I tried to add EV chargers to my rental property • Hacker News Board

Re: I tried to add EV chargers to my rental property

#191

Post by IndrekR » Fri, Oct 21, 2022, 4:32 PM UTC

natch wrote: post #188

maximus-decimus wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point with scheduling is that on a normal plug, it make take long enough to charge your car that you can't charge it completely during the time window where electricity is the cheapest. So the parent comment was arguing you need faster charging to save money by doing all your charging in that time window. But yeah I have a hard time believing it's gonna be a big enough saving to offset the cost of the charger.

Cars have the scheduling built in. Unless you buy an electric car from one of the companies that is actively promoting gas cars and trying to make their own electric cars super crappy in hopes the entire concept will fail. Meaning, any gas car maker. Yes, scheduling saves money. But even paying high electric rates during peak hours can still be way cheaper than gas, depending on what exact rates we're talking about,…

Being able to charge with 11kW (level 2 charger) instead of 3.5kW (level 1 charger) allows to charge daily 20kW within 2 hours instead of 6.

Two days ago kWh was at 0.03€ For two hours only, after 0.41€ peaks during the day. Of course this scheduling is automatic. Using Gridio (https://www.gridio.io/) for that.

Re: I tried to add EV chargers to my rental property

#192

Post by Karrot_Kream » Fri, Oct 21, 2022, 10:49 PM UTC

Kirby64 wrote: post #186

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now obviously driving mileage is normally distributed. But that said, the average American drives ~ 12,785 mi / year [1]. This means, on average, 35.03 mi / day. If a 110V/15A outlet can offer 1.65 kW, and we assume a conservative 3 mi / kW, then you only need to charge for 7.08 hrs to offset your daily driving. Assuming 8 hours a day for charging, as long as you drive less than 40 mi / day you should charge your who…

Averages don't really work when most folks driving tends to be pretty lumpy. An example I've experienced personally: * Take a trip ~150mi round trip to a nearby town. * Return home with car at relatively low state of charge (since, I started with ~80% SOC). * Immediately next morning, I need to take a trip ~200mi Couldn't do it if I was charging using 120V. I could do it even with relatively wimpy 240V (20A), though.

It would be interesting to do look at broader survey data (maybe I'll do that this weekend) and see how driving mileage is distributed. Nobody in my circles ever drives longer than 20 mi. one way regularly, and even then most never more than 10 mi. one way regularly. Of course I live in a somewhat-walkable metro area adjacent to suburbia.

Sure if you have the need for bursty travel (emergency helping a relative in another part of the state maybe, picking up friends from a regional airport, etc) a 240V/20A charger would work much better. But as long as you can find a fast charger along your route this shouldn't be a huge factor. The argument is that most average travel needs can be taken care of by L1 chargers and L2s and L3s can help usecases further out of the average. But I admit, my assumption of normality on driving mileage is just an assumption and it may just be more pareto distributed.

Re: I tried to add EV chargers to my rental property

#193

Post by zizee » Wed, Oct 26, 2022, 10:05 PM UTC

Gigachad wrote: post #160

zizee wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds good, but just don't be surprised if this results in more expensive rents, and less affordable housing being built.

New built housing already has to comply with the latest codes. Having slightly higher rent is worth it for safety.

Perhaps. But this stuff does raise the minimum amount it takes to build, which in turn makes developers less likely to invest in building affordable housing.