Charging electric cars on Club sites.
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or you could hang fairy lights on them?
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We have charging points at Railway stations and some Supermarkets which are usually continuously populated by EV's charging their batteries.
Is this not a huge problem for the users of these vehicles that they have run out of fuel and, although there are charging points, all of them are already connected to a vehicle. It is bad enough for most people to wait five minutes for the next available diesel pump, but having to wait 45 minutes for someone to finish shopping, or until they return from work at 6:30pm will make the idea of recharging quite pointless (other puns are available).
What is the way around this block? Can one person disconnct another vehicle to connect theirs? Can they do it while charge is still available - either to use up and left-over charge once the first vehicle is full, or to steal what someone else is paying for? In fact, does one have to pay at all for these charges?
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Ours charger locks in and the fast charge can take less than15 mins but as it wouldn't be a full charge (how could you get there on a flat battery?) you can take out the connector at any point and pay for what you've used, similar to a petrol pump. Some chargers are free, some are pay as you go with a card.
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how could you get there on a flat battery?
Good point.
Will one electric vehicle have enough capacity to tow another? Or should charging points be created only at the bottom of hills - assuming that there is a "free wheel" function available?
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I for one are quite interested,as we may go for a Hibrid as our next tow vehicle(EVs not yet capable) but have yet to find out properly what the current draw is when charging,the batteries ,is ten amps as per the the biggest MCB in a caravan really enough
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Just to re-assure you JVB, yes, but it will be quite a slow charge, it would be quicker for us at present with a full EV just to visit a fast charger elsewhere but some hybrid users (much smaller battery) obviously choose to do it on site. So you would be ok. Anyway that's enough from me.
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From what I have been reading recently, 10 amps is OK, but the time for a total charge could be quite long. For instance the little Smart EV might need about 20kwh, so at 10 amps that could be about 9 hours.
Assuming nothing else uses the same circuit, that would leave you 6amps to use elsewhere meantime......fridge, battery charger, TV, lights and not much else. Probably no heating or HW unless you are using nothing else, and then heating and HW could use around 1 kw.
I think you would get through a fair bit of gas in cold weather!
With a hybrid you would need much less .
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you're not actually, I'm looking at the Kia Niro for our 'runaround' ie not towing car and it comes with either plug in and the regenerative braking non plug in type. Does the plug in version still have regenerative braking so that it charges the battery while driving or replies on the plug in totally.
I'm not totally confident on having a full type EV yet due to range.
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Thats what i have so far found,its just the Hybrids i saw at FM in the summer neither of the owners were sure what else they could use when charging,and did not want to face the wrath of the site staff if they kept tripping the bollards
so kept the other big power draw equipment turned off
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If the vehicle is limited to 10amps by the breaker in the van, then it is simple to work out what is left and look up what the fixed items use (fridge and charger) , then they will see what is left.
In summer, charging overnight would not be a problem, just turn off the HW if in doubt.
As we have the Alde load monitor, it would automatically turn off HW and heating if we were trying to go over the 16amps the bollard can supply, so we could leave the HW on.
It would be stuff like a kettle or the microwave we would need to think about, but unlikely they would be needed overnight.
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Thanks Corners but it's quite difficult to offer much advice due to the types of vehicle out there. Ours is a full EV, to get the driving range it has regenerative braking plus the big advantage of a range extender. This can give indefinite battery power as long as you keep the small petrol motor topped up (by small, think lawn mower and minimum fuel costs) this motor doesn't drive the car, it is for the battery. We tend to use it on longer journeys when we see the battery power dropping to a certain point. It will automatically come into use too if needed. If choosing a car look at what gives you the best technology around. Some hybrids have very limited battery power and some EV cars with very small batteries are only suitable for city use etc.
I'll dig out a YouTube video for our type of car to give you an idea, a lot to consider, it took us awhile to sort out what was best for us. Hopefully the prices will come down as more people start buying.
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An example given by my daughter who runs 12 Nissan Leafs.
They have approx 40kW batteries and if they had to use the portable charging lead and charger, like one you would take to a caravan site. The charger would be 2.5kW (10a) plugged in at 13a wall socket, the charge time from empty to full would take 16 hours, not good but less time if not flat.
Compare this with a Smartcar with say a 17kW battery, then the same portable charger could be full in 7 hours from empty, easily done overnight, and of course they can use rapid chargers elsewhere for 30 minute top ups.
This is why my daughters cars use rapid charging, they need the range and the speed in charging for the business, so its horses for courses with full on battery cars.
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thanks for the reply, the plug in Niro says it was last 30 miles while the non plug in 3! But that would suit us as our nearest supermarket we use is 2 miles away and visting in laws about the same, and most of the time that's probably all we do but yet would use the car for longer journeys once maybe twice a week on (non caravan) days out.
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a range extender. This can give indefinite battery power as long as you keep the small petrol motor topped up (by small, think lawn mower and minimum fuel costs) this motor doesn't drive the car, it is for the battery.
That is another bit I cannot understand. If such a small engine as a lawnmower can keep the car going indefinitely, why are the cars not just fitted with lawn-mower engines? Driving a generator which drives motor(s) in wheels, instead of a large engine driving a gear box.
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Yes. The power from the lawn mower engine generator goes into the battery. The battery then powers the electric motor.
So the battery is acting as a store to even out the constant rate of generation and the varying demand by the motor. If the lawn mower enging is powering the set up indefinitely, then it will be producing ALL the energy used by the electric motor (apart from regenerative braking, which is restoring to the battery energy that it had previously supplied to create momentum in the vehicle).
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Hmm, well it keeps the battery at a certain level, it's not in use all the time and the ideal would be to go and find a charge point rather than keep topping up with petrol. The initial power comes from an electrical charge. The idea is to get this power from renewables rather than fossil fuels, hence ecotricity supplies etc.
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Cars which use dual fuel are called hybrids. A proper EV does not use fossil fuel of any description either to propel the vehicle or to charge the EV's batteries. Cars with a small on-board petrol engine ( sometimes referred to as range extenders) are Hybrids.
K
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I've been down that route on earlier discussions Kennine, ours is all electric but with the addition of a range extender, it could run without it, a different set up to consider.
I've now been "informed" that my site bollard usage bit is wrong, the connectors for both the van and an EV/Hybrid can be split directly from the main 16 amp supply. Does that sound right? Over to you....
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Ah.... I can get the arithmetic to work if the generation from the lawn mower engine is going on indefinitely (up to full charge I guess), and the movement of the vehicle is intermittent enough.
I also guess the pure electric vehicle can't be fussy about the electricity it draws from the grid. On a dull windless day like today there is not much going into the grid from solar and wind generation. Hydro and nuclear are doing what they can, but coal and gas are making a major contribution. Pump storage is correctly held in reserve. So quite a lot of the electricity going into any electric vehicle's charger this afternoon is fosil derived.
On Monday afternoon I'll look again when all the feasting festivities ar at a height.
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Good luck with your searches.
I said on another thread that the supplies we use come from renewables, we pay for that bit, others pay for the fossil fuels. Our main supplier uses North American hydro-electrics, I presume the power gets sold on across the world, just like gas pipes reach far and wide?0 -
There's a few on a google search ET, but here's one by way of example......
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/bmw/i3/86215/bmw-i3-range-extender-best-hybrid-cars
K is right.....
This time,,,,
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