Go Green now if You Dislike Trump

[Jamie in Chile]

So I saw on a YouTube video that claimed EV battery life is degraded if you mostly Fast Charge. (I mostly fast charge). I have an app called Plug Share that searches for chargers. i found a bunch of slow chargers just a 10 minute walk from my house. According to Plug Share. the price per KWH is half of what i pay for fast charging at the supermarket.

I went there today. It's in the parking lot of the County Hospital but I asked and they said not only can I charge there but the lot is patrolled. Which would be important if I ever left it there overnight. Which I'll. probably never do. Although they charge $5/hr after the charge is complete.

I set an alarm and I'll go there and get my car as soon as it hits 80%

And when I get the car I'll do the math and see if I am really saving money by slow charging there.

Anyway if I have it figured right - 100 miles will only cost me $5.

Fast charging generates heat so it is a logically sound argument that it could be tougher on the battery.

However in practice the cars have cooling systems and other things that counteract the heat or prevent damage.

If you google it there are a bunch of studies done that compare real world examples of cars that were known to fast charge regularly vs occasionally and usually the studies either report no difference or only a very small advantage for avoiding fast charging.

Normally if you drive say 10,000 miles a year your car might lose 16%-20% of range after 10 years, however if you hardly ever rapid charge then it might be 14%-18%. You'll not likely be able to detect the difference.

Therefore I suggest you just do whatever is convenient / cheapest for you.

Slow charging in a heatwave if you are in a southern state is worth considering as the combination of the ambient heat and the charging heat could make things a bit toasty for the battery, and either your car will slow down the charge, or there will be a tiny amount of degradation per charge.

 

[Lou]

My husband and I don't drive and obviously don't own a car. There is a charging point close to my house though as I've seen other people charging their cars. I did think about solar panels, but I looked into it and it takes about 10 years to get the initial money back and I don't think we will be living in this house for 10 years.

It does increase the value of the house. so you should be able to recoup the investment when you sell it.
My cousin sells solar panels for a living. he showed me a chart on it. It seems pretty straight forward., two things you can count on - the value of your home will go up. your electric bill will go up

 

[Lou]

Therefore I suggest you just do whatever is convenient / cheapest for you.

Most convienent is fast charging at the Grocery Store.
Cheapest is slow charging at my sister's house. (free cause she has solar and doesn't care) . But slow charging down the street at the Medical Center is next.

Going forward, I will try to do more slow charging

 

[Lou]

So the other day I went to my gym, very early in the morning (which is what I like to do). and it was pouring.
When I parked the car would not turn off. Or turn on. and I couldn't lock the doors and set the alarm either.
everything else worked.
an idiot light was on. I have the owner's manual on my phone. I looked up what the idiot light means. It says "get service soon" or something like that.

I called my sister and brother-in-law and they googled it. they found some things to try and I tried them all. Some seemed logical and some didn't. One said take the key fob and walk 200 feet away, wait a couple of minutes and then try to start the car. Nothing worked and I was strarting to panic. So I did all of them over again. As my BIL read the directions a second time, I realized something. Normally you press the brake when pressing the power button. but the direction said not to press the brake while pressing the power button for a minute. So I tried that over again and voila the idiot light went out and and then the car started like normal.

Afterwards when I got home I looked it up and essentially I "re-booted" the car. Felt like I was back in "95 with a windows OS. Or back in that old joke where the software analyst suggests everyone get out of the car, walk around it, and then get back in. Anyway no mention of this in the owner's manual.

I suspect what happened is this. I recently discovered that if I point the fob out my apartments window ( the car is in a covered garage directly below me) I can remotely start the car and run the heater while head downstairs. on cold days this means that car is already warm when I get in. So I've been doing that. Maybe the 12v battery got too low and when I parked the car I hit some kind of threshold for the 12 v functioning. Anyway I'm not going to do that till after I get the car checked out.

 

[1956]

It does increase the value of the house. so you should be able to recoup the investment when you sell it.
My cousin sells solar panels for a living. he showed me a chart on it. It seems pretty straight forward., two things you can count on - the value of your home will go up. your electric bill will go up

Just wondering if you meant to say that your electric bill will go down?

 

[Jamie in Chile]

I've also had to turn my car off and turn it back on again to fix issues!

I also in winter morning leave the car heating up and get into a warm car. I think this is one of the advantages of EVs that you usually wouldn't want to do with a petrol or diesel car that would spew pollution over your own house and garden and annoy the neighbours. However, with my car if I do that the car is unlocked and could in theory be stolen and driven away, or doors could be opened to steal stuff, although I have a locked gate, so not an issue in my case. I believe you can steal cars without the key, but then you would not be able to turn it off.

The other EV I rented in 2024 for some months when visiting the UK, a Kia eniro, I was able to leave it parked in the street heating up. It also had a timer so I would set it to turn the heating on from say 7.15-7.30 if I was leaving at 7.30. However, in practice I didn't always leave at the same time so I would prefer the case you have Lou. In your case, is the car turned on when you do that, locked or unlocked, able to be stolen and driven off or not?

And on the solar, I cut my bills 85% but it depends a lot on size of system, latitude, and your energy use.

 

[Lou]

Just wondering if you meant to say that your electric bill will go down?

I meant we can count on the COST of electricity will increase

 

[Lou]

In your case, is the car turned on when you do that, locked or unlocked, able to be stolen and driven off or not?

The way it works in my car is, First you must remotely lock the doors before you remotely start the car.
Then you have to unlock the doors to get in. then you need to power up the car to drive away.
I think the heater and other accessories run off the 12 v. and the 12 volt is charged via a transformer off the main battery.

on hot days you can also remotely run the AC.
the car has a built in 30 minute timer and will shut down if the 12 v gets too low.

although the car is "on" you still have to power it up to drive it.
I think its like in my 20th century car and you could run the "accessories" without starting the engine.

I think a lot of EVs have this feature.