Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

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wheelnut
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by wheelnut »

wheelnut wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 3:01 pm
KungFooBob wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 9:34 am
Lol, I'm sat here with an EV charge calculator open, octopus offer a 7p a kwh charge rate, which means you could charge a 78kwh Polestar 2 for around £6, which if I could do 250 miles on a charge would last me a week. My commute costs me £6 a day in diesel.

New Polestars are on 0% PCP at the moment too.
I did 11-1200 miles in March and, according to my Ohme app, I paid £24.38 in electrical goodness.
Yep, Octopus, but it's the fixed one. 8p between 12.30 and 6 I think. The Ohme charger talks to Octopus and only charges on cheap rate.
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by Taipan »

I take it you have home chargers on the wall things or do you just use the 3 pin plug way?
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by wheelnut »

Taipan wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 3:52 pm I take it you have home chargers on the wall things or do you just use the 3 pin plug way?
Yep, got a charger on the garage wall.
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by Saga Lout »

100 electric cars damaged in Zeebrugge ship fire

I wonder what could have caused that. Probably a diesel Landrover. :roll:
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by Count Steer »

Saga Lout wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 4:24 pm 100 electric cars damaged in Zeebrugge ship fire

I wonder what could have caused that. Probably a diesel Landrover. :roll:
Chip pan fire in the crew quarters. 🔥
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by Count Steer »

Mr. Dazzle wrote: Thu Apr 17, 2025 3:22 pm My Dad was telling me he spends nothing at all on leccy now, despite having an EV :D

As mentioned above, they've got Solar Panels which provides a big chunk of their juice. They've also got a power wall and they're figured out how much charge they need for a typical day (about 40%). So he fills up the car and the powerwall at 7p a unit in the night, then sells a load of the powerwall stuff back in the day at 15p/unit.

Combined with the solar, it means their only electricity bill is the standing charge. He's also done 10,000 miles in his EV at the same time.
Has he worked out the payback period on the power wall and panels? (I assume also that they add to the value of the house?).

Q? In the event of a short power cut what happens? Is it like running a PC on a UPS? (We are prone to such things here and often they're just long enough to mean that the clocks on the oven and microwave need resetting. It's better than when we first moved in when it felt a bit 3rd world at times! I had to buy a UPS so that we could at least shut down stuff in a controlled fashion - losing an hours work on a document was time/money! Saving every 10 minutes was a bit tedious :lol: ).
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by Mr. Dazzle »

He originally reckoned about 8-9 years, but that was before they started selling stuff back to the grid from their battery.

I assume it must be a UPS. I say that because they have long periods when they're drawing nothing from the grid, which presumably means you don't need the grid sometimes? Unless there's like a "presence detect" safety system too?
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by wheelnut »

Mr. Dazzle wrote: Sat Apr 19, 2025 7:36 am He originally reckoned about 8-9 years, but that was before they started selling stuff back to the grid from their battery.

I assume it must be a UPS. I say that because they have long periods when they're drawing nothing from the grid, which presumably means you don't need the grid sometimes? Unless there's like a "presence detect" safety system too?
I think it will be a backup supply, but not a UPS. It generally takes a little while to kick in so there will be an interruption in supply.
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by Mussels »

I looked at power walls a couple of years ago, they are mostly* designed to cut off when there is no mains supply. This is to prevent power lines being live after the suppliers isolate their end, this means it will not function as a UPS.
Given the long ROI this was a deal breaker for me.
* I think it's a condition for FITs.
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by Mr. Dazzle »

Ah yes that's a good point...I forgot about the "can't make lines live" bit, my brother was telling me the same thing a while ago. He's got a power wall but not solar.

AFAIK that's also one of the main obstacles to vehicle 2 load/grid implementation in this country. I think you can get chargers which deal with this problem but they're pretty expensive and a regulatory grey area.
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by Taipan »

How much are wall chargers? Think i'm in contract with EDF for another year, so I guess I'll be tied to their tariffs?
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by Horse »

Even bland can be a type of character :wave:
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

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Even bland can be a type of character :wave:
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by wheelnut »

I think traditional non-battery solar systems do switch off in the event of an outage in order to stop power going back into the grid, but I’m fairly sure power walls and their ilk have a management system that allows power to stay to the house but isolates the DNO side.
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by wheelnut »

Taipan wrote: Sat Apr 19, 2025 12:57 pm How much are wall chargers? Think i'm in contract with EDF for another year, so I guess I'll be tied to their tariffs?
This is ours

https://www.superlecdirect.com/ohme-home-pro-5mtr

They aren’t something you can install yourself unfortunately so you’ll need to add spark costs, plus the cable isn’t particularly cheap either.
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by Mussels »

wheelnut wrote: Sat Apr 19, 2025 1:46 pm I think traditional non-battery solar systems do switch off in the event of an outage in order to stop power going back into the grid, but I’m fairly sure power walls and their ilk have a management system that allows power to stay to the house but isolates the DNO side.
I know the tech to do this had been around for years but when I was looking at different powerwall systems they fell into two camps, grid connected or isolated. Grid connected airways cut power when the mains went out. One site that sold both types of DIY kits seemed to imply you could use isolated kids with the grid but wasn't clear.
To get FIT you need a certificate from an authorised company, I'm pretty sure they won't issue a cert for a non standard setup.
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by Taipan »

In the final analysis my answer is a definite yes, as I bought one yesterday. :thumbup: Anyone want to buy a dirty, polluting Range Rover? :think: :D
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by weeksy »

Taipan wrote: Wed Apr 23, 2025 9:00 am In the final analysis my answer is a definite yes, as I bought one yesterday. :thumbup: Anyone want to buy a dirty, polluting Range Rover? :think: :D
LOL what ? you don't need ANY car, let alone a new one... How many of the miles you did in the Range Rover wouldn't have been just as viable in the wifes Mini ?

Go on.... lets see then.
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by KungFooBob »

What did you buy in the Tiepin?

One of those Lotus SUVs would suit you down to the ground :)
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Re: Would you have an electric car if you had the money for a new car and were in the market for one?

Post by Count Steer »

Place your bets. :thumbup:

The hot money is on a) Swasticar b) Polestar

Outside bet: BYD :D
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