UK Wasting electricity with electric cars?

[Bob Geldoff1234]

So over the past few years we have seen the demise of 8 foot fluorescent tubes,50 watt halogen bulbs,500 watt floodlights and making tv standby power even more tiny.
This seems to pale into insignificance when electric cars are needing at least 7kw for 8 hours.
Now I don't know about you but when I'm in the shower for 10 minutes I'm thinking this is costing me a bit at 8.5 kw.So to leave 7kw on for 8 hours is madness.It makes a joke of all the energy savings over the past few years.What do you guys think?

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[Dustydazzler]

Isn’t the entire drive toward electric motors about air pollution and absolutely nothing about energy consumption

 

[pirate]

I have to say that recently I was of the view that if we all went to electric vehicles we wouldn't have enough electricity, and also, in some locations, the supply just isn't hefty enough as it stands. Then I watched this from John ward, which, although a bit lengthy, is quire revealing in many ways.

 

[OnlQQker]

I've thought about this as well quite a bit.

Electric cars are better for the environment but i'm just not that sure the nuclear reactors and fossil fuels producing it are that eco friendly.

I drive past Hinkley Point a few times a year and often contemplate this vast nuclear power plant whilst enjoying a leg of salmon in the local pub.

 

[pirate]

As JW will show you, the remaining nuclear facilities will be out of use in a few years, and the use of wind power is steadily increasing, being augmented by gas "on demand".
The leg of salmon is brilliant!

 

[Moley]

Yo Pirate, we need those nukes!!
Going a bit off topic here. Wind power is increasing BUT, like solar, it's also not steady. A drop in wind here, clouds there and output drops. Look what happened last year (was it last year?) when Little Barford CCGT came offline just as a big wind farm (can't remember which) tripped out. There was a major blackout. To try and compensate for these sudden drops in production there are at least two sites that I have worked at that are converting old closed CCGT sites into 'flywheels'. Basically the turbines are being replaced by huge flywheels. When everything is running these sites consume electricity, the generators acting as motors spinning these flywheels. If there's a sudden drop in wind or solar then they change arround, the flywheel turning the generator and put power onto the grid. We never needed that with coal.
As for salmon, I do enjoy a nice bit of smoked salmon or a nice chunk of salmon wrapped in foil with some butter, chucked in the oven then served with a fresh salad while looking out at Hinkley Point power station from my chalet at Dunster Beach near Minehead

Oh, and JW has got a really boring voice!

 

[Wilko]

On the JW vid, my takeaway (perhaps wrongly) was that in broad we have capacity for half folks to have EV at the generation level, but that says nothing about DNO level impacts. I understand DNO have estimated estates at a kW or two per household and in the Chancellor’s scenario sometime soon an increasing proportion will be pulling 7kW throughout the night. Hmmm.

 

[Rockingit]

What? You mean decades of under-funding in our basic infrastructure networks in favour of profits to shareholders are finally going to catch up and bite us on the arse?? I never would have seen that one coming........

 

[pc1966]

So to leave 7kw on for 8 hours is madness.It makes a joke of all the energy savings over the past few years.What do you guys think?

You have to compare that to the amount of petrol/diesel you would have used instead.

But as above, the issue of having the infrastructure to deliver on the EV promise is a tat lacking...

 

[Dustydazzler]

Having never owned an electric car , but how long would it hold a full charge for ...?

 

[Rockingit]

Also, it's 'fine' for suburbian estates and rural areas where houses have drives and places where you can actually install outdoor points (of whatever flavour) - go into the cities where it's row upon row of terraced house / apartments that exit straight onto busy streets and you're stuffed.

 

[telectrix]

Also, it's 'fine' for suburbian estates and rural areas where houses have drives and places where you can actually install outdoor points (of whatever flavour) - go into the cities where it's row upon row of terraced house / apartments that exit straight onto busy streets and you're stuffed.

esp if you're on the 12th floor of a tower block.

 

[pirate]

That's where those new cordless extension leads will come in handy

 

[Zerax]

Also, it's 'fine' for suburbian estates and rural areas where houses have drives and places where you can actually install outdoor points (of whatever flavour) - go into the cities where it's row upon row of terraced house / apartments that exit straight onto busy streets and you're stuffed.

They've already solved that one... with on-street chargers... https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/oct/05/electric-car-ways-to-charge

 

[stevethesparks]

Wait until the electric boilers kick in as well.
Another answer might be to have a standardised replaceable slide in battery system

 

[Zerax]

Having never owned an electric car , but how long would it hold a full charge for ...?

If you don't use it.. I'd guess at years... are you thinking of buying one and not using it ???

 

[Zerax]

Another answer might be to have a standardised replaceable slide in battery system

That's not needed anymore... fast charging would be almost as quick... and there are LTO chemistry cells now... that can charge in like 10 mins !... In any case... this whole range myth has now been largely busted.

 

[pc1966]

That's not needed anymore... fast charging would be almost as quick... and there are LTO chemistry cells now... that can charge in like 10 mins !... In any case... this whole range myth has now been largely busted.

It is not the range, it is the lack of charging for folk like myself in blocks of flats without designated parking places, etc.

A quick-change battery would allow a 5 min stop at a "petrol station" to get replenished, and also no worries about battery life/cost as that would be factored in to the cost of a "refuel".

Putting changers in lampposts is not going to be a great solution. Not just the cost to change cables, etc, but the percentage that can use them UK wide. Typically you can get 4 cars parked between posts but only 2 at most connected, and many streets have only posts on alternating sides, etc. It would cost far more to upgrade 10/20M lampposts UK-wide than to have 10k petrol stations upgraded.

 

[snowhead]

Another answer might be to have a standardised replaceable slide in battery system

They've got a drive through battery swop in China

 

[Rockingit]

They've already solved that one... with on-street chargers... https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/oct/05/electric-car-ways-to-charge

Not sure about that! The technology might exist, but the infrastructure still doesn't. Take the lampost idea, for example, that's roughly one point per every dozen cars down most streets. So that's 11 people unlucky and a fight about to break out. If the battle to find a parking space close to your home wasn't bad enough already, it's now been made twice as hard again. Also - who pay's for this??

Don't get me wrong - I'm ALL for striving towards zero carbon and pollution, I just don't think this is the way to do it. The sceptic in me just says this is yet another dodgy back-hander by the Govt.

Hydrogen cells - now THERE's an idea!