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/
Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
161–170 of 545 posts
Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#162Besides 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 Those devices have largely been replaced by more modern versions that use an order of magnitude less power.
Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#163I 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…
Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#164Earlier 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.
Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#165Besides 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…
Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#166Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#167I'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…
* 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?
#168Earlier 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...
Re: Where will ‘garage orphans’ charge electric cars?
#169My 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?
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?
#170Earlier 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.