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- #121
Good to see. God know when my quiet little street in Worthing will get some though. Not for many years I suppose.
[Technology] Owning an EV without a personal charger...
- Thread starter m@goo
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Good to see. God know when my quiet little street in Worthing will get some though. Not for many years I suppose.
So that'll be drivers of cars, who believe they need every inch of road space in order to transport one person in a 2 tonne metal box.
Now needing some of the pitifully small area left for everyone else, in order to transport one person in a 2 tonne metal box.
Can I interest anyone in a 31 mph ebike?
- Thread starter
- #124
I'd rather be surrounded by a 2 tonne metal box at 31mph.
The thing with hydrogen (leaving aside any safety concerns) is it's very, very energy intensive to produce so unless you can so it with absolutely 100% genuine renewables it's not actually any greener - no you don't give off an CO2 when you burn it but boy have you used a lot to get to that stage. It'll be a while until anything changes in that regard
You should leave aside the safety concerns, as fuel cell cars have proven to be just as safe as any other cars already. The safety side of things has already been dealt with.
The technology is very young, which means if there's good reason to try to push it forward it will rapidly improve (much as electric has already, and continues to do). I've just been reading an article that suggests hydrogen sourcing from biomass (which will have significantly better green credentials) isn't far away (a few years), and when it arrives it will make hydrogen significantly greener than electric (while electric is still reliant on Lithium batteries) will ever be. Hydrogen is already "on a par" with electric, but it's held back by lack of infrastructure primarily - not by green credentials.
Hydrogen tech will evolve rapidly *if* there's a reason to put the R&D into it. That will require early adopters (such as Brighton Buses) who are able to prove use cases. The Brighton Buses use case is pretty compelling: while hydrogen is (at the moment) no cleaner than electric, it does have a massive advantage in terms of the day-to-day running of the fleet. An EV bus cannot run all day like the current ICE buses do, which means the EV route is a non-starter for buses. A hydrogen bus can.
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Dr. No
Well-known member
- Nov 28, 2016
- 563
Papa Lazarou
Living in a De Zerbi wonderland
If I was looking to get a new car to replace our family car, I'd seriously consider this:
https://www.drive-electric.co.uk/vehicles/mg-5-exclusive-long-range-electric-car-lease/
Just about the only EV estate car there is, and amazing value for what you get.
https://www.drive-electric.co.uk/vehicles/mg-5-exclusive-long-range-electric-car-lease/
Just about the only EV estate car there is, and amazing value for what you get.
Billy the Fish
Technocrat
I'm genuinely looking into this now.
Question for those who have a home charge point installed: Do you know if they had to install a dedicated circuit?
Our recently installed consumer unit is already full up so that could be an issue. There's power to the garage so we could use the existing circuit but t'internet is saying it might not be possible.
Question for those who have a home charge point installed: Do you know if they had to install a dedicated circuit?
Our recently installed consumer unit is already full up so that could be an issue. There's power to the garage so we could use the existing circuit but t'internet is saying it might not be possible.
dolphins
Well-known member
While I'm not an electrical expert, I'll have a bash at answering this from my experience. I had a Podpoint unit installed and they added (I believe) a dedicated circuit, without any drama. It's got it's own little box adjacent to our consumer unit. As part of arranging the install, they check out what your existing electrical set-up is to work out what they need to do. In our instance they ask for photos of various things (existing fuse boxes/consumer units, location wanted for charging point, a rough idea of cable run and length of cable - VERY approximate) but I know they used to do quick site visits to check it out.
FWIW I would recommend Podpoint as they were excellent throughout, and after having it fitted, heard/read a lot of bad things about BP's Chargemaster/Pulse home units - units not working correctly, reports of iffy customer service, etc..
Billy the Fish
Technocrat
Cheers, that's what I'm after
Obviously I'll need the pros to look at it but it helps to have some sort of idea before you start asking!
Same situation here - our consumer unit is full up, so ours has been set up with its own circuit and breaker etc (all housed in the meter box, which is right next to the charger).
I second the feedback about avoiding BP Chargemaster. Podpoint I can't comment on, but do be careful: it will require a grounding rod, and some cars are very picky about how well grounded the charger is. If you're putting the charger into a location where the only way to ground it is through paving, the grounding might not be good enough (as the ground itself will be drier than ideal). The Renault Zoe, for example, is known to be a bit picky. That's one of the reasons I went for a myenergi Zappi 2 - it's a bit more expensive, but it has built-in PEN testing and thus doesn't need an earth rod. Is also designed specifically to work well with solar (but solar not required) and also works well with Octopus.
Can highly recommend Volt EV as a local installer.