Guest Post by Eric Peters
When the power goes out, the lights go out. Break out the flashlights and candles. But it rarely means you cannot go out.
Unless, of course, you have an electric car – and you assumed the power would be on, to charge it up. Then – per the Toothless Man in Deliverance – you ain’t a goin’ nowhere, city boy.
On the other hand, a power outage has zero effect on your car or truck’s ability to take you somewhere – like to work, for instance – if it is not an electric car (or truck). Even if its “range” is low because you only left a couple gallons in the tank, it’s not a problem – especially if you had the foresight to keep a few gallons of gas in a jug for just-in-case.
It is effectively impossible to keep on hand for just-in-case the energy equivalent of five gallons of gas in the form of electricity, to get a discharged electric vehicle going when there’s no power to get it going.
Which is why the Ford Mach e I am test driving this week isn’t going anywhere for awhile. It had very little range (charge) left last night when I parked it – and plugged it in – assuming the power would be on and that the car would have recovered sufficient charge (and so, range) to be viable for driving rather than waiting.
But an ice storm intervened.
The power is still out as I type this on Friday morning, using power supplied to my computer via my gas-powered generator. I could perhaps use the generator to power the EV, but that wouldn’t be very “green” of me. And – regardless – it would entail an unexpected wait.
I had assumed the Mach e would be ready to drive this morning. This can be a very inconvenient assumption, if the power goes out.
The Mach e isn’t going anywhere, for awhile.
And neither would I be able to – were it not for the fact that I own a truck that runs on gas. It is always ready to go, whether the power is on – or off. And even if I had parked it with very little “range” remaining, in the form of gas in its tank, I would be able to add range very easily – because I always keep an extra five gallons of gas around for just-in-case. Pour it in – the job takes a couple of minutes – and I am, literally good to go.
But if I didn’t have my truck – if I owned an electric vehicle like the Mach e – I would be out o’ luck.
At least until the power comes back on. Sometimes, that does not happen for several days in my area.
This bears thinking about – or should, especially in view of the paradoxical fact that electric vehicles make power outages more likely on account of the fact that electric vehicles draw a lot of power – for which demand there is already insufficient capacity. This problem may compound on account of the not-well-known fact that electric vehicles need to be kept plugged in even after they have fully charged up because otherwise they will lose charge, on account of the power drawn by the battery pack’s temperature control system.
You can leave your gas-engined vehicle parked outside in the freezing cold. The cold will have no meaningful effect on the chemical energy you have available in the tank. If the tank was full when you parked it last night, it will be full when you go to drive it this morning.
But the more relevant scenario is this one:
You leave it parked with just a couple of gallons in the tank – because you didn’t have the time last night on the way home to stop for a fill-up. Or you just forgot to. The point is, you didn’t have to.
Your gas engined vehicle will still have the same range that it had when you parked it because those couple of gallons in the tank do not evaporate overnight. But if you parked your electric vehicle outside, in the cold, with very little range remaining, there may be no range left the following morning because of the power consumed overnight by the car, trying to keep the battery from getting too cold.
I observed this happening with the Ford Lightning I test drove last week. It lost an indicated 20 miles of range, just sitting outside (unplugged-in) from Sunday afternoon to Tuesday morning.
Of course, you could avoid that by just plugging it in before you leave it for the night. But what if – as happened here last night – the power goes out? Perhaps – in our “electrified” future – because so many other electric vehicles were plugged in to the grid, all of them sucking power to keep their batteries from freezing? Now you freeze – if there’s a blackout and your home is heated electrically.
You’re also stuck in your freezing home – because your electric car is range-kaput because the power went out.
Lucky for me, I have my truck – and a five gallon jug of gas. The power can be out all day – and may well be. But I won’t be stuck, even though the Mach e is.
I think I’ll hang on to my truck.
Addendum: The power is still out as of late Friday afternoon and so the Mach e is still inert. But we just came back from a drive into town to get some things at Lowes and so on. If all we’d have to rely on for transportation was the electric car, we’d have been housebound all day.
Possibly tomorrow, too.
Welcome to the “electrified” future of transportation!
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Electric cars are gay.
I wouldn’t say gay, I know lots of stupid straights who own one or two. But who cares, I have 40 gallons of diesel, a brass made oil burning flashlight (made in the late 1800’s by a very crafty artisan) and a Vevor 8kw heater with 100 gallon of heating oil which runs on a 12v battery (in which I can burn used used oil from oil change) and to finish my wood burning cooking stove which unfortunately I can’t take with me if I have to run.
I saw a bunch of folks working in a massive underground mine, driving around in gasoline-powered vehicles, and my first thought was “this is exactly where electric vehicles would be great.” Seriously, where exhaust emissions are a concern, they would be perfect. In our company’s warehouse, electric forklifts were perfect (I hate the smell of burning propane). They have a purpose. They have a workable and even ideal place. The highway certainly isn’t it, nor in the cold, nor in the heat, nor being forced down everyone’s throats, nor being subsidized by stolen tax dollars. But they do have a place that could be perfect for them.
Also for fags.
Think of all the subsidies for corn ethanol. Whether electric, fossil, corn or perhaps dung fueled, government will prop up its cronies with your $$$.
1) Is this a ‘call in’ excuse for the future? “can’t make it in, my car didn’t charge”
2) If visiting family or friends, should you pay your host the cost of electricity to charge your car?
As a host, I wouldn’t allow them to plug in.
As a host with a parasite visiting unless it’s reciprocal but that’s doubtful .
All I can say is when ever I’m invited as a guest I never arrive empty handed and generally a fitting item for the host and expected crowd
+1M Abby, ‘you want me to call you a cab? YOU’RE a cab, GTFO!!!
Peace, L.
From a search on how to charge an electric vehicle at home comes this statement:
A cable, which is typically supplied when you buy an EV, but is also available from a number of specialist retailers, can be plugged in to a standard 240-volt, AC (alternating current) domestic wall socket, giving you the freedom to charge wherever you can find one (which is: almost everywhere).
This statement is false in the US because most homes do not have an extra 240 volt wall socket. My house is typical in that we have a 220 volt outlet for our cooktop, one for the ovens and one for the clothes dryer. None of them would be convenient to connect to and I doubt the supplied charging cable is long enough to reach from the receptacle to the driveway, even if you wanted to move the dryer so you could plug in a friend/relative’s EV.
“giving you the freedom to charge wherever you can find one (which is: almost everywhere)”
This statement seems to imply that electricity is basically a no-cost, public good that everyone shares equally, whenever or wherever it is needed. Just pull up and plug- in, no questions asked.
Just ask the folks in CA how that worked for them this past summer … or in Denmark (?) or whichever socialist paradise in Northern Europe that has already warned their people that recharging their EVs this coming year will be a very dicey proposition …
It’s not all that difficult to wire one directly from your electrical panel … but most folks (more than 50% in the UK) can’t even reliably change a light bulb …
My Dad was an electrician, so I grew up around wiring houses. He would send me under the house to pull the wire from the fuse box to the new appliance location. As I got older, he let me handle more of the job.
Now days the trend around here are slab built houses. Going into the box would require some wall tearing out unless putting a separate [a panel box outside, but then there would be permit/inspection approval. All in all there is a little bit of trouble and expenses I guess most people would never think about. Could be an opportunity for some enterprising youths to think out as it seems it is full speed ahead on this EV car business..
My breaker box is in the garage, so would only require cutting some sheetrock to drop in a charging circuit if the future owner wants to charge his electric car.
Personally, I think any EV owner should be required to get off the grid and provide solar/wind power for all of his electrical needs. Otherwise, he is only supporting the coal/nat gas/oil industry.
From what I have read do not believe would want to charge one in a garage, but I guess if people are fortunate to have a garage the electrical boxes would be there, minus the 220 receptacle.
Interesting to think about for no other reason than exercising the old brain.
Definitely should run the cord out of the garage and keep the potential fire bomb away from the house.
how do you run the wire feed welder in the garage/barn/shop?
The barn is a different matter than the house. I have wired it with a couple of 220v outlets.
Don’t you have a 220V extension cord laying around gathering dust? LOL
Here’s a great one from Amazon. 50 ft and 50 Amps, and only $189.00
Just keep it in your glove compartment for emergencies.
I do have a 15′ 220v extension cord for the table saw in the shop, but the plug and receptacle are quite a bit different than the one you posted. That one is a burned up device waiting to happen when you plug in your 110 air compressor to it.
Got called to a house once where the fella said sumthang were wrong. He thought maybe light bulbs were getting poorly made. He’d put a new one in, flip the switch and ‘tingk’ blown. There were two feed wires into the switch box 220 finishes 110 bulbs pretty quick. He said he added a receptacle earlier so checking that, it too had 220. Fortunately he hadn’t plugged anything into it yet anybody can do electrical. lol
Buying an EV is the most environmentally irresponsible thing you could do.
But … but … it provides lots and lots of jobs for children in africa who want to learn mining skills …
But it makes your “virtue” shine brighter than anyone else’s……
Going to be a lot of very tired hamsters in electric-world.
Gonna be like Fred Flintstone powered cars lol
Courtesy of Fred’s two feet.
https://soundeffects.fandom.com/wiki/Sound_Ideas,_CARTOON_-_FRED%27S_FLINSTONEMOBILE_AUTO_TAKE_OFF
Faster Gilligan, FASTER!!!
Lol
L.
Aren’t these charging stations full of non ferrous metals? How long till the get poached for the recyclable metals?
It seems like there’d be alot of copper and aluminum present. It also seems like you’d have to be pretty stupid to tear into a high voltage device like that, but never underestimate the IQ of certain members of the criminal class
Thieves just stripped out the wiring from the highway lights in Jackson, TN this past weekend.
“The grid is their friend, not ours.”
–Fleabaggs (RIP)
You don’t honestly think they want you to be able to leave….do you?
“I got some groceries. Some peanut butter. Should last a couple of days.”
” I work in the night time. Sleep in the day time. I may never get home.”
Talking Heads
The saying one cannot judge a book by its cover , true that. However around these here parts its difficult not to think the covers certainly resemble the pic under that quote. Kind of scary in hicksville.
Moral of the story, always carry backup along with primary. Oh, and a Arkansas toothpick is a good idea too.
Seems to me the way to “have gone” with the electric thing is to have concentrated on those type vehicles along the lines of the Toyota Prius. Being a gasoline/electric combo as far as I know requires no “plug in” as recharging takes place as it is driven. I don’t notice the Prius in hicksville but perhaps when I do travel to the closest big city I don’t look for them either.
The Prius has been around for a good while. It must be well designed and I know in demand. While I’m sure there are waiting lists for any number of vehicles, the Prius must be one of the longer waiting lists checking with dealers not that I’m buying one anyway at least not now.
Discussing gasoline storage, as winter sets in I fill a five gallon metal “good un” gas can with non ethanol regular unleaded gasoline. I saw it yesterday for $3.27 gal. Supposedly the non ethanol will keep longer without concerns about moisture I keep hearing others say about storage of ethanol gasoline. When spring rolls around I put the non eth fuel in the mowers. I do use the Sta-Bil product in all gasoline that is stored in containers during mowing season. Whether the product is what it is said to be I’ve no way of knowing other than I’ve had no issues with ethanol fuel in mowers, chain saws, trimmers etc. Run the small engines dry when the job is finished is good practice IMO to help prevent any moisture issues.
Elon’s handiwork.
Eric, you can buy a 12Kv portable LP/gasoline generator for <$3K. It runs an average house. Wiring would be +/- $5K.
Granted, we installed a 24Kv LP Generac and a 500 gal. LP UST. In 60 secs. it fires up automatically. Hd a 9 hr. outage last week.
Ours is a GE 20kw whole house fueled with propane. I’ve had no outages over about 4 hrs. If so I’ll shut ‘er down after 4 and fire it back up about 1/2 hour later, i.e. 4 hour intervals. While I’ve never inquired of GE as to recommendations for extended runtimes, generators like GE and Generac are not designed to run hours on end. Mine is just a big block B&S air cooled engine, 30ish HP. Generac may have a different opinion, don’t know. 8-9 hrs is probably not a big deal. These are air cooled though so my thought is let ‘er cool off about every 4 hrs should there be an extended outage.