Stephen A. Lawrence
Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:04:03 -0700
Terry Blanton wrote:
However, looking at my automobile: A gallon of gas contains about 36.7 kWhr of energy. Assuming a mechanical efficiency of about 70% and a thermal efficiency of about 30%, the car would be about 20% efficient providing about 7.3 kWhr. If I get 30 mpg and drive for an hour I consume 2 gal/hr driving at 60 mph or about eight bucks. With an electric car, I need 14.6 kWhr plus the inefficiency of transport of the electric power, figure 80%, or 18.25 kWhr. At 10 cents per kWhr the $8.00 of gasoline is displaced by $1.83 of go juice. And guess what, the power plant pollutes someone else. :-)
Yup, it's a slick deal. And the boiler at the power plant is typically a lot cleaner than an ICE as well. (There is an extra "hidden" cost, though, which is that you must replace the batteries every few years; that tends to even out the operating expenses a bit. EVs still seem to be cheaper to operate, tho.)
Attachment (if it comes through) is the back end of my wife's "new" car. Got it second hand a few months back; it's a conversion which was done for an old gentleman last year, using a 1990 Jetta for the base vehicle. The owner moved into a nursing home, which is why his car went on the market; we found it through Google.
Only trouble is the range, which isn't so hot, as it runs on flooded lead acid batteries, like nearly all "converted" EV's.
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