Electric Cars Continue to Make Inroads

You can get 25% merely by changing between US gallon and Imperial gallon!

Makes inches vs centimetres look simple.

There is no shortage of opportunities for solar to replace burning imported petroleum that we don't need to rely on electric powered cars to do that for some time to come. It's all a matter of base cost and availability vs. need. Photovoltaic still has a problem of supplying electricity when it is available vs. when it is needed. Something like autos can be helpful in using it when it is available rather than having to charge right now. Many people don't use their cars so much and can charge during the day when the solar power is available. Hopefully the two industries will grow together.

It is funny how people are so reluctant to let go of their existing paradigm. One potentially huge change maker is how we may not need to own cars in the future and in fact, it may well prove to be counter productive to waste resources that way. Everyone is so worried about

ergy.

t there only get their energy by burning fossil carbon. The energy availabl e from solar power isn't - technically speaking - unlimited, but it's a cou ple of order of magnitude higher than you use at the moment.

need from solar power right - or at least from technology that is availabl e right now. The necessary economies of scale would make the power you gene rated cheaper than what you pay for energy right now, but the capital inves tment would be pretty dramatic, though probably exactly what your economy n eeds ...

This has been known for some time now.

was published in 2008, and got quite a bit of attention at the time.

Loads of car hanging around the suburbs in the early morning and clogging u p all the available parking in the city just before knocking-off time in t he afternoon?

There's probably a slightly more optimal solution in there somewhere.

Your assumption that "220V home service" is some worldwide standard and provides the same current everywhere is incorrect.

Here, 220V standard outlets can provide 16A and you could have more current (25A, 35A) but that would not be via a standard outlet.

Is that from AC input to DC battery output on discharge? It is only an estimate, and it does not influence the calculation much.

EVs can use 1-phase or 3-phase. Of course the charging rate will differ.

A standard house installation here (Netherlands) is 230V 1 phase 35A. This is further fused on the switchboard into 16A circuits, so from a single outlet you can draw 230V 16A (3.6kW)

Electrical stoves are usually powered by 2 circuits 16A each but the same phase.

Alternatively you can get a 3-phase feed of 3x25A or 3x35A.

Of course, much larger currents are used for office and industrial buildings, starting at 3x80A.

It is not clever to get a needlessly large capacity connection because the electricity tax is based on the capacity. So when you get a 3x35A where 3x25A or even 1x35A would be ample, you are paying much more. (hundreds of euro per year)

But why? Is that just an established convention? Maybe it is because 120V is so low and this is a convenient compatible next step up?

When they have 3 phases, they could supply it to the homes without issue. But of course when you want 3 phases of 220 volt it becomes we weird system with 6 live wires...

Here we get 230V between phase and neutral, so a 3-phase connection is 3x230V and has 400V between two phases.

Every home (I think) gets a 3-phase feeder rated at 3x35A and is connected on 1 phase at 1x35A. Convenient upgrade paths are to

But in general one does not want to have excess capacity because it is taxed at the max capacity not the actually used.

I am not going to do the research again but it is a fact that modern plants that need to supply heat to houses have a tap on an intermediate stage of the steam turbines to extract steam at a higher temperature. The plant could have used that steam itself to generate more power. So it is not simply "free energy that would be thrown away when not used".

How could it be that they are pessimistic? Well, every gasoline powered car owner knows that the mileage figures published by the manufacturer and dealer are at least 50% above realistic.

So, when you read about some electrical mileage figure in a manufacturer publication, you automatically add 50%. That is wired into most people's brains. And of course, the manufacturers have to take the blame for that.

(don't tell me it is because of standards for specification, it is a standard written by the manufacturers, and the manufacturers are frustrating every effort at passing a more reasonable standard)

If you say so. My understanding is that low pressure, low temperature steam is hard to use for turbines or other simple energy conversion methods. More complex devices have to be used which are much less cost effective. I don't think it is a matter of just tapping some intermediate stage of a conventional steam turbine. Heating homes does not require high temps or high pressures. Unless the steam is condensed into water, it can still be used for space heating.

That is pure BS. In the US, mileage figures are prepared by a government established method which is fairly accurate to normal driving. I have found my T100 to give me 19-20 mpg as long as I'm not driving at 70. If I keep it to 60 I get 20 mpg which is 2 or 3 mpg

In the US the EPA sets the standard test method, not the manufacturers. If the fudge the numbers, they will get caught and look at what happened to VW when they were caught fudging the emissions data. Nobody wants that! VW will be years recovering.

Why would cars sit around downtown all day? There are people who want to go places all around a city all day. I don't expect cars to replace mass transit. In DC the subway runs passengers into the city, turns around and carries fewer of them back out. Then the subway trains repeat the process. They don't idle in the city. No reason for self driving cars to do that either. The big difference is self driving cars have so much more flexibility for point to point transport.

YMMV ?

In the US, everything is better!

Since when did not being able to afford something stop Americans from buying it?

They can always trade it in and get a lower payment... for more years!

Some lease which means they got zero equity, and when EVs really take off that will get worse.

"But I can afford the payment!"

Cynical this morning, Mikek

(240V @ 300A). Yes. Aux heat for the heat pumps.

Here the estimated fuel economy is tested per EPA (government) stand-tards that assume you drive like a race care driver.

It's easy to get 20% better than advertised if you drive with the slightest care, 30% if you try a little harder.

Cheers, James Arthur

It's always been a source of amusement to me that, on the highway, my Q45 V-8 gets the same mileage as my 4-banger pick-em-up truck, 28MPG, and it's a helluva lot more comfortable. ...Jim Thompson

Wow. I've *never* owned a vehicle with such poor fuel economy. The current

I turned down a free Honda van earlier this month, mostly because it only gets 17mpg. Over time, the gas expense outweighs the "free."

James Arthur

Overstating conventional vehicles' consumption makes it easier for the EPA to regulate them into oblivion, plus they get to exaggerate the benefits of doing so.

It's a win-win.

Cheers, James Arthur