Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Changes for a Better EV Life: Charging at work costs less than a Mini Fridge!

Having driven CO2 Fre for over a month now, I feel I can now safely make some recommendations for change that would make my life infinitely easier.  Some of these things I've been writing about long before I purchased my Nissan LEAF; I knew going in some sacrifice would be required for the greater good.  That's not to say there aren't great things like the burgeoning Charging Infrastructure and wonderful LEAF features to help get me through the day!  But there's always room for improvement and if you don't speak up, nothing will get done.

Power Consumption

During business hours a typical mini fridge is drawing about 320 Watts (W) of electrical power.  A car plugged in to trickle charge on the other hand is using about 120 Volts of Alternating Current (VAC) × 12 Amperes (A), and thus an average of 1,440 W peak.  Note, since A/C is a sine wave, the maximum power used at the peak ends of each cycle is 2,036 W (The maximum for a sine wave with a given Root Mean Square — multiply by √2) but 0 W is used at the middle of the cycle so overall the 120 VAC average is produced.  This is therefore about the equivalent of the power used by just 4 typical mini fridges.

Daily Electrical Consumption

The mini fridge runs 24 hours a day, continuously, and thus uses about 7.68 Kilowatt⋅Hours (kWh). The EV on the other hand is only drawing power for 8 hours a day and thus uses about 11.52 kWh, and thus is about equivalent to that of the 1½ mini fridge.

Annual Electrical Consumption

In a typical year, running 365.2425 days that same mini fridge is using 2,805 kWh of electricity.  But the employee who works 40 hours a week, 46 weeks a year (including 2 weeks fixed vacation and 4 weeks flexible vacation) uses only 2,764 kWh of electricity, and that's less than what a single mini fridge uses!

Conculsion

So, wouldn't it be cheaper to ban mini fridges and allow electric vehicle charging at work?

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

EVA/DC January 2012 Meeting

Hi EV maniacs!

Please share this invitation with your friends/listservs.

Our January meeting will be on Wed Jan 18 from 7 - 9 PM at the Silver Spring, MD public library on Colesville Road, just inside the Beltway and only 4 blocks north of the Silver Spring METRO.  We will endeavor to start and finish on time, but there will be plenty of time for the best part of the meeting, BS-ing, before and after the planned agenda.

Draft Agenda

  1. The DC Auto Show is in late January at the Convention Center and we want to be there.  Eric Cardwell, ace VP of our club, is heading up this operation.  Lots of good ideas are percolating already.
  2. EV license plates and membership categories. Bryan Murtha will update us.
  3. New EVs coming to market: Tesla Model S, Model X?, iMiev, Ford Focus EV, Toyota PHEV
  4. Who bought/leased a new EV? Any issues?
  5. Charging stations: New ones, Where, Issues?
  6. Reveng of the Electric Car.  Movie premier in Baltimore.  How did it go?
  7. Charging at work with 110 volt outlets.  Cheap.  Bob Bruninga update.
  8. California ZEV and Federal MPG standards.  How does this affect EVs?
  9. Other agenda items you want to discuss?

Charlie Garlow, your Prez and a host of fantastic volunteers.

How about the property tax rate in Fairfax, Virginia?

P.S.

Just a reminder about tomorrow (Wednesday's) EVADC Meeting.  And to say that we got some feedback on topics, including questions about the Chevy Volt and any difficulties, including the fire controversy [overblown, in my opinion].  Here is the previous message.  Please forward to others.  Bring a friend.

Couldn't agree more, Charlie!