“Then the 220-volt electricity travels along power lines to a transformer which converts the power to 110 volts before going to your meter and finally going from your meter to your home charging station.”
Bull $hit!
We all have 220 in our homes, NOT 110.
We use only 1 of the two 110 legs for normal 110 AC power.
I have a 285 foot well pump which operates on 220, and a 220 dryer.
I can’t stand electric cars, but wrong is wrong.
BTW in my small town of Bozeman, MT we have four Tesla ‘pumps’ and we see a fair amount of Tesla’s here.
Of course you are correct, and the writer is woefully ignorant.
Before the power on the distribution lines goes through the transformer a hundred feet, or so, from your house, it is measured in thousands of volts (8,000, or so). And the voltage on transmission lines is even higher.
But there are losses from generation point to end user, and E-cars are really coal powered cars.
Transmission voltage is also a lot higher than 440 Volts.
Yeah, the writer is a technical retard. The 440 that he speaks doesn’t exist and would never cover enough area. The generators at the nuke that I work at generator 18,000 volts and is stepped up to 230,000 for transmission over the service area. It is stepped down at various sub-stations but still not to such a low level as 440. For example, the power line in front of my house is 13.8 kV. The transformer on the pole in front of my house steps it down to 220 to my meter base and thence to my distribution panel where I can choose to install 2 pole breakers for 220 circuits or single pole breakers for 120 circuits.
Here in the snow belt, nobody buys an electric car. I have seen a grand total of two Chevy Volt, and zero Nissan Leaf, or Tesla anything.
No one in their right mind buys an electric car around here. The closest you’ll see is a hybrid, and even damned few of those.
The 220 in your home is 2 110 volt hots and a ground and/or neutral... neither line is a true 220.. if they where your house would have 440 volts.
It seems that that you, and others, are right on this. Thanks for the corrections. I still think it was a good article.
I like American Thinker articles because, for one thing, the authors seem to think a little. We get new and different ideas. The occasional down-side is a lack of review and editing.
So, you admit that the power coming from the utility pole and going into your home is 2 legs of 110. Which is exactly what AU72 was saying.
You only get 220 because the 2 legs are each 110 and used in conjunction for devices requiring 220.
Let's put it this way. If you have 2 12-volt batteries and you connect them in series to power a device needing 24 volts, does that (somehow magically) make each battery 24 volts ?
Very true. As a percentage of disposable income, we today are paying the lowest food costs in the world, and the lowest in American history. The farmgate price of the commodities in the American grocery basked is less than 14 cents on the dollar.
Americans are buying many things other than food with our grocery dollars. First and foremost, we are buying access, with a mind-boggling marketing system that gives us 24/7 access to an historically unprecedented global cornucopia. We are buying fresh fruits and vegetables out of season, variety, freshness, taste, and food safety. We are buying convenience, with an ever-increasing array of ready to eat prepared foods. Over 40 percent of our food is purchased at restaurants, which is the ultimate in convenience. An upscale fraction of consumers also purchases foods as a status symbol -- the Whole Foods/Starbucks crowd, for whom overcharging is part of the attraction -- and others pay a premium for "natural" and "organic" and "locally grown" foods as a matter of religious ritual and political correctness.
Any American complaining about rising food costs has ample opportunity to save a LOT of money by shopping more intelligently and doing more of his own food preparation.
In my huge hometown of Houston Texas I only have seen charging stations for electric cars in the parking lots of Whole Foods grocery stores. I am sure there are more but I don’t know where. I’m not looking either.
““Then the 220-volt electricity travels along power lines to a transformer which converts the power to 110 volts before going to your meter and finally going from your meter to your home charging station.”
Bull $hit!”
Yes it is. Local power distribution is most commonly done at 12,000 volts and transformed to 220 3-Wire to the home. But the massive transmission lines from hydroelectric installations ( can you say Hoover Dam) are done at more than 70,000 volts. If you tried to distribute at 220 volts, in a couple of miles nothing would come out the downstream end of the wire! If you did that all you would be doing is heating up copper wire.
“We all have 220 in our homes, NOT 110.”
I agree, there are some mistakes here and that makes our side look weak and uninformed. EVERY HOUSE that contains a family capable of affording an electric car has 220 Volts running to it, and that is usually the charging voltage.
The claim that stuck out with me was that 2/3’s of the powerplant electricity produced is lost in transmission. I find that hard to believe. Maybe 10 to 15% or so, but not 2/3’s.
But even so, I still think that a LOT MORE work needs to be done before I’m convinced that there’s any ‘benefit’ to having electric cars on the road or even that they’re any cheaper to run.
For example, one concept that gets talked about, but has NEVER made it on to our highways is replaceable battery packs. Instead of sitting there at a Tesla charging station for hours, how about just swapping out battery packs? There is ONE BIG PROBLEM with that capability - if you do it, then you have to charge for depreciation of the battery pack (otherwise smart owners would just wait until their battery packs are nearly run-out and essentially get a free replacement). Once you charge for that, in addition to the electricity, guess what - more expensive than gasoline - which is why you don’t see it. Now that depreciation is simply hidden in the vehicle, as it ages.
And I also agree with the author that oil companies have NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT...what can be the threat from cars that are about to hold the equivalent of 2 to 5 gallons of gasoline and take hours to refill (the low number is for hot and cold days when climate control eats badly into battery life)? Then there’s the very limited Lithium supply, not to mention that two thirds of Teslas need drive train replacement prior to 60,000. You may not have to change the oil 5 times, but having to change the equivalent of the engine and transmission on a regular basis is not, what I would consider, an improvement.
well.....
Actually, they try to keep our power at 120v, more or less. You have “split phase” which doubles it (each leg is 180 degrees out of phase) so you get 240v for residential purposes
Most residences are fed from a “Wye” secondary transformer and are fed single (but split) phase - phase to ground.
If you get 3-phase service, (uncommon for residences, but helpful if you have an electric car to charge) then you’ll get 120/240v split phase from one leg, and 208v line-to-line on each phase (but offset 120 deg in phase)
So your well pump is probably 240, as is your dryer if electric, and if your stove is electric, that is too, along with your electric water heater, if you have one, and your heat pump, if that’s what you have in your house.
I noticed that too. Ignorant author talking about that which it does not know. Also, stepping voltage down will cause an increase of current available on the secondary, though there certainly are losses.
The author is incorrect on a number of issues but the general point, of losses in generation, transmission, and use is correct. The bottom line is there is never something for nothing. Remember, no heat engine can be 100% efficient. If you want to drive electric, do so. Just on your dime. Electrics will be viable for local driving if they can give you 150 mile range while heat or AC are on full blast and your lights are on. Get recharging down to 30 minutes or less and make them quick, fun to drive, and sexy looking and you will do well. Until then, not so much.