Also, most car charging is in the evening and night, when demand is low.
Posted on 09/08/2017 6:32:23 PM PDT by rey
How much electricity is required to charge an electric car versus running an air conditioner. My county pushes electric cars big time but always blames AC for excessive power usage during a heat wave. While I am certain there are more AC units than electric cars, wouldn't unplugging a charging car make a significant contribution toward reduced energy usage during a crisis? What about electric heaters? Do they use as much as an AC?
Different topic. What happens if a self-driving “autonomous” car they’re talking about T-bones you on a city street? Who is the responsible party against whom your insurance company can make a claim?
Not when you consider the duration. Many cars charge in 30-90 minutes. How long is the A/C on?
Also, most car charging is in the evening and night, when demand is low.
I’ve been learning about electric draw of various appliances, A/C and charging a lithium ion battery bank due to wanting to update an older RV to make it as autonomous as possible, for as long as possible.
What I’ve learned is, A/C is the big draw, roughly comparable to charging a depleted battery bank. Heat is typically half that. Microwave ovens are a big one, as are electric hairdryers for some odd reason.
The biggest load on electrical utilities during the day in summer is air conditioning, but not at night. The two do not compete in general since most electric cars will be charged at home overnight, being used for shorter daily commutes as they typically are.
Those Tesla charging stations are something of a luxury and something of an outlier, very few people regard their electric vehicles as being transportation for long distances such as vacation travel, and with good reason at present. That’s really just Tesla. Other, less costly electric vehicles are urban commuters almost solely, charged at night, at home.
cars are recharged overnight when there is excess capacity in power plants
a/c is used at the peak demand time of day
Never heard of such a thing. Transformers, maybe.
Cooling air is all about compressors and radiator heat exchangers.
Obviously, if your house electric power service is limited to needing 24 hours or longer to recharge your new electric car, you did not plan wisely...
Peltiers.
I never got around to doing the numbers on if peltiers could be used on an ICE exhaust to generate enough power to run a separate set of peltiers as thermoelectric coolers for the car.
Probably too impractical, although, the gub'mint uses propane-heated peltiers to generate power in unattended sensor pods in remote areas.
Engineer’s Guide to Electric Cars
Operating Power
2 hp = air conditioner
200 hp = car
A car requires 100 times more power.
Charge Time
110v Forget it at std house voltage
220v 8hrs Ugh, slow. Home may require special wiring.
440v 4hrs, not available
880v 2hrs, not available
Also, the quicker to charge your car, the easier to die by accidental electrcution.
As you can see, the ugly truth is that standard homes and electrical power are INADEQUATE for Electric Cars.
Electricity is an awful raw power source for motion and heat. Its great advantage is in flexibility, such as, watch TV, blend drinks & toast bread. Democrats sell snake oil.
Depends on the electric car. I assume that most do not use power while "idling..." i.e. not moving.
lol first thing goes during a hurricane style storm is electricity. If your EV is not fully charged, you stay home!
Excellent post! You rock with real world basic engineering knowledge. The power required to charge an EV is based on Horse Power, as you correctly point out. It is NOT voltage or amps by themselves.
If you had a fleet of electric cars you could probably make a profit selling power back to the utilities during heat waves.
Ampere level is not sufficient to compare power needs. The correct unit for comparison between a A/C and electric vehicle is HORSE POWER (HP).
What that means is if A/C is using 15 amps and EV charger is using 30 amps, if the HP required for the EV is 50 times greater than house A/C, one hour of house A/C = 25 hours of charging EV batteries.
Air conditioners are most used during the day and early evening, when electricity use is maxed out (most expensive).
It's actually the reverse. 1 kW of energy will provide 1 kW of heat, and no more. But that same 1 kW can remove and relocate 10kW (or more) of heat.
I asked that question about charging electric vehicles a few years back. I learned that because of the internal resistance of electric car battery, charging an electric car takes about as much energy as running a 1400 watt heater. Corrections, insights welcome.
But I cannot say if energy saved by unplugging a fewer number of electric cars is significant, not that doing so wouldn’t be appreciated during crisis.
I know that there will be many responses here stating “..most people charge their electric cars at night when the demand is low..” I don’t know about everyone else, but my electric company charges the same per KW/hr whether it’s noon or midnight.
And, my heat pump air/heating draws more electricity when heating than when cooling. That’s why I still use gas as the primary heating source in the winter.
Also, most car charging is in the evening and night, when demand is low.
On a hot day in California we are told to raise the a/c temp or turn it off as there is not enough electricity.
Now start plugging in electric cars.... the result will be more Gov. Jerry Brown...outs.
Well it’s good for a 100 miles or so and i don’t know if your generator could charge it. but I thin you need your generator to run other things.. Like refer lights maybe tv radio..
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