Hybrid cars - a curiosity question re pitches

Solobay
Solobay Forum Participant Posts: 156
100 Comments
edited October 2017 in Caravan & Motorhome Chat #1

Can hybrids and electric cars be charged fro EHU's ? If so should there be an extra charge for this?

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Comments

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited October 2017 #2

    I have seen two Hybrid cars on site and they were both being charged via the external socket on the c/vanwink

    problem arises as to how to charge for the serviceundecided

  • Randomcamper
    Randomcamper Club Member Posts: 1,062 ✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #3

    Yes & Yes......wink

  • ocsid
    ocsid Forum Participant Posts: 1,395
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    edited October 2017 #4

    As good people we are courtesy of our taxation subsidising the purchase of many, so why not also subsidise their running cost when we camp with their owners?

    We can then sit watching them charging, content we are doing something more positive undecided

     

    https://www.gov.uk/plug-in-car-van-grants

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #5

    Is the Volkswagen e-up built for Yorkshire folk?wink

  • hitchglitch
    hitchglitch Forum Participant Posts: 3,007
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    edited October 2017 #6

    Originally I thought that charging an EV would be negligible cost but apparently it costs about £40 to charge a Tesla. Now I know that a Tesla wouldn’t make a good tow car but as the market develops and larger electric SUVs become more prevalent, the Club will need to address this. It may come to the point that you can stay over night on a Club site and actually make a profit!

    Back to the discussion on metered electricity!

  • mickysf
    mickysf Forum Participant Posts: 6,474 ✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #7

    Just out of interest, how long would it take to charge a typical hybrid from zero to full on a 16amp EHU?

  • hitchglitch
    hitchglitch Forum Participant Posts: 3,007
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    edited October 2017 #8

    I think some EVs can take 14 hours on a domestic supply but you can charge to 80% quite quickly. Don’t think you would need a late check-out.

  • hitchglitch
    hitchglitch Forum Participant Posts: 3,007
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    edited October 2017 #9

    Update.

    A Nissan Leaf costs around £3.75 to recharge. A home charger is 3.7kW which is slightly more than Club supply. 1 hour per 15 miles of range.

    So even with a moderate sized EV the electricity cost would be significant for the Club.

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,864 ✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #10

    I was watching something on TV the other night and the mentioned some quick chargers require a 22Kw connection? That seems one hell of a lot of electricity or have I got it wrong? They went on the say that a normal domestic supply would recharge overnight.

    David

  • hitchglitch
    hitchglitch Forum Participant Posts: 3,007
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    edited October 2017 #11

    That’s correct David. They use three phase electricity and are specialised installations which is why they are used in public charging points. Obviously, a public facility needs to minimise use time to cover the volume of users whereas a home installation can be done overnight.

  • peedee
    peedee Club Member Posts: 9,387 ✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #12

    I am on a commercial site at the moment and it has at least one 7.5Kw dedicated charging point for electric vehicles for the use of visitors. Not sure how its use is charged for or what their policy is with regard to on pitch charging but I will find out later today.

    In another thread on the subject, the Club has stated their is no charge for charging an electric vehicle from a socket on your caravan or motorhome. I have been looking into towing an elecitric car behind my motorhome. So far because of the weight of them, 1400/1500Kgms, it does look as though it is not very practical.

    .peedee

     

  • Randomcamper
    Randomcamper Club Member Posts: 1,062 ✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #13

    I have been looking into towing an elecitric car behind my motorhome. So far because of the weight of them, 1400/1500Kgms, it does look as though it is not very practical.

    I am trying to convince O/H to let me get one of these.

    Kerb Weight 450kg - seats two.

    Almost suitable for my bike rack....wink

  • EasyT
    EasyT Forum Participant Posts: 16,194
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    edited October 2017 #14

    A chap down the road has one if it is a twizzy

  • ocsid
    ocsid Forum Participant Posts: 1,395
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    edited October 2017 #15

    I have just realised I have been "guilty", I have recharged my wife's e-bike from some French site EHUs.

    If requiring a full 120 mile recharge that will have taken a massive 0.6 Units [circa £0.10p] of power. Mitigating things a bit I doubt in the whole six weeks we took accumulatively more that one full recharge.

  • Rufs
    Rufs Club Member Posts: 4,072 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #16

    I did report the problem of EV's charging from EHU when i saw this happing at the site in Looe, to the CAMHC technical department as there could well be some health and safety issues as well as cost. They told me that at the Brighton site they were trialing a stand-alone charging unit. I would suggest there is a very real danger of trip switches being blown much more frequently if we have EV's charging from the EHU, and would suggest this practice be banned until a full assestment has been made of the dangers and costs. 

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #17

    There are no dangers or big costs. The Community Manager updated everyone on another thread on the same subject, much the same as any other electric usage to be aware of how much you might be using and avoid tripping the bollard. Electric car charging uses a minimal amount as most batteries would just need a short top up, costing pence rather than pounds. Much less than some appliances already in use. It would be handy for sites to have charge points. How do mobility scooter users on sites charge their vehicles at present?

  • DavidKlyne
    DavidKlyne Club Member Posts: 13,864 ✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #18

    Perhaps with the new forward looking outlook of the CMC it would be good to introduce electric car hire on some sites as an experiment? I would certainly be interested in making use of such a service especially if costs were kept at reasonable levels. 

    David

  • Rufs
    Rufs Club Member Posts: 4,072 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #19

    exactly Brue, a few pence quickly adds up to a few pounds = an increase in site feescry 2 cars + 2 caravans + all the electrical equipment now being used in caravans all on one bollard, looks like a receipe for disaster, and can you honestly see a situation arising were people actually talk to each other and agee times when they can charge these cars to avoid such a disaster, and what about all the additional cables snaking across the grass, more potential trip hazards, or worse still live cables hanging about in wet grass, my view is that the club should provide stand-alone bollards for this purpose and people should pay to use them. 

  • ocsid
    ocsid Forum Participant Posts: 1,395
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    edited October 2017 #20

    An electric powered car or even a hybrid used to tow a van to a club site is IMO going to need a good deal more time, thus energy to recharge things than it takes to boil the kettle; in no way are the demands of these going to be "minimal" that defies the physics of dragging the associated masses around.

    It will inevitably be a trend to move towards a greater take up of these vehicles and the club along with others needs to adopt an equitable way of paying for the recharging. 

    Plus I think they face a real infrastructure issue in getting adequate , on-demand power onto sites and to distribute it within the sites that can only have a massive cost looming. 

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #21

    At present, if we took our electric car to a site we would plug in to the van for a partial recharge. Unless we were driving long distances off site we would probably not need a charge every day. We are not heavy EHU users as some are and we probably subsidise the heavy users already. If at some point everyone had an EV the extra costs will be met by all of us.  We can also charge at numerous points around the UK.

  • Rufs
    Rufs Club Member Posts: 4,072 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #22

    Hear what you are saying brue, have been using CC sites for 15 years or more and today we probably do not use anymore electricty than we did 15 years ago, we dont even have a TV, not knocking those who like their TV's, but i would suggest we are paying at least double for a pitch today compared to 15 years ago and all we require is a relatively basic service, clean & tidy site, EHU, fresh water & waste, perhaps there is some merit in metering electricity at point of use, used a site in Yorkshire in August that did just that and used approx £5 in 10 days, I could live with that if it meant a reduction in pitch fees. 

  • KjellNN
    KjellNN Club Member Posts: 8,670 ✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #23

    I have seen charging points in car parks....are they all free to use to the consumer?

    As there is no such thing as really free electricity, someone somewhere is paying.

    Is there any clarity on how much per mile in electricity these cars cost to run?  Obviously depends on the size of the car.

    An electric (eventually) tow car would presumably get a lot of use when on holiday, so the recharging cost would be quite significant, and IMO it is not right that other site users should be subsidising this while also having to pay for their own motoring fuel costs.

  • KjellNN
    KjellNN Club Member Posts: 8,670 ✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #24

    How much per kwh did they charge?

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #25

    Just had a chat with OH regarding running costs for the EV.

    140kwh = 1250 miles (approx.) You would not need to charge up to this extent, especially for local driving.

    So you pay for whatever the cost of the supplier is charging per kwh wherever you are, at home or away.

    417 miles per gallon of fuel (range extender)

    We've signed up for ecotricity power points and if we plug in we pay per usage, a little or a lot. See zapmap 

    Here

    Hope this helps.

  • Rufs
    Rufs Club Member Posts: 4,072 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #26

    KjeIINN, got no idea what the kwh charge was, you simply bought either a £5 or £10 card insert into your meter and it gave you £5 of electricity. Bought the £5 card and still some electricity left, i think if you had a substantial amount left on the meter you could get a refund but not sure how this worked and as we only paid £5 was not too fussed re a refund, I think there was also a £1 card if you were only staying overnight. If you ran out and reception was closed you could get a new card either from the shop or the bar, seemed to be a very efficient way of providing electricity. We did not scrimp because we were on a meter, of course being August we did not need the electric heater and in the caravan our only high usage is the micro wave which we dont use that often, breakfasts are done either on the gas bbq or gas cooker, evening meal likewise, lots of salads and fish which can be cooked very quickly on the gas bbq. Reading and radio whilst languishing in bed are our only luxiouries, can catch up on whats best on TV on iPlayer when we are home. 

  • peedee
    peedee Club Member Posts: 9,387 ✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #27

    The commercial site's 7.5 32amp charge point was free to use. They didn't seem to have a policy with regard to on pitch charging but there were meters installed within each bollard. Tourers pay an inclusive pitch fee but if the pitch is taken for the season the metering is used.

    As I understand it a home charger for an ele trick vehicle is rated at 3.5Kw, at 230volts that is 15.2 amps. I can see a lot of bollards being tripped.

    peedee

     

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #28

    We have installed a charger at home but at first we used an ordinary plug point no problems at all just slower to charge, this depends on the draw?

    Now, with the charger, we're on 3.7 kw charger from a 16 amp fused supply as per the manufacturers spec

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #29

    I think that's it from me, but hope I've put some useful info out. smile

  • peedee
    peedee Club Member Posts: 9,387 ✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #30

    I know nothing about electric car battery charging but I would think there is some form of regualtion involved as well as specialised leads and plugs certainly for use on public chargers.

    peedee

  • brue
    brue Forum Participant Posts: 21,176 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    edited October 2017 #31

    OK a bit more info. smile

    Yes there are different leads supplied Peedee, one to use in an ordinary socket, the other in a wall charger. If you are out and about you might spot chargers and can see the set up. OH has wired up our charger but some might not be competent. 

    The reason for installing a "proper" charger is the increased speed of charging. The charge then switches off at the correct level.