Extinction rebellion

[ger147]

Cost of installing a dedicated home charger
A home charging point, fully installed, costs from £279 with the government OLEV grant.

• Electric car drivers get a £500 grant for purchasing and installing a home charger with the OLEV grant.
• Once installed, you only pay for the electricity you use to charge.
• The typical electricity rate in the UK is about 14p per kWh, while on Economy 7 tariffs the typical overnight electricity rate in the UK is 8p per kWh.

https://pod-point.com/guides/driver/charging-electric-car-at-home

That's the biggest single issue for me that will have the government trying to prise the keys for my diesel from my cold, dead hands i.e. I don't have a driveway so can't charge my car at home.

So a fully electric car is of no use to me whatsoever. I'm a 70 mile round trip to the office and back so some of the modern electric cars would only last 2 or 3 days then I'm gubbed.

Could well look at a hybrid next time around but they have some way to go to catch up with my trusty diesel.

 

[USER1999]

Having said that, if the sockets are burning out then it's almost definitely down to a poorly fitted or cheap socket as all the switching is done by the adaptor that's part of the cable. All sockets should be able to handle a steady 13a supply without any trouble, if they can't then they're either crap or faulty.

Well, I bow to your superior knowledge. I will just go with some requests from electrical whole salers who have asked if my company can design a 13A socket that won't burn out when charging EVs.

Oh, and the fact that I regularly replace sockets at work that I pull 13A 24/7 through. I have 4 load banks running permanently, and no socket I have ever used, from any manufacturer lasts more than 6 months. All correctly tightened with a torque driver.

At 14A continuous load, I am frying 20A cooker switches too.

 

[IanM]

There are six middle aged blokes sat in the conference room with me today.... were just discussing electric cars. Several pros and cons floated about, no one currently has an electric or hybrid vehicle ....

One guy worked for Vodafone and had one of the first mobile phones.... a daft heavy thing with a shoulder strap, about 30 mins battery life and hardly any coverage! "Those will never catch on!" he was told....

I'm sure the same will be true with alternative fuel vehicles, technology marches on...................

 

[Lazkir]

Well, I bow to your superior knowledge. I will just go with some requests from electrical whole salers who have asked if my company can design a 13A socket that won't burn out when charging EVs.

Oh, and the fact that I regularly replace sockets at work that I pull 13A 24/7 through. I have 4 load banks running permanently, and no socket I have ever used, from any manufacturer lasts more than 6 months. All correctly tightened with a torque driver.

At 14A continuous load, I am frying 20A cooker switches too.

As an electrical engineer, I can honestly say I've never had the experience you have. But since you've already acknowledged my superior knowledge we'll leave it there. Very decent of you old bean.

 

[USER1999]

As an electrical engineer, I can honestly say I've never had the experience you have. But since you've already acknowledged my superior knowledge we'll leave it there. Very decent of you old bean.

Absolutely. I am merely a monkey with 19 years experience designing sockets for the electrical wholesaler market. Wtf would I know about sockets.

 

[Fade and Die]

Well, I bow to your superior knowledge. I will just go with some requests from electrical whole salers who have asked if my company can design a 13A socket that won't burn out when charging EVs.

Oh, and the fact that I regularly replace sockets at work that I pull 13A 24/7 through. I have 4 load banks running permanently, and no socket I have ever used, from any manufacturer lasts more than 6 months. All correctly tightened with a torque driver.

At 14A continuous load, I am frying 20A cooker switches too.

You seriously need to get an EICR done on your premises. It seems as if the installation is being overloaded.

 

[ColchesterFC]

The main problems I hear a lot are
Too expensive
Not enough range
Not enough chargers
Batteries only last 2-3 years

Electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers are well aware of these and are working hard to solve these problems.
It just needs a bit of patience

So you're saying it's not worth getting one at the minute as the manufacturers are selling products with known problems?

 

[USER1999]

You seriously need to get an EICR done on your premises. It seems as if the installation is being overloaded.

No, I work on a 32A bench. This is work that my company does every day. If we are selling stuff, it gets tested for a long time, at maximum, and sometimes beyond maximum loading. When trading standards come knocking, nothing beats test data. We have years worth of data.

 

[Fade and Die]

No, I work on a 32A bench. This is work that my company does every day. If we are selling stuff, it gets tested for a long time, at maximum, and sometimes beyond maximum loading. When trading standards come knocking, nothing beats test data. We have years worth of data.

Just fit these and you will be ok....

http://www.art-deco-emporium.co.uk/sc-mk-2gs0-f01-ivy

 

[USER1999]

Just fit these and you will be ok....

http://www.art-deco-emporium.co.uk/sc-mk-2gs0-f01-ivy

Nice, love a bit of retro.

 

[bobmac]

So you're saying it's not worth getting one at the minute as the manufacturers are selling products with known problems?

They are only problems for those who need more range or can't charge at home or won't buy second hand or need to tow a caravan etc.
It's a bit like saying if you have 5 kids, don't buy a one bedroom house. Buy what you need.

In the near future, all of these problems I believe will be fixed.
eg.
With improvements in batteries, range will improve,
Cost of cars, new and second hand will continue to become more affordable
Charging will get quicker
More charging points
Charging points at work will increase.

Running costs/maintenance are a fraction of petrol or diesel cars.

As a result, the air you and your children breathe will improve.

The downside is it will take time.
Yesterday, I went to the BMW showroom in Lincoln to book my car in for a drivers airbag recall and out of all the new and nearly new cars on display, there was only one electric car, a second hand i3.
More patience required.

 

[chrisd]

They are only problems for those who need more range or can't charge at home or won't buy second hand or need to tow a caravan etc.
It's a bit like saying if you have 5 kids, don't buy a one bedroom house. Buy what you need.

In the near future, all of these problems I believe will be fixed.
eg.
With improvements in batteries, range will improve,
Cost of cars, new and second hand will continue to become more affordable
Charging will get quicker
More charging points
Charging points at work will increase.

Running costs/maintenance are a fraction of petrol or diesel cars.

As a result, the air you and your children breathe will improve.

The downside is it will take time.
Yesterday, I went to the BMW showroom in Lincoln to book my car in for a drivers airbag recall and out of all the new and nearly new cars on display, there was only one electric car, a second hand i3.
More patience required.

We have a 2nd hand Nissan Leaf. It cost no more than any other 2nd hand car of its age. We had a free charger installed at home and we charge it most nights for little money. My wife drives it almost everyday and its capable of about a 90 mile round trip - any more then we use my petrol car. There has been no noticeable drop off of the battery in the last 2 years even though the car is getting to about 4 years old. Range anxiety is obviously an issue but we've never run out of battery and never charged it away from home.

 

[bobmac]

We have a 2nd hand Nissan Leaf. It cost no more than any other 2nd hand car of its age. We had a free charger installed at home and we charge it most nights for little money. My wife drives it almost everyday and its capable of about a 90 mile round trip - any more then we use my petrol car. There has been no noticeable drop off of the battery in the last 2 years even though the car is getting to about 4 years old. Range anxiety is obviously an issue but we've never run out of battery and never charged it away from home.

Happy days.
Now sell your petrol car and get a Tesla

 

[chrisd]

Happy days.
Now sell your petrol car and get a Tesla

If I had the money!

 

[IanM]

....or I did really short journeys

 

[spongebob59]

So far the policing costs for the demonstrations by the great unwashed is coming in at 37 million and you've got the clean up costs to factor in too.

a b out time the organisers were billed for these.

 

[SocketRocket]

How would people in a big apartment block manage charging. Lets say 35 apartments with 70 cars.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

How would people in a big apartment block manage charging. Lets say 35 apartments with 70 cars.

Would there be parking space for 70 cars? That would unlikely based on apartment blocks I see in my town. If we assume each apartment gets 1 space, marked and numbered, then you would need a charger for each one.

You would also have x number of visitor spaces each needing a charger.

If anyone had an extra car then they would park off site as they would now.

Basically, we need a lot of chargers to be installed. The gamble on electric had better be right as an awful lot of money is going to have to be spent setting this all up.

 

[clubchamp98]

How would people in a big apartment block manage charging. Lets say 35 apartments with 70 cars.

This goes back to the very early posts .
They would need to rip up almost every pavement in the country for houses that don’t have a driveway.

 

[bobmac]

How would people in a big apartment block manage charging. Lets say 35 apartments with 70 cars.

They would use the charging points at work or at the supermarket or in the car parks or at the golf club or at the gym etc.
A few stats for you...........
30 mins of charging will last most people for a week and that time continues to drop.
There are currently 8422 petrol stations in the UK
There are 9895 places where chargers are available and rising every month.
There are over 27,300 charging points in the UK and increasing by 500 every month.
Agreed, it wont happen overnight but it will happen.
Battery range will continue to rise, charging time will continue to fall and the cost of buying the cars will soon be the same as petrol/diesel cars.
And as anyone who has driven an electric golf buggy knows, they are fun to drive.

Basically, we need a lot of chargers to be installed. The gamble on electric had better be right as an awful lot of money is going to have to be spent setting this all up.

I dont think it will take that much, electricity is a readily available and you only need to add the charging points to car parks and petrol stations.
I wonder if any golf clubs have chargers installed in their car parks yet.