Electric cars, the green solution?

[papasmurf]

Half the bloody population has signed the OSA, every civil servant for a start, it's nothing special.

As for the power, your local Tesco has power at that rating, you don't need the OSA to go I can assure you.

Half the population my age has, but not half the population. My "local" Tesco is 10 miles away. Three phase supply is rarity here other wise.

[B0ycey]

I don't know why the hydrogen option isn't being pursued more,

Actually that is a good point especially given lithium is in low supply and we would need to increase our electrical output when we already import electricity as it is. Nonetheless it maybe something to do with it being highly explosive. I just don't know whether it is safe enough for cars and perhaps only useful on trains.

[Nick]

I don't own a factory or a workshop. (The nearest place to me that has that type of supply is miles away and I had to sign the Official Secrets Act to work in it.)

Half the bloody population has signed the OSA, every civil servant for a start, it's nothing special. 

As for the power, your local Tesco has power at that rating, you don't need the OSA to go I can assure you. 

[papasmurf]

Try 120KW 480V 3 phase.

I don't own a factory or a workshop. (The nearest place to me that has that type of supply is miles away and I had to sign the Official Secrets Act to work in it.)

[Nick]

Or even a sine wave

Good old IOS auto correct. 

[cromwell]

Nope. 😂



It's produced using an inverter so it's a PWM sign wave.

Or even a sine wave 

[Nick]

That's a weird voltage. Do you mean 415v?

Nope. 😂



It's produced using an inverter so it's a PWM sign wave. 

[Barry]

Try 120KW 480V 3 phase.

That's a weird voltage. Do you mean 415v?

[Nick]

Really? 6-12kilowatts output at 240 Volts, you must have a lot of money to spare.

Try 120KW 480V 3 phase. 

[patman post]

Really? 6-12kilowatts output at 240 Volts, you must have a lot of money to spare.

I reckon under £2k, as max with everything in the house switched on we'd be on under 20 KVA. And in a power outage, all would be switched off to start the generator...

[Nick]

Tractors are very fuel inefficient, true, but the red diesel is a bit cheaper.

There are more fuel efficient cars, such as Cromwell and mine, which for a 40 litre fill up £66 a range of about 600 miles is practical.
Electric car owners suffer battery anxiety, it's definitely a thing we can all do without.
All for the sake of being green, which it is not, and all for the sake of so called global warming, which neither Nick or I believe is being caused by mankind.

And the DTI take a dim view of people running their vehicles on red diesel 😂

I didn't go electric for green reasons, I didn't do it to save money either. Not sure why I did in fact, I actually wanted a Mercedes E63 😂

[Nick]

We charge at home. We have a charging point in the small front garden and a safe lead and bevel across the pavement to the vehicle. I've only used public charging once to try it out. Easy, because there was a demo guy on-site.

One London borough (Wandsworth?) is installing rain-channel like ducting inset across pavements from houses to the kerb to house charging cables.

There's usually sensible ways to solve such irksome issues...

There are thousands of fast chargers, the usual mis-information from certain quarters. In London they are popping up all over the place, you need to carry your own lead though, and have the right app. 

[Barry]

Internal combustion engines are only about 30% efficient, electric cars are 90% +.
My electric car costs £15 to charge at home where as my wife's 4 litre diesel costs £160 to fill.

Tractors are very fuel inefficient, true, but the red diesel is a bit cheaper.

There are more fuel efficient cars, such as Cromwell and mine, which for a 40 litre fill up £66 a range of about 600 miles is practical.
Electric car owners suffer battery anxiety, it's definitely a thing we can all do without.
All for the sake of being green, which it is not, and all for the sake of so called global warming, which neither Nick or I believe is being caused by mankind.

[Nick]

I've heard proposals for differentiating car charging from normal household consumption — I assume a smart meter would be needed to identify different usages, coupled to a requirement to notify an authority (the energy supplier?) if a car charger is installed. That will only be to get extra revenue, of course.

I'm using an EV and Mrs has a hybrid. Her vehicle keeps flashing the message to add ad least 15 ltr of fuel because what's in the tank is old! She can charge from a normal 13A outlet. I use a dedicated charger. I've yet to master the various apps for street and public charging schemes and systems. Rationalisation must come soon, surely?

I am considering getting a generator in case we get power cuts and I need to charge the EV — but I guess noise and security could be problems as we're in a terrace house...

I have a 7.5KW charger which takes roughly 9 hours to charge. You need to feed it with 6mm T&E as to have some overhead. I don't have a smart meter so don't get any cheaper electricity at night. 

On the road there are over 36,000 chargers of varying types, I prefer the InstaVolt ones that can charge up to 125KW which is 40 minutes to charge if you take into consideration the charge rate drops once you get to 80%. 

Try Zap-Map, it shows all the charging stations. 

As for using a generator, you'll have to spend a grand to get somewhere near a 3.5KW one. 

[patman post]

With current range of electric cars and lack of public access fast chargers that actually work, the best of luck with that.

We charge at home. We have a charging point in the small front garden and a safe lead and bevel across the pavement to the vehicle. I've only used public charging once to try it out. Easy, because there was a demo guy on-site.

One London borough (Wandsworth?) is installing rain-channel like ducting inset across pavements from houses to the kerb to house charging cables.

There's usually sensible ways to solve such irksome issues...