Posted on 10/07/2022 9:03:11 AM PDT by Jacquerie
Two journalists with TFLEV decided to drive the Ford 150 Lightning EV truck from the lower 48 states to Alaska and learned some of the recharging challenges they would face.
Having made that drive from Pennsylvania to Fairbanks in 2013, I can tell you it certainly required some planning driving a gas-powered SUV, much less an electric truck.
They stopped at Carter Lake, outside of Loveland, Colorado, and rented a campsite. The site included a standard 120-volt outlet — Level 1 in EV parlance — as well as a larger 240-volt option used by recreational vehicles and fifth-wheel trailers to run air conditioners, refrigerators, etc.
What Tom and Andre found when they hooked into a standard 120 outlet, it would take them from Wednesday night until Monday morning — about 5 days — to get the truck fully charged, with their battery starting at 22 percent.
The pair then plugged into the 240 volt — Level 2. The result was much better, but it was still going to take about 14 hours to get to a full charge.
So finding a fast charging station or a Level 2 option is really the only realistic way to make a trip of any distance beyond the initial charge much less to Alaska.
Tom and Andre noted there is potentially an ethical dilemma to charging one’s EV truck at a campground.
“You have a big battery, a big vehicle and if every spot had an electric vehicle all drawing energy that the price of energy would go up,” Andre pointed out. The price of the camping space was only $35.
The gas-powered folks are in effect subsidizing the EV campers.
Depending on the charging station, “filling up” an EV Hummer, for example, can cost up to $100, Car and Driver reported in August.
(Excerpt) Read more at westernjournal.com ...
“I’ve never seen a campground with electric that doesn’t have 240v 30a service. Cheap recharge as the price is per day, not based on consumption.”
I have Camped in many Campgrounds throughout the USA and Canada. 50% of the CG’s have a 50 amp, 30 amp and 15/20 amp Receptacles.
The balance will mostly have 30 amp and 15/20 amp receptacles. A few may have just 15/20 amp.
By the way there no such thing as a 240 volt 30 amp receptacle in a CG.
Understand that the 15/20 amp receptacles are just like your home wall receptacles. The 30 amp 120 volt receptacles are a special 3 prong much difference that would be found in a home. The “dryer type” 4 prong is just like a Home Dryer receptacle and is used by large RV’s as 2 - 120 volt receptacles combined rating is 50 amps. The 4 prong will work just like a Dryer receptacle at 220 - 240 volts.
I am as anti-EV as most... but this ‘journalism’ strikes me as a couple coulumists getting an EV and asking, “What is the most incendiary headline we can think of?” “Getting stuck on vacation?” “Ok lets report that.”
Have you worked out how much you pay to charge your vehicle at home? Inquiring minds want to know.
#17 I just got gas and went into the store and bought lottery tickets. 5 minutes : )
Google Roy Sullivan, who was struck by lightning 7 times.
Journalists finds out they are dumber than a fifth grader. Ant degreed engineer could explain energy density, input power vs storage power, loss of conversion, heat, …
Electric cars are not capable with the technology we currently have. They can fill Mitch markers with specific infrastructure upgrades. They are toys for the rich or upper middle class. Cool tech, good ideas, ultimately there is no free lunch or giant or magic answer.
It’s a Ford 150 hybrid pickup with 120/240 electrical outlets and it was supposed to a final last means to charge the lightning after all other options had failed.🤔
In my last power bill I was charged 14.4¢/kWh. My EV gets 3 miles/kWh. It's really more like 3.4 miles/kWh, but that's the DC power coming from the EV's battery -- I'll assume a 10% loss converting AC from my 240V outlet to DC for the EV and storing the charged into the battery. So let's say I get 3 miles for every AC kWh.
That would be 20.8 miles for every $1 added to the power bill (again assuming I had no solar system).
thanks for the reply. Sounds like it works out pretty well for you, though I imagine a large upfront cost for the panels?
But, if you had an electric truck you could have gotten a room, seen the views and had dinner... ever condiser that? :)
Seriously, for those of us in Florida who had to evacuate last week - a vertical that takes hours or days to 'fill up' could have been a disaster. There are still EV's in south Florida on fire... they take hours/days to put out and emit toxic fumes the whole time they're burning. One more white liberal 'elite' greenie stupidity.
As the years go by it'll cost me less and less (lower HELOC payments), to save more and more (higher and higher energy costs that I'm avoiding).
I used last year's tax credit to pay down the HELOC. The HELOC payment + tiny power bill was a hair more than what I was paying in 2019 for my power bill + natural gas bill (which averaged $313/month).
So with the first year of solar (half the system I have now) and having made it so I have no natural gas bill, I'd pull from the HELOC each month the difference of $300 - HELOC payment - power bill. Thus, my budget "felt" like it was costing me $300 each month to power the house (it's like I had wiped out the energy inflation of the past few years). That monthly pull from my HELOC slightly raised the balance, but not as much as the HELOC payment lowered the balance. So I was paying down the HELOC debt even while powering my house like it still cost me what it did in 2019. Victory!
After a year of doing that, particularly going through a winter (less sunlight -- most of the power consumption at night), and studying the data each month, I decided to implement Phase II with the increased solar system and EV.
So now my monthly "base" is $850 (2019's power bill + natural gas bill + what I'd spend on gas for one car + the $400/month we'd save into a car savings account to buy the next car). That's enough to make the new HELOC payment (I expanded it to pay for the upgrade and EV-specific expenses like installing 240V outlets). It's not enough to make the car payment. I pull what I need beyond $850 from the HELOC. When I get a large tax refund next year I'll put that into the HELOC to pay down the balance, the same next year, and the next year (the EV tax credit can't be carried over to the next year, but the solar tax credit can).
Each year the tax credit refund pays about 7 months of the car payment, I pay it the other 5 months. The 3rd year's tax refund (the final year of the refund) will pay only 4 month's worth -- I'll pay the other 8 months. In the end the EV will make me pay pay about 30 months of car payments for the 4 years of payments. I'll pull that out of savings (which really means out of retirement investments).
When the car payments are done in year 2026 after 4 years, my savings is still in the plus by about $2,000. So yeah, I'll grumble on the months I'll pay car payments that I can't use the HELOC (tax refunds) for. But the fact that my "energy" costs (HELOC + tiny power bill) will be only $450/month saves me a net $2K over those 4 years more than the EV's car payment cost me. That assumes only a reasonable 3% inflation rate on the prices of natural gas and gasoline that I'm avoiding, and power that I'm mostly avoiding. Obviously if the Dims have their way and jack up energy costs even more, then the net savings is more.
From 2026 on the EV is paid for, I'll have 3 more years' warranty of "drive train" type coverage (it's called something else for EV's), and I don't anticipate a major cost for the EV until I replace the battery about the 10th year.
Well, thanks again.
We looked at solar a few years back. The sales guy told us there was a 10% State tax credit, in addition to the Fed credit. That they could use existing wiring underground from the outbuilding where we were going to locate the panels, andthat they could tie everything in to my propane generator.
Turns out the NM tax credit fund was empty, they couldn’t figure out how to use existing wiring (There are two separate 220V lines and one or two 20 amp 110V lines). After 5 months they still hadn’t responded to my query about the Generator, and the kicker was they told me that in the event of a power outage, the solar panels would shut down and I would not have electricity “To protect workers on the line.”
So we cancelled the contract we signec. Had to go through my credit card company, but we managed to get that done. Also had to listen to the owner of the solar company tell me I was “Stupid” for not taking the deal despite all the mis-representations.
So, while I like the idea of solar in general, the practical applications in my case have left a sour taste in my mouth. I have a friend and neighbor who lives off grid, and has been using solar successfully for many years, but he is a retired Navy guy and electrical engineer. He still has to hassle with batteries a lot.
I also know a retired tech sergeant from the Air Force in Nam who built a compound of wind and solar powered domes out here with a large grant from the Govt, back in the early and mid Seventies. He is a very smart guy, whose father won a Nobel Prize in Physics some years later, but he eventually gave up on the domes because it was just too much work. He had an entire dome full of old surplus submarine batteries.
This was all back in miy hippie days and I actually had a small solar panel at one point back then. It barely kept a car battery charged up enough to listen to the radio.
But I appreciate you taking the time to tell me about your setup. I realize the tech has advanced a lot since those days, and I’m glad to hear you have something that works for you.
Get a hybrid instead, that can be plugged into 220volts outlet. My ICE Honda has a range of 270 miles. Fill up takes 7 minutes.
I wouldn’t want solar 10 years ago, much less in the 1970’s.
A hybrid wouldn’t be good in my case. The EV to me is a way to extend the free power of my solar into my transportation to cut on my driving costs.
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