This post got me thinking: I have about 11 miles commute and an EV that has 25 miles of range if driven carefully (full freeway speeds eat into the range like crazy but maintain a range-extending barely-55 MPH in the right lane and then it is not so bad) So, if I miss a charge at work (or at home) then I will barely be able to make the next one-way trip and forget the one after that.
However, in case of a longer power outage, I am much more concerned about the state that my fridge is in than my range. Keeping the meat, milk and other food in the fridge from spoiling will probably be more important for me than being able to use my EV to commute. Besides, I have probably half a dozen other ways to get to work if needed, I mostly go by my EV, but once a week I take out the bike and make the trek; I could also borrow my wife's car or ask her to drop me off if needed, but there is also public transport: with a combination of different rail carriers I can get close to work; I know that the bus stops only a block away, but I will need to transfer and then there is always the option of a taxi or similar service (Uber, Lyft) or in a pinch several of my friends would be willing to borrow me a car for a day or I can even ask a colleage to coordinate rides and pick each other up. No, I am not so worried about getting to work - if I find it too much hassle then I can always work from home or take a day off. My bigger concern is to provide power to critical loads in the home and for that an EV is uniquely qualified. Just add an inverter and you are in business. In a recent unexpected power outage I already tested that my EV has no problem to keep my fridge running and I am planning on solar to keep my EV charged, so that I should be pretty self-sustained in a pinch. I vividly remember a good friend from the nearby city of San Jose telling me during a heat wave a few years back that the pole pig behind their house burned out due to the incessant heat and theirs was not the only one, so PG&E had run out of spares. It took 3 full days before it was replaced and they had power again, during this time they had to stay with family since nothing in the home worked and all their food had spoiled, they were not very happy... Cor van de Water Chief Scientist Proxim Wireless office +1 408 383 7626 Skype: cor_van_de_water XoIP +31 87 784 1130 private: cvandewater.info www.proxim.com This email message (including any attachments) contains confidential and proprietary information of Proxim Wireless Corporation. If you received this message in error, please delete it and notify the sender. Any unauthorized use, disclosure, distribution, or copying of any part of this message is prohibited. -----Original Message----- From: EV [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of brucedp5 via EV Sent: Saturday, June 13, 2015 2:50 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [EVDL] OT: Power outages> Heat-related old-equipment failures, not capacity * Keep disscussions EV related * As some know, the change in the Earth's climate is currently causing a heat wave across N.America. Depending on the status of your local utility (capacity, equipment, users, etc.) this could be a problem when trying to get a charge either overnight or at public EVSE. Utility pge.com has a large portion of California's Electricity-supplying market. A report on a SF-CA local TV channel: http://www.ktvu.com/clip/11595263/concord-pge-prepares-for-more-heat-related-power-outages mentions it is not a power-generation capacity issue, like 10 years ago when deregulation allowed power plants to purposely manipulate the grid's capacity for profit: http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2006/3331elec_blackouts.html Power Outages Hit U.S. Grid; Utility Deregulation to Blame August 4, 2006 One-minute into the (ktvu) video shows a chart that details that it isn't the power generating capacity (there is plenty of that), the problem is the old utility equipment is failing with these higher than normal temperature conditions (they did not plan for global-climatic changes). See, https://www.fac ebook.com/SFGate/posts/10155684792450594 Power went down in the majority of the outages due to temperature-related equipment failures BTW, pge.com has a history of taking as much profit as possible, and spending as little a possible on its infrstructure or the maintenace thereof (though their TV ads give lip-service that they care). *So what does this mean to the plugin EV driver needing a charge, and what can be done about outages? Getting pge.com to change is not my primary focus as it would be a monumental effort. Besides traffic snarls from lights not working, now the driver will have to contend with no power to get a charge. Drivers can keep informed where power outages are located from the news, and their EVSE finder apps up-to-date & handy (i.e. plugshare.com ). If a driver needs to use public EVSE during the daytime (when the heat will make the most demand on the aged utility equipment), the driver should have different public EVSE routes in mind to navigate around the outages. Also, if you find that you won't be getting an overnight charge because your residence is part of an outage, making a trip to a public EVSE should be planned (either before you crash for the night, or for early in the morning hours before your work commute). These heat wave outages will have the same affect as any other acts or God (earthquakes, etc.). The driver should have a plan-of attack when these occur. For EVLN posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/OT-Power-outages-Heat-related-old-equipment-failures-not-capacity-tp4676207.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
