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Rickb

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I just read where Californians had been asked in mid-June to set thermostats to 78 degrees or HIGHER, avoid using major appliances, turn off unnecessary lights (that makes sense), use fans instead of air-conditioning and unplug unused items.

Yep.... makes a lot of sense to go ALL electric vehicles. :der:
Blackout alerts are not exclusive to CA. The biggest problem throughout the country is the lack of common sense by, thoughtless, wasteful consumers.
 

Grumpy Cat

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To much misinformation regarding EVs out there. There has been blackout alerts prior to the dawn of EVs and those alerts will continue thru the end of mankind. Nothing to do with charging EVs at home during NON-PEAK HOURS. Now if all the EV owners on the road all stopped to charge at the same peak day hours……may contribute to a blackout scenario. The bigger problem is I have kWh hog hour friends that set their AC to 68 degrees during peak hours.

It takes more kWh to drill , store, refine, ship and deliver the petrol to the gas pumps to burn in 30% efficient engines, than it does to charge EVs. Keep in mind I like and see the need for both I.C.E. and Electrics. Many EV owners charge their vehicles off the grid using solar, and can produce enough energy to sell/provide some kWh back to the grid. :)
What's the percentage of EV owners who charge their EVs through solar?
Blackout alerts are not exclusive to CA. The biggest problem throughout the country is the lack of common sense by, thoughtless, wasteful consumers.

 

Rickb

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What's the percentage of EV owners who charge their EVs through solar?


One needs to fact check the sources and the ready to rumble politics regarding “disaster“ Statements.

Residential solar systems currently in the US and will likey increase dramatically with public interest and transition to EVs.
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Grumpy Cat

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One needs to fact check the sources and the ready to rumble politics regarding “disaster“ Statements.

Residential solar systems currently in the US and will likey increase dramatically with public interest and transition to EVs.
View attachment 25983
US has a population of 335M. Even if everyone was in a family of 4, that is 83.75M. So let's round that up to 84M. So you are saying that 0.03% of the population is going to make a difference in the energy consumption with solar panels? Most people are not able to store excess energy, even if they are able to produce enough to power their homes.

The energy consumption to charge an EV is the same as running 4 AC units.
 

Rickb

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US has a population of 335M. Even if everyone was in a family of 4, that is 83.75M. So let's round that up to 84M. So you are saying that 0.03% of the population is going to make a difference in the energy consumption with solar panels? Most people are not able to store excess energy, even if they are able to produce enough to power their homes.

The energy consumption to charge an EV is the same as running 4 AC units.
To much research required, to many variables, to many opinions/points of view, and to much politics to debate the impact EVs have on the grid. I feel it’s a non-issue…….a grid-lock topic. All I know for certain is the average monthly kWh hour usage to charge my EV is 50 kWh x $0.15/kWh = $7.50 and costs much less per month than filling a gas tank with $4-5/gallon gas or cooling/heating my home.
 

NSTG8R

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Solar would not be an option for most of the midwest. I'm a bit southwest of St. Louis, MO and in the Fall and Winter [heck, Spring for that matter] we can go for weeks without seeing the sun due to overcast. Colorado and the states west of it, that's a feasible option.
 

Grumpy Cat

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To much research required, to many variables, to many opinions/points of view, and to much politics to debate the impact EVs have on the grid. I feel it’s a non-issue…….a grid-lock topic. All I know for certain is the average monthly kWh hour usage to charge my EV is 50 kWh x $0.15/kWh = $7.50 and costs much less per month than filling a gas tank with $4-5/gallon gas or cooling/heating my home.
There is much more involved than what I posted. The energy used to mine, manufacture, deliver, and maintain than to do for oil. The initial cost of EVs is greater than what most people can afford as well. I can tell you, the entire life of my car (TCO, total cost of ownership) is going to be less than the initial cost of an EV.

I'm not against EVs, but I'm a realist when it comes to the cost of them. The big thing coming (especially if you listen to Steven Harris), there are going to be energy shortages (as well as food shortages) coming very soon.
 

Hog

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I have been experimenting with solar, and I find there are many drawbacks. The biggest one, is most people have no idea the amount of power you need to run a device on solar. Electronics are easy, a 1kw set of panels can run most electronics (through a battery of course, not directly), but really fall short if you are trying to run a refrigerator or a pump or any motor. To do that you need to massively scale up the panels to at least 5kw, and battery banks to 1200ah or more. With 200 amp hour batteries running $400 each, this is a massive expenditure for energy storage. Then all the controllers, copper cables, combiner boxes and inverters you are left wondering what you are actually saving.
I thought 8 solar panels and two 200 amp hour batteries might run my 2 chest freezers overnight. Nope. More batteries needed, and to charge them, more panels needed, and to keep the amps to something under 200 amps, more batteries in series as 25 volt units. Running an entire house on solar is not really feasible or cost effective without drastic changes to lifestyle OR a house designed for solar from scratch. With only 4-5 hours peak sun, you need to fully charge your batteries in that time, and the more batteries you have, the longer it takes, therefore the need for even more panels.
"Solar Power" is really "battery powered", as solar is just the charger.
Most people fail to recognize that the freezer that draws 1.5 amps plugged in to 110v draws 15 amps at 12v. That eats up power real fast. So you try to cut it in half by going to 24v, then 48v like most off grid homes, but you are still behind the eight ball by drawing double the 110v amps. And at 48 volts, that equipment is like buying a car, but you will need that to run any 220v appliances.
 
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