Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Inconvenient Truth About Electric Vehicles
American Thinker ^ | February 8, 2022 | Jerry Korth

Posted on 02/08/2022 4:14:39 AM PST by Tell It Right

What if the demand for electricity significantly exceeds the supply over the next decade? We’d have soaring prices and rolling brownouts. That crisis could easily be triggered by the electric vehicles (EVs) Biden’s administration is pushing.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: energy; ev; green; power; unicornfarts
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-67 next last
My take as a libertarian: if you own your home and are in a place that's good for solar power, install it and get an EV for commuter type travel. Particularly if you're married and need two cars anyway: one can be an EV and the other a gas car to have the best of both worlds. Few things have made me less dependent on gubment control like creating half the power we consume. I'm thinking hard about extending that to my mobility too.

My home solar system produces half of the power I consume and will pay for itself in about 10 years. I don't have an EV but I'm paying attention to the market for whenever the day comes I have to replace my old used pickup. I've done the detailed math on a particular EV (F-150 Lightning) just like I did before getting a solar system a year ago (and virtually all of my assumptions and calculations were spot on -- deserving of patting myself on the back thank you much). If I get an EV I'll upgrade my solar system and produce about 90% of the power we consume, including the extra power needed to charge the EV. All total it'll pay for itself in about 12 years (from the day I installed the solar system a year ago) while giving me 90% protection from the Dims jacking up energy costs (be them power costs, gas costs, or natural gas costs, since I now no longer have natural gas appliances). And that will be pulling less power from the grid than I was pulling before I had a solar system and heating my house and water with natural gas and, of course, using gasoline for both cars.

The key is to make yourself as independent as possible energy-wise before the Dims screw up everything energy related -- all in the name of trying to force us to repent from our cow farting sins.

1 posted on 02/08/2022 4:14:39 AM PST by Tell It Right
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Tell It Right

How do they expect urban apartment types to have enough chargers? And why would “they” believe charging stations in Baltimore or Chicago won’t be immediately vandalized?


2 posted on 02/08/2022 4:24:51 AM PST by 3RIVRS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tell It Right

Okay, this is ridiculous. It’s almost as if they’re saying unicorns don’t exist. Sheesh!


3 posted on 02/08/2022 4:25:30 AM PST by Gen.Blather (Wait! I said that out loud. Sorry.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 3RIVRS

I’m 100% with you on EV’s not being good for urban settings. Of course, for that, the control-freak Dims will say use public transportation.


4 posted on 02/08/2022 4:30:52 AM PST by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Tell It Right

“The approximate range of residential electricity rates in the U.S. is 8.37¢/kWh to 37.34¢/kWh.”
“Residential electricity rates in Virginia average 11.08¢/kWh, which ranks the state 30th in the nation.”
“Residential electricity consumption in Virginia averages 1,117 kWh/month, which ranks 10th in the U.S.”
“This average monthly residential electricity consumption in VA is 23.7% greater than the national average monthly consumption of 903 kWh/month.” https://www.electricitylocal.com/states/virginia/
(Enter your state at the link)

1300KWh X 15.39¢/kWh = $200/Month

How many sunny days in your state? How much did your system cost up front?


5 posted on 02/08/2022 4:34:02 AM PST by outofsalt (If history teaches us anything, it's that history rarely teaches anything.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tell It Right

BS.


6 posted on 02/08/2022 4:34:57 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tell It Right

You are echoing Elon Musk.

He is creating a vertically integrated system that is exactly what you propose.

Musk is disliked by many here but he is the modern Thomas Edison, John D Rockefeller and Andrew Carnagie rolled into one. He is operating on a global scale. The scope of his manufacturing operations is breathtaking


7 posted on 02/08/2022 4:42:19 AM PST by bert ( (KE. NP. N.C. +12) Promoting Afro Heritage diversity will destroy the democrats)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tell It Right

Just curious how you account for the degradation in the efficiency of the solar cells and how you account for replacing batteries? Last I’d seen\heard from the IT world, battery backups need replacement battery cells anywhere from 24 months to 60 months after inception. My excperience with these in real world usage is that about 40 months its time to get replacements.


8 posted on 02/08/2022 4:43:57 AM PST by NicoDon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tell It Right

There are too many preconditions in EV’s for them to be effectively functional.


9 posted on 02/08/2022 4:44:29 AM PST by Bayard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tell It Right

If you don’t mind my asking, how will your system pay for itself?

Savings in electricity costs? Payments from the power company?


10 posted on 02/08/2022 4:45:08 AM PST by Empire_of_Liberty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tell It Right

EVs belong on a golf course not the highway. They’re years from being anything close to useful let alone an infrastructure to make them viable for normal people.

Lithium mines and the batteries in these EVs are far worse for the environment than fossil fuels.

Solar has potential but it hasn’t been perfected yet. I see these massive solar panel fields.. no environmental impact their.. much like their wind farm friends.. bad for the environment.

I’ll take my 9.2mpg F250, 12mpg 75 Vette and the wife’s 25mpg SUV... My Harley gets 40mpg and the Triton Bass boat sucks it down as well as does the tractor, side x side, chain of saws, leaf blowers etc.

The country needs nuclear power plants and oil exploration. That’s cheap power.


11 posted on 02/08/2022 4:49:00 AM PST by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: maddog55

Tell it Right is clearly a paid lobbyist.


12 posted on 02/08/2022 4:51:26 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: 3RIVRS
And why would “they” believe charging stations in Baltimore or Chicago won’t be immediately vandalized?

Vandalism? Have you thought about the safety of the people charging their cars? I see folks sitting in their cars waiting for them to charge enough to extend their trip (here in Fort Myers). I can't imagine what sitting ducks they would be to the predators that inhabit urban settings.

13 posted on 02/08/2022 4:59:17 AM PST by Go Gordon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Tell It Right

The key is to make yourself as independent as possible energy-wise before the Dims screw up everything energy related


Don’t worry, they will come up with a solar tax and make sure you pay your fair share. The power companies are already ending paying you for what you put back into the grid. Once you get to the 10-20 year payback, you will be taking those toxic Chinese solar panels and batteries to the landfill. Then you can start the payback all over again. There will be technology advances, and it may be viable in 20 years from now, but don’t worry the government will screw it up.


14 posted on 02/08/2022 5:00:29 AM PST by cp124 (Living under medical tyranny. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: outofsalt
I used http://tsi.tyconsystems.com/html/nrel_lookup.htm when I did my research on peak solar hours per month before buying my solar system and it was spot on. The output that website gives me is:

Month: Peak Sun Hours
Jan: 3.67
Feb: 4.17
Mar: 5.03
Apr: 5.45
May: 5.57
Jun: 5.64
Jul: 5.5
Aug: 5.73
Sep: 5.37
Oct: 4.93
Nov: 4.18
Dec: 3.5

My last power bill for January was $184. Compared to the last January before solar it was $159 for the power bill plus $198 for natural gas. So I saved $173 of the $357 I paid last year (saved 48%), and that's in January when my solar throughput is a lot less than spring, summer, and fall.

Here in Alabama I paid 12.78 cents per kWh in January. That's not the rate my utility says -- because they add riders to it to offset things like material costs changes (i.e. when the price of natural gas goes up it costs them more to run their natural gas plants that produce power) and tax. If you look at your last power bill, research the flat monthly charge (in my case that's $14.50) plus any riders that are added as a flat rate (in my case another 75 cents to make it $15.25 per month) plus tax (in my case 4% to make it $15.86) to give you the amount of your bill you pay each month just to have the service available even if you didn't consume power (i.e. you turned off power at the main before going on a month long vacation). Subtract that amount from the overall bill amount (in my case that was $184.14) to get what I call the usage charge amount ($168.28). Divide from that the number of kilowatt hours you consumed (1317 kWh for me in January) and you have the true kWh rate ($0.127775 for me for January).

My inverter told me that from Dec 22 to Jan 24 (the dates my power bill is supposed to be for) I consumed 1948.3 kWh. Since my power bill says I bought 1317 from them, that means my solar system produced for me the other 631.3 kWh (the kWh I saved). Multiply that by the rate and I saved $80.66 in January.

For comparison, the last January I didn't have solar and I used natural gas for heating and water heater, my kWh I bought was 1,118. I'm going to assume that the difference between the 1948 I consumed this past January and the 1118 I consumed in the January of my pre-solar/still-using-natural-gas days is from my power needs increasing to offset no longer relying on natural gas. That's 830 kWh more power I had to consume. My solar system saved me 631 kWh --- not enough to entirely offset the extra power of not having natural gas. So overall I added 199 kWh to my power bill, which increased it by $25.43 (199 X $0.127775) to avoid a natural gas bill that last January was $197 (which would probably a lot more this January due to inflation if I still had natural gas).

15 posted on 02/08/2022 5:03:51 AM PST by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Tell It Right

Here’s the solution: Use gas generators to charge your electric cars!! [/s]


16 posted on 02/08/2022 5:08:13 AM PST by rbg81
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NicoDon; Empire_of_Liberty
My batteries have a warranty for 7,000 depths of discharge (synonymous with 7,000 days, or a hair over 19 years) as long as I don't discharge them more than 80% (I discharge them only 70% to get a little extra life out of them) with a gradual decline in efficiency to eventually hold only 50% of the charge at the end of the 19 years. Likewise with my solar panels and their 25-year warranty allowing for a gradual loss in efficiency to 70% at the end of their warranty. My inverter has no loss of efficiency throughout its warranty.

All of that is from improvements made over the past few years.

17 posted on 02/08/2022 5:09:38 AM PST by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Gen.Blather
It’s almost as if they’re saying unicorns don’t exist. Sheesh!

Unicorns do exist! One plays basketball for Gonzaga University, Chet Holmgren. Last Saturday's game against BYU, he scored 20 points, 17 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 blocks, as the Zags beat BYU by 30 in Provo. lol

The young man is 7'1" and weighs less than 200 pounds, and will be a top 3 pick in next year's NBA draft.

18 posted on 02/08/2022 5:10:40 AM PST by Night Hides Not (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Gonzales! Come and Take It!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Tell It Right

I’d thought of doing this very thing but the expense and lifespan of batteries have always killed the idea. What specific batteries are you using? I’d like to dig into this more.


19 posted on 02/08/2022 5:16:18 AM PST by NicoDon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Tell It Right

While solar isn’t perfect, it is a great step to being self sufficient. Good job.

And once the Greens push us all into self sufficiency they lose part of the power that they want to have over us.

Which is all we really want - leave us alone.


20 posted on 02/08/2022 5:16:59 AM PST by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-67 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson