Random EV thoughts.....

“Electric cars have many advantages over internal combustion engine cars in the mountains, as they do not suffer a penalty related to the thin air. We already saw how much it helps EVs in mountain races like Pikes Peak, where ICE vehicles are losing power towards the top.”

How much power does an ICE car lose and at what altitude? Not that it matters here…

@AndyBoBandy - "We haven't even scratched the surface in terms of the potential to harness wind power."

It looks like mainstream politicians, not just the greens, are finally seeing the light. The taoiseach said yesterday that

"Wind is Ireland’s oil"

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/wind-is-irelands-oil-says-martin-as-eu-moves-away-from-russian-energy-41689773.html

When we are performance testing power generating gas turbines after we've done maintenance work or upgrades to them, we always try and do it during the coldest part of the day (usually morning), as the air is denser and and therefore we can get more molecules into the compressor inlet meaning a better & more efficient combustion in the turbine section..

Then as the air is sucked through the compressor (which is about 2-3m long), it heats up rapidly from ambient temperature to about 600 degree's C in a few hundredths of a second before it's mixed with gas or fuel oil and then combusted!!! Mad stuff altogether!!

Well, he's not wrong, but politicians say a lot of things, still waiting on some action

I had an idea recently that minister's salaries should be determined by how much of the program for government actually gets done. As well as having good KPIs in their relevant departments.

I imagine there'd be a lot fewer speeches and far more things done if that were the case 😂

But, like I said, he isn't wrong. There's orders of magnitude more potential wind power available to Ireland than what we'll ever use. Plenty of scope there for exporting power

Interesting stuff, @crisco10. Would you mind doing the complete calculation of the one way journey adding up to 72kg and where did you get the 515kg for the plane journey?

Aircraft engineers have similar practices in warmer climates with their jet engines.

Here's the methodology, relevant bits around section 7.4:

To answer your question, the answer is yes. Freight is included in that calculation, and the CO2 portioned out per tonne of freight and per passenger/car.

"From the information provided by the operators, figures for passenger-km, tonnekm and CO2 emissions were calculated. CO2 emissions from ferry fuels were allocated between passengers and freight based on tonnages transported, taking into account freight, vehicles and passengers."

But, if our friend gets a solely passenger boat, the emission factor is no longer valid since the number used assumes efficiencies due to a mixed use boat.

@crisco10 That's an awesome calculation. Although I was hoping to feel less guilty about flying not more 😂

I'm quite shocked tbh by the difference, I thought it would be closer given the dirtier fuels often used by shipping, but I guess sheer quantity of fuel used by a jet for a relatively low number of passengers really makes the difference

Maybe I'll put my green cap on and look at the land bridge option again. I'll use the promise of Legoland to get the kids on board 😁

It'd be nice if the Dunkirk route was opened to passengers, that would put me a lot closer without all the driving. Although 24 hours on a ferry might be as stressful

You wouldnt actually be offsetting anything unless you are part of a validated carbon trading scheme would you? (not 100% certain myself). But I would hasten to add that simply having a PV installation means you have made a significant capital investment at your own cost in order to measurably reduce your CO2 emisssions which is to be commended.

Thanks however to all above - I find this discussion really informative.

Has anyone here ever had to be “rescued” by the AA or someone similar due to the battery being fully discharged ?

Do they just call a flatbed recovery truck and take you to the nearest charger (happened to someone I know) or have they any charging facility when they come out?

Firstly try avoid running out by filling back up long before you need to. I bring a public charging cable, a granny cable and a 15 metre waterproof extension lead everywhere I go. I tend to stop every 100km to try refill even though my range is 150km+. Main issue is broken chargers, blocked or busy chargers, very common at peak times. I tend to check on app to see if busy in way there and divert if in use. I tend not to queue.

The breakdown support you get varies depending on contract. Many newer cars come with free breakdown, e.g. Hyundai gets free AA basic.

Your car insurance may have breakdown included, but it may be limited to x km or to get you to nearest slow charger but not all the way home. Typically the tow vehicle to nearest charger, but if this is an AC charger you may have a couple if hours charging before you can make a DC charger for typically 7 times faster fill.

It's relatively hard to run out in an EV. Mine starts to warn at 13% and goes nuts around 4%, so typically you will at least make it to a household socket somewhere.

You should aim to never go below 20% on trips to allow for margin of error but I have gone down. To 1% when I knew I would make it home.

IMO car won't move == breakdown

Certainly if I ran out of charge I'd probably be telling people I broke down to save myself the embarrassment 😏

8 weeks !

I wonder what the longest has been here for a car left in a charger?

The aa have at least one van that can charge an EV, I assume at a pretty measly rate. I'm not sure if it charges and tows at the same time or if it just waits there while giving you what you need to get to the nearest charger

@innrain - yes you must be right. Let's say a 50kWh battery, 15% = 6.5kWh. To charge that in 20 minutes needs a 20kW charger, so this almost certainly is one of those compact mobile 22kW DC charging stations that can do both CCS and CHAdeMO