Electric car anyone?
78 watchers
May 2021
5:00pm, 24 May 2021
5,153 posts
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Windsor Wool
I'm nervous about the overnight charging tariffs that are available. The providers are looking to use your battery as a small part of a larger battery pack that will allow them to provide balancing services to the transmission system operator. As the providers get smart this should lead to a lot of heavy cycling of your battery which could / should equate to degradation in performance quicker than you'd expect from single cycle charging. I'm nervous, not writing it off but at the moment satisfied with the financial benefit of simply going from hydrocarbon to electrons. Council-sponsored e-scooters in Slough too. The council are saying it's a great success. |
May 2021
5:31pm, 24 May 2021
14,554 posts
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rf_fozzy
Google being creepy again threw up this link, which admittedly is of interest and is a reminder that the UK/Europe/US =/= the world restofworld.org |
May 2021
6:23pm, 24 May 2021
268 posts
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fuzzyduck79
WW, Do you think the energy provider would do that without permission? Sounds absurd given that people need to use that energy at short notice (for the morning commute) and need their battery charged to a certain level for their needs |
May 2021
6:33pm, 24 May 2021
14,499 posts
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larkim
There's no balancing that will degrade batteries though, that's all handled by the on car charger. Plus the electronics in the wall charger will help too. But mostly, the software / firmware on the car will handle it. We don't worry about running other consumer products at night, and even if you're on a special tariff you're getting the same juice down the line anyway. |
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May 2021
7:28pm, 24 May 2021
5,154 posts
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Windsor Wool
They absolutely will Fuzzy, I’ve spoken to a few folks in the industry about it. But agree that they need to still have you fully charged by the end of the allotted discounts period. It’s probably more of a danger if you’re plugged in constantly tbh. lark - I think batteries do degrade faster if you charge them up / draw them down often rather than simply lead them idle. Don’t they? That was simply my point. |
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May 2021
7:31pm, 24 May 2021
14,561 posts
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rf_fozzy
WW older generation rechargeable batteries did use to do that, my impression is that it's less of an issue with better chemistries and better software managing the charging process. At least I think that's the case |
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May 2021
7:44pm, 24 May 2021
14,500 posts
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larkim
Yep, the onboard chargers and battery management systems are pretty smart now. As far as I can glean, the current thinking is that discharge cycles for EV batteries really aren't a problem so there should be no fear of frequent or short period charges. Just don't run the battery down to absolute zero regularly and don't leave it at 100% for a month. Beyond that, charge at your convenience.
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May 2021
8:55pm, 24 May 2021
269 posts
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fuzzyduck79
I could see them wanting to use energy storage provided by products like Tesla Powerwall (which could keep filling up from solar or by drawing power from grid whenever wholesale prices were low, to give back when prices rose) Not sure I can see the application extending to EV batteries, would need consent of owner I think. If people had more range than they needed generally they could sell some back I guess. For the amounts involved I can’t see I would think it worth the hassle of hooking mine up all the time. |
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May 2021
8:59pm, 24 May 2021
14,566 posts
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rf_fozzy
V2G has been talked about for years as a storage/demand balancing option. Its not that difficult to implement in theory and could be a useful and cheap method to implement. |
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May 2021
9:01pm, 24 May 2021
14,567 posts
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rf_fozzy
As an aside reusing old EV batteries as home storage from PV/wind has also been mooted. The max ~1cycle/day shouldn't be problematic for battery life. |
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