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Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?

theglobeandmail.com

161–170 of 545 posts

Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?

#161

It is certainly holding me back at the moment. I have allocated off-street parking under my apartment that is actually owned by us as part of the lease, but I doubt the building management will let me install a charger, and I don't think the law in the UK means I can force them to let me. In London there are a few public chargers dotted around, but they are fairly infrequent. I don't have any data but it feels like t…

Lampposts is exactly how I charge whilst not having off-street parking, in central London. The council converted all the street lights to LEDs, meaning there is excess electricity delivered. So they put plugs on the posts. Works brilliantly. https://imgur.com/a/I5AtwJk https://www.ubitricity.com/

Nice, sidewalk refilling has always been a thing http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-LvpBoDIt4Q/TLcAQWn7TwI/AAAAAAAAIw...

Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?

#162
post #149

Besides garage orphans, also those with self standing homes and a garage will have (or become) a problem. Say that in you street that are 50 single family homes connected to a same cabin/transformer. The electric infrastructure powering them (lines, transformer, etc.) has been dimensioned to power them at their average current power consumption rate + something to take care of peaks + something more to take care of e…

I believe that some of that is covered by other appliances becoming more efficient. How many 60-100w light bulbs did people used to run in their home? Tube tvs? Those devices have largely been replaced by more modern versions that use an order of magnitude less power.

This is my understanding as well, I remember reading something that said new power consumption is either flattening or decreasing because modern electronics and appliances are getting more and more efficient.

Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?

#163

I always thought this was a big problem for EVs, but recently came to think nightly charging might not matter so much for these drivers. If an urban apartment dweller has an EV with 200+ miles of range, can't a public fast charger be used once or twice a week instead? I lived in an apartment with a ~200 mile range ICE car and filled it less than once a week.

It's mentioned elsewhere in the comments. > This issue will hopefully be transient; once charging speed is comparable to filling your ICE vehicle with fuel. > Until then, the lack of fast public chargers combined with the relative slowness of charging makes this a major downgrade from ICE. In other words, the only reason most people are OK with this one attribute of EVs that is inferior to ICE is the fact that they c…

By being able to easily plug-in at home, overnight, one always has a full battery in the morning. Especially nice if you can program things to charge during off-peak hours.

Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Filling your car at the gas station is a five minute stop on the way home. Filing your electric car is at least an hour if you have a DC fast charger and that gets you only 80% full. To get totally full, it would take a multi-hour stop.

Sure. If your commute is 15% of your range, you’d be able to charge once a week. I’m pretty sure most people could work out a multi-hour stopover near a charging station into their week. Put them near a restaurant, arts, or shopping district and bingo problem solved.

Near where I live, there's actually one in the parking lot of the almost derelict shopping mall. But that's also right next door to a particularly busy grocery store. There are usually vehicles in it and this is in an area (Mass) that doesn't have a lot of Teslas generally and certainly not in the somewhat rundown small city this store is on the outskirts of.

Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?

#165
post #149

Besides garage orphans, also those with self standing homes and a garage will have (or become) a problem. Say that in you street that are 50 single family homes connected to a same cabin/transformer. The electric infrastructure powering them (lines, transformer, etc.) has been dimensioned to power them at their average current power consumption rate + something to take care of peaks + something more to take care of e…

People put 5kw of solar on the garage roof. When everyone has electric cars you also have a huge mobile battery fleet.

Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?

#166
There need to be more chargers at places where people park their cars when they are not at home. That is parking lots at the work place and parking lots of malls and supermarkets. Parking at work would need little more than a standard plug, assuming you are 8+ hours at work. At malls and supermarkets, you would have medium-fast chargers, as you are parking for 1-2 hours. And with the lastest gen fast-chargers, a recharge can be done in as little as 20-30 minutes, so having a good coffee store with WIFI along with the charging stations (no bad smells at charging stations) should mostly solve the problem for an occasional charge and wait.

Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?

#167
post #101

I'd seen the idea of using street-furniture, such as lamp-posts - but can't help seeing visions of coils of cable looping all over the pavement/sidewalk (in the UK at least, lamp posts tend not to be on the road side of the pavement). Plus, if this isn't new-build, whatever's powering those lamps isn't going to charge your car. Well.. it might charge one or two, but once you've got 20 cars, all wanting to be charged…

Fully Charged had an episode on Ubitricity:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKaEhBjt1ls

This mostly works if the posts are closer to the curb, but in some places they are on people's front lawns so the sidewalks are completely clear.

Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lampposts is exactly how I charge whilst not having off-street parking, in central London. The council converted all the street lights to LEDs, meaning there is excess electricity delivered. So they put plugs on the posts. Works brilliantly. https://imgur.com/a/I5AtwJk https://www.ubitricity.com/

Nice, sidewalk refilling has always been a thing http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_-LvpBoDIt4Q/TLcAQWn7TwI/AAAAAAAAIw...

Wow. I've seen this in Thailand https://www.bangkokcheaphotels.com/roadside-gasoline/

Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?

#169
post #80

My question would be - does frequent short charging sessions cause issues for the battery packs? Versus longer full charging sessions? I know that lithium cells with their different chemistry are more forgiving of charging and discharging (vs NiMH, NiCd, or Lead Acid). I wonder though if that doesn't cause other effects, such as perhaps longevity issues that might cause overheating or something?

i have a tesla model 3 and i believe that multiple smaller sessions are better for the longevity of the battery. elon has said that 'a plugged in tesla is a happy tesla.'

you're also only supposed to charge to 80 or 90 percent charge unless youre going on a road trip, since charging to the absloute max (and conversely, discharging to near zero) is worse for the battery.

Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's mentioned elsewhere in the comments. > This issue will hopefully be transient; once charging speed is comparable to filling your ICE vehicle with fuel. > Until then, the lack of fast public chargers combined with the relative slowness of charging makes this a major downgrade from ICE. In other words, the only reason most people are OK with this one attribute of EVs that is inferior to ICE is the fact that they c…

By being able to easily plug-in at home, overnight, one always has a full battery in the morning. Especially nice if you can program things to charge during off-peak hours.

That is exactly my point. The people that can plug-in at home find it very convenient, but if that's not an option, it's not convenient at all! So I don't understand why you posted that comment as a response to mine?
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