Car-spotting thread

My parents and several others I know have standby natural gas generators said:
super[/I] batteries that do not yet exist o_O


Back to cars, I'm not acquiring any more until I sell at least one. I have one project to finish up ASAP, then I have my eyes set on a new-to-me soft-roader build.
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My parents have a propane Generac that cycles once a week and has been dead reliable for the last 10 years. I have a regular gas standby that I can plug right into my service with a breaker. I'm with you on the diesel though, especially it it has a tank with enough capacity to run your whole house for a week.
 
w_b said:
you must be heating a big tank
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i like the refrig->a/c loop. in the summer, the fridge generates heat so the a/c can move it outside.
the fishtank is also warmer than the air, another source of heat.
the tv warms the living room up so much, that the thermostat never calls for heat, and the other rooms are cold. (i could move it but...)
 
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fidodie said:
i like the refrig->a/c loop. in the summer, the fridge generates heat so the a/c can move it outside.
the fishtank is also warmer than the air, another source of heat.
the tv warms the living room up so much, that the thermostat never calls for heat, and the other rooms are cold. (i could move it but...)
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Geez, what kind of TV do you have? A 1970's model with glowing vacuum tubes? My 120 watt all tube guitar amplifier doesn't throw off that kind of heat.
 
THATmanMANNY said:
@one piece crankThe leaf takes like $2.50 for full charge for let’s say 60miles use. I don’t know about the Model 3.
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shrpshtr325 said:
at 220v the model 3 takes a 40amp breaker and the model s x ect take a 60 amp breaker.
My home A/C system runs 220v with two circuits, a 15 and a 30, so 45 amps combined max power draw, so pretty much the same as a model 3 and a fair bit (25%) less than a model s,x ect. I was mistaken this will be a larger draw than everyone cranking the A/C in the summer, especially if they (like most households i know) have 2 cars
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So my Honda V6 costs me $3.40 to go to/from work, and I can get ~400 miles per tank. My VW Tdi cost me about $2.40 for the same drive, but I'll get 600+ miles per tank. Although I could probably commute in a Leaf, and charge free at work, I don't need to replace a vehicle, so the Leaf purchase price kills the economics. Going forward, if I need a new vehicle can I deal with the mileage limitations of "I forgot to charge last night" ???
 
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The best car is the car you own. When the time comes that a new car is needed I believe EVs will be more suitable for your needs. It really becomes second nature, pull in driveway/garage and plug in car. A few seconds.

There has never been a need for me that oh shit I have to leave work right now and drive 300+ miles for an emergency or fresh POW! my life just doesn’t work that way soooo that theoretical range I need that I will never use just doesn’t matter to me. OTOH i’m very happy driving 200-250miles straight and getting a 20min ish break. I’ve done the 500miles straight. Don’t drink much. Packing food. Pissing in bottle. That stress isn’t for me! Now that I have a couple kiddos that is not doable, period. Even 200 miles is pushing it.
 
Monkey Soup said:
Geez, what kind of TV do you have? A 1970's model with glowing vacuum tubes? My 120 watt all tube guitar amplifier doesn't throw off that kind of heat.
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power consumption quoted from sharp of 307w - the a/v processor/amp (manual says it max-out is 500w) probably adds a few hundred more, as does the dtv box.
probably a collective effect, and it is on an inside wall - if that makes a difference.
 
shrpshtr325 said:
this may be true for a small (relative to the total number of cars on the road) number of evs charging at home, but have you ever experienced rolling brownouts/blackouts in the summer? when do they happen? at night right? (early evening anyway), this is the grid being unable to keep up with the demand associated with cooling the existing houses and consumers, charging all those cars at night would certainly add a load (maybe not quite that large, im really not sure what kind of power the home chargers draw
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Some utilities do lower rates based on when you use power so there's an incentive to charge during non-peak. So yes when people come home there's higher usage of power and water up until a certain time. There's no reason the car charging wouldn't be setup automatically that it does lower wattage charging let's say 5-9pm and then higher wattage between 9pm-6am

We're still in it's infancy so some of these things will obviously be improved. I'm not of the belief we'll go high % electric in the next 10 years or so, there's too many obstacles to overcome. Battery technology hasn't changed much in years and there doesn't seem to be any breakthroughs around the corner. You can't charge cars much faster (safely) than they are now.

There's also a HUGE amount of people an EC car would never work for them. I live in a condo complex, I have nowhere to charge unless there's some crazy high demand to start installing charging stations in our place. They won't even install FIOS here because of the underground work.

Edit: It seems this thread is so active everyone explained what I did. :)

I still lust after a used Nissan Leaf as a 3rd car. It hits my checkboxes of inexpensive, easy to maintain, kind of a shitbox.
 
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you definitely can 'meter' the demand to some extent with automation, all it would require is for you to put in your next planned trip departure time (needs to be charged by) and hook up to the internet, your electric provider can monitor overall usage and provide capacity information in real time which your charge controller uses to avoid overloading the grid(the current grid still isnt up to the task of charging that many vehicles IMO). Definitely a doable thing in the future(hell doable now if the code were written most likely), but its not all in place yet and as you mention it will take time to get there, i agree most like 20 years or so before we see a major uptick in that dept (i could be wrong, but current tech, especially in the battery department doesnt seem to be evolving fast enough to accelerate that, for now).

Tesla quotes 8.5-12hr for a full charge, that means if you have two commuters in the house and you get home between 5 and 6 at night (pretty standard i think) and you leave between 6 and 7 (again i think this is pretty average, at least seems to be for people i know) that is 12 hours, you cannot fully charge both cars without overlapping SOME of the charge time, and even if you only need a 50% charge each night (just a number) thats still 6 hours, your adding that much draw at each house for the entire period that you are home overnight. Will battery and charging tech improve so that you can charge up faster and hold more charge?? certainly, but we arent at a point yet where its possible.

eventually there will be a time where all cars are electric, parking meters will feature a charging cable and cars will be chipped and linked to your CC (similar to ezpass) so when you park you plug in, they charge your account for the energy you add to your battery, and for any parking fees associated with it (could even be as simple as an NFC chip to do this part, so there is no cheating on paying for your parking by only charging if needed). but again, thats a MASSIVE infrastructure change and will not happen quicly.
 
shrpshtr325 said:
you definitely can 'meter' the demand to some extent with automation, all it would require is for you to put in your next planned trip departure time (needs to be charged by) and hook up to the internet, your electric provider can monitor overall usage and provide capacity information in real time which your charge controller uses to avoid overloading the grid(the current grid still isnt up to the task of charging that many vehicles IMO). Definitely a doable thing in the future(hell doable now if the code were written most likely), but its not all in place yet and as you mention it will take time to get there, i agree most like 20 years or so before we see a major uptick in that dept (i could be wrong, but current tech, especially in the battery department doesnt seem to be evolving fast enough to accelerate that, for now).

Tesla quotes 8.5-12hr for a full charge, that means if you have two commuters in the house and you get home between 5 and 6 at night (pretty standard i think) and you leave between 6 and 7 (again i think this is pretty average, at least seems to be for people i know) that is 12 hours, you cannot fully charge both cars without overlapping SOME of the charge time, and even if you only need a 50% charge each night (just a number) thats still 6 hours, your adding that much draw at each house for the entire period that you are home overnight. Will battery and charging tech improve so that you can charge up faster and hold more charge?? certainly, but we arent at a point yet where its possible.

eventually there will be a time where all cars are electric, parking meters will feature a charging cable and cars will be chipped and linked to your CC (similar to ezpass) so when you park you plug in, they charge your account for the energy you add to your battery, and for any parking fees associated with it (could even be as simple as an NFC chip to do this part, so there is no cheating on paying for your parking by only charging if needed). but again, thats a MASSIVE infrastructure change and will not happen quicly.
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Yeah, I doubt we'll see the parking meter charging anytime soon. For one it's not parking meter, it would have to be much larger like a Supercharger station and the power feed is IMMENSE. I'm willing to bet that expanding the charging network is hampered by the power feed available from a utility. Many areas do not have 480VAC/3p even available, I run into this all the time.

And yes, the "need X% charge by the time I leave in the morning" is the most likely scenario. Some days it may draw more power earlier but that doesn't mean every household does that.

We could say that we're not going to see drastic changes in 20 years, but let's not forget 20 years ago the thought that we'd all be walking around with computers in our pockets that had access to the world's information everywhere we go would sound far fetched. 20 years ago we barely had an internet that people used. We listened to music stored on round plastic discs.
 
Charging at work is a deal changer - no longer worry about plugging in at home cause it's full when you leave work.

In all honesty, I'm simply waiting for Rush's "Red Barchetta" prophecy to self-fulfill. Long live the ICE !!!
 
thats true, we could always have a breakthrough in batteries tomorrow which changes the game, but until that happens the timeline towards all of this is a LONG one.
 
shrpshtr325 said:
thats true, we could always have a breakthrough in batteries tomorrow which changes the game, but until that happens the timeline towards all of this is a LONG one.
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I don't believe that battery operated cars are the long-term future (if humans are around that long), just the current fad. Quite honestly, some type of hybrid propulsion technology would be much more efficient and not have the space and infrastructure problems of going all electric. Locomotives have been doing it for the last 60 years or so. Just need to wait and see what the next big revolution in propulsion will be, but I'm betting it won't be batteries.
 
THATmanMANNY said:
The best car is the car you own. When the time comes that a new car is needed I believe EVs will be more suitable for your needs. It really becomes second nature, pull in driveway/garage and plug in car. A few seconds.

There has never been a need for me that oh shit I have to leave work right now and drive 300+ miles for an emergency or fresh POW! my life just doesn’t work that way soooo that theoretical range I need that I will never use just doesn’t matter to me. OTOH i’m very happy driving 200-250miles straight and getting a 20min ish break. I’ve done the 500miles straight. Don’t drink much. Packing food. Pissing in bottle. That stress isn’t for me! Now that I have a couple kiddos that is not doable, period. Even 200 miles is pushing it.
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What’s going to happen when your kids are going to school 400 miles away?

I checked Tesla’s site and my trip to Pittsburgh would require 1:05 of charging unless the batteries get better. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
 
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