possible, using the latest electric cars. The team included comedian Robert Llewellyn, Ben Collins, (A.K.A. ‘The Stig’), and Commonwealth gold medal swimmer Ross Davenport.

The Future Car Challenge Ross Davenport

Ross Davenport playing his part in the British Gas Future Car Challenge

British Gas are setting up a national charging network, to help increase the viability of electric cars. A charging network is as vital to electric cars as service stations are to petrol and diesel cars. Some electric cars do have the ability to transfer energy generate from breaking into electricity, (as seem in Formula 1 cars) however this alone isn’t enough to power them, so electric recharge points are essential.

Here is a statement from British Gas on their involvement with electric cars:

The Future Car Challenge Robert Llewellyn

Robert Llewellyn taking part in the Brighton to London Future Car Challenge

“British Gas is dedicated to making the world a more sustainable place now and in the future. We are leading the way in providing expertise and charging solutions in the Electric Vehicle market through partnering with Nissan, Renault, Hitachi Capital, Toyota and Vauxhall.

British Gas’ dedicated charging solutions are safer, convenient and more compatible than plugging electric vehicles directly into the mains supply socket at home. Not only do we offer charging solutions that can cut charging times by around a third, but British Gas also offers its customers specially designed tariffs to help them charge for less.”

For more information on The Future Car Challenge, check out this article on British Gas’s blog. The article also has an embedded video of the event.

The Giveaway

To celebrate the event, we have five solar power car sets to giveaway, courtesy of British Gas!

The prize is a John Lewis Solar Go Go Car, (click the link for more info) a cool kit from which you can build your own solar powered car! Okay it isn’t quite as good as an electric car, but it looks great fun, and could make a fantastic Christmas present…

John Lewis Solar Powered Car KitThe giveaway will run for 8 days, from today until the end of next Wednesday (12.00am on Thursday the 13th).

The prizes will be sent out by British Gas to the UK only, so if you don’t live in the UK I am afraid you can’t enter. If you have an address in the UK you can get the prize sent to if you win, you are in!

How To Enter

It is really easy to enter the competition, all you need to do is enter an email address we can contact you on (if you win) in the Rafflecopter widget below. If you like the blog on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or are subscribed to our feed via email, then you can gain some extra entries.

Want a Solar Go Go Car kit? Enter below!

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Winners will be emailed on Thursday the 13th to let them know that they have won, and will be announced on the blog shortly after.

Good luck everyone!

Three blog contest winners announced

On the 10th of July, we launched our second competition, which saw three blogs (Technology Bloggers, Blogging Fever and TechAtLast) join together, to give you, the readers of Technology Bloggers the chance to win one of three $50 USD prizes.

The competition was a huge success, with a total of 6,590 entries!

I had initially set a personal target of 10,000 entries, however soon realised this was probably a little out of reach. I changed the target to 5,000 entries which I thought we could just about achieve, however we smashed this, gaining close to 7,000!

Entrants could achieve a total of 59 entries, and then a further 5 entries every day, were they to revisit and share the giveaway again.

In total 342 people took part in the competition, which works out at an average of 19 (19.269) entries per person.

On Saturday I used the Rafflecopter widget to randomly select the winners. The winners were:

  • Asha Marie Pena – winning with her entry “Follow @TecBloggers on Twitter”
  • Peter Lee – winning with her entry “Follow @Blogging_Fever on Twitter”
  • Arjun Yadav – winning with her entry “Subscribe to Blogging Fever Via Email”

Asha, Peter and Arjun all won a $50 USD prize – or equivalent amount – to be paid via PayPal.

Technology Bloggers three blog $150 USD giveaway winnersAsha’s winnings are to be paid by Olawale Daniel and Arjun’s are to0 be paid by Alan Tay.

I was left with Peter, and I have already sent him his winnings – I am unsure whether Alan and Olawale have yet.

Here is what Peter had to say:

“Dear TechnologyBloggers.org, BloggingFever.com and TechAtLast.com,

Congrats to you all for doing such a great contest… it was very well done (especially since all of you are from different corners of the world), easy to enter and I enjoyed it very much.

It is such a pleasant surprise to hear that I am one of the contest winner! I joined the contest because it was organized by my fellow blogging friends, Christopher and Alan. I never thought that I would be one of the lucky winners and become $50 richer. For that, I thank you and keep the contest coming! 🙂

Best wishes,
Peter Lee”

One happy customer 🙂

It is good to see that people from our blogs that won the contest. The loyal readers/subscribers among you will probably recognise Peter Lee. He is a regular reader and often comments. He also reads Alan’s blogs and has his own, called Computer How To Guide. Recognise his avatar?

Peter Lee's Avatar

Peter’s Avatar

Arjun is also a member of the Technology Bloggers community. Arjun first commented on my article about the online profile maker About.Me. He has been a loyal reader ever since, and occasionally drops a comment if he has something to say. Another very worthy winner.

As for Asha, I am unsure how she found out about the contest, maybe she reads Alan’s blog, or maybe she found us on a contest site, or via social media. She could well be a reader who just chooses to lurk, rather than be one who comments. Who knows.

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you very much to everyone who entered, I hope you enjoyed the contest.

Watch this space, as maybe soon we will have another contest on the way…

Win a cash prize in our competition!

Technology Bloggers has three lots of cash to give away, totalling the sum of $150 USD!

To be in with a chance to win one of our three $50 prizes (or an equivalent amount in your currency) enter our competition which has just 7 days left.

It is really easy to enter, as we are using a Rafflecopter widget, so you can do as many or few of the easy to achieve tasks we have set as you like. The more options you do, the better your chances!

To enter you must give us an email address so we can let you know if you win, other than that, there are no requirements. Log in with either your name and email, or Facebook and away you go!

Scroll down to get started 🙂

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Win $50 thanks to Technology Bloggers

Here are the terms and conditions of the giveaway:

This giveaway is open globally.

Anyone may enter the giveaway, except Christopher Roberts, Alan Tay and Olawale Daniel.

You will need a PayPal address should you win, so that we can transfer your winnings. PayPal is the only method that can be used to receive winning funds.

The competition ends at 12:01am on Saturday the 11th of August 2012 EST (GMT-4). Winners will be emailed shortly after the competition ends, and will have 5 days (120 hours) to respond and claim their winnings.

Please note Technology Bloggers prize may be paid in an equivalent GBP amount as decided by Christopher Roberts.

Winners will be chosen randomly using Rafflecopter’s random winner selector.

As the prize will be paid via PayPal it will be easy for the winner to converted it into whatever currency they like.

Technology Bloggers will announce the winners within a week of the competition ending, so stay tuned for more information.

Good luck to all entrants 🙂