Electric Cars II - Not Silly!

[Mrs Ex-Ascot]

So can you mount solar panels on a frame above your roof without permission? And have a system totally separate from the grid?

[Undried Plum]

And here in old Blighty we have not yet addressed the problem of enough cables strewn across pavements to charge those EVs, whose owners don’t have off-road parking

The cables powering kerbside charging stations go under the pavement, not over it.

does anyone here know what DC voltage EV batteries supply? I’d really like to know, preferably from an EV owner

It doesn't matter what the voltage is of a battery pack or a solar array or a wind turbine. The DC is inverted into AC and the voltage is converted into the voltage of the local grid powerlines and the 50Hz frequency is synchronised.

[G-CPTN]

Our region has problems with electricity supply to EV charging points.
A couple of locations have the physical equipment installed, but no agreement to connect to electricity.
In one case this has extended from September 2021.

[OFSO]

#401 No
#402 Ever taken up roadside paving stones in London? A mass of undocumented gas and water pipes, old sewage, electricity, communications and abandoned cable TV. Note that word "undocumented". As an apprentice we got a call out to a failure of a 600 pair lead (in those days) cable. Found a plug screwed into the side bearing the name of the Water Board. Easy to confuse..

[Undried Plum]

#402 Ever taken up roadside paving stones in London? A mass of undocumented gas and water pipes, old sewage, electricity, communications and abandoned cable TV. Note that word "undocumented". As an apprentice we got a call out to a failure of a 600 pair lead (in those days) cable. Found a plug screwed into the side bearing the name of the Water Board. Easy to confuse..

So how do they lay the cables to street lights and illuminated roadsigns then? They do, y'know.

Cabling kerbside public chargers is no more difficult than that.

[G-CPTN]

AIUI, the electricity supply cables 'exist' in most urban locations, and subsequent facilities (such as street lights) are 'plumbed into' the main cables as required with supplies to domestic (and commercial) premises added as required.

Occasionally, new supply cables will be laid when new developments are created, but the basic infrastructure depends on existing cables laid when the development was originally created.

[CharlieOneSix]

Plenty of sugestions on this site as to how those home owners without driveways can charge their cars:- https://electricbrighton.com/faqs/how-d ... ctric-cars

One suggestion is this but no doubt those with the negativity of a Luddite will find fault with it...?

Leaves in the gully your problem with that? Never fear, to every problem there is a solution.

green-mole-no-dig.jpg (22.31 KiB) Viewed 461 times

[OFSO]

The Reality is that it's very simple and fairly inexpensive to include new technology in new houses or housing estates and very difficult to do so in old, Edwardian or Victorian, areas, which is what we are stuck with. That's what electric car fantastists seem unable to grasp.

[John Hill]

People who live in old houses must use the technologies of their times, gas lighting, coal fires, trams, bicycles, shoe leather etc etc.

[CharlieOneSix]

The Reality is that it's very simple and fairly inexpensive to include new technology in new houses or housing estates and very difficult to do so in old, Edwardian or Victorian, areas, which is what we are stuck with. That's what electric car fantastists seem unable to grasp.

The examples I gave are to enable those who live in old, Edwardian or Victorian properties to solve the problem of charging electric cars at home. As I have an electric car I presume you include me as an electric car fantasist. The Cambridge Dictionary defines a fantasist as "someone who often has fantasies, or who confuses fantasy and what is real". I don't have fantasies about electric cars, I own one, it's real, and I love it!

[Undried Plum]

The disadvantage I can see with #407 is that in many urban streets you can't be sure to have an empty parking space immediately outside a particular terraced house.

[G-CPTN]

I live in a terraced house, however, the parking in front of my house is designated to be at the other side of the road, therefore it isn't practicable to park immediately in front of my house.

[barkingmad]

Sez Plum:--'The DC is inverted into AC and the voltage is converted into the voltage of the local grid powerlines and the 50Hz frequency is synchronised."

Yes, after 42 years in aviation I am fully aware of how to convert straight amps into wiggly amps and vice versa and I have been enjoying the benefits of straights into wigglys off my garage roof for 11 years.

However, you fail to explain who will pay for the inverter kit, where it will be located and will that be added expense to ALL owners of EVs in the UK in order to 'top up' the grid from car batteries?

And what will the marketing manager (sales rep) think the following morning when they look at the charge indicator and realise their meeting in Carlisle will have to be by train from their Home Counties residence as the grid has rationed or reduced their fill of straight amps?

It's all too much like HS2, a jolly good idea but doomed to failure in the execution and galloping cost runaways.

The record so far of the charging points' reliability in the UK is not exactly a positive selling point, so I for one will be staying with I C E technology as long as there's a hydrocarbon pump available with which to fill the tank.

[ExSp33db1rd]

..........so I for one will be staying with I C E technology as long as there's a hydrocarbon pump available with which to fill the tank.

Me too. And I can keep a supply in cans in the garage for instant filling if necessary, can I do that with electricity that I might need in a hurry ?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Not that I'm against the concept of electric cars, but the re-filling has got to be re-organised and more convenient. Life becomes harder as one ages, why add to the burden ?

[OFSO]

The house in Spain has space for car charger etc but with the price of electricity and the subsidy on automotive fuels an electric car costs far more to run (not to mention buy) and at my age I'm not going to spend €8000 on a solar array. So I'll stay diesel. In London, train five minutes away, every quarter hour, bus eight minutes away, every few minutes, both free. POV unnecessary.

[Undried Plum]

However, you fail to explain who will pay for the inverter kit, where it will be located and will that be added expense to ALL owners of EVs in the UK in order to 'top up' the grid from car batteries?

The cost/benefit will go to the owners of the kit, just as happens now already with privately owned wind turbines and PV arrays.

C16's car has a miniature version of that gear already. See his above post on the matter. OK, that's not intended for injection into the Grid, but the operating principle is identical other than in scale.

The record so far of the charging points' reliability in the UK is not exactly a positive selling point

I've been using public charging points in the UK, and elsewhere in Europe, for seven years now and I've never had a problem. Your experience of the matter may differ.

[Undried Plum]

I can keep a supply in cans in the garage for instant filling if necessary, can I do that with electricity that I might need in a hurry ?

Yes. It's all a matter of very simple planning. Charge the car's battery overnight. Have plenty of range in the morning.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

The system, which involves infinite burning of finite fossil fuels, is broken.

[Rwy in Sight]

UP and other members who owned an EV, as more and more EV are around, I am wondering how do you plan for an array of chargers to be occupied and you have no alternative as the two previous ones were busy or out of service.

[Undried Plum]

UP and other members who owned an EV, as more and more EV are around, I am wondering how do you plan for an array of chargers to be occupied and you have no alternative as the two previous ones were busy or out of service.

I can answer that one.

In my Tesla, and I presume all EVs have something similar, you can see how many stalls are available at the station you are aiming for. It also preheats the battery for optimum charging temperature. If they are all full, the nav system offers a couple of alternative sites and calculates what %ge State Of Charge you can expect upon arrival at those alternates.

I've recently had a look at the Mercedes EQS with a view to buying one as a replacement for my Model S when the warranty expires next year and I noticed that it had something very similar.

[Undried Plum]