Electric cars

Discuss environmental matters here, and compare notes on what renewable energy systems might be best for you.
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cyprusmax47
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Re: Electric cars

Post by cyprusmax47 »

People considering to buy a electric car should have a PV solar system installed (5kWp) in order to charge them at their premises. Only this way does something good for the environment as in CY most of the electricity from EAC is produced environmentally harmful with heavy oil...

Max
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Re: Electric cars

Post by Devil »

cyprusmax47 wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:06 am People considering to buy a electric car should have a PV solar system installed (5kWp) in order to charge them at their premises. Only this way does something good for the environment as in CY most of the electricity from EAC is produced environmentally harmful with heavy oil...

Max
If, like most working people, the owner comes home at night and goes off to work in the morning, he won't get very far charging it from a photovoltaic system. :-)
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cyprusmax47
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Re: Electric cars

Post by cyprusmax47 »

Devil wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2021 4:04 pm
cyprusmax47 wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:06 am People considering to buy a electric car should have a PV solar system installed (5kWp) in order to charge them at their premises. Only this way does something good for the environment as in CY most of the electricity from EAC is produced environmentally harmful with heavy oil...

Max
If, like most working people, the owner comes home at night and goes off to work in the morning, he won't get very far charging it from a photovoltaic system. :-)
As we are in Cyprus, most working people (nearly all of them) driving home midday, and spend quite a time there for lunch and a rest (siesta).
This is the perfect time to charge the E-car as midday is the highest production from PV modules...
Just watch the Green Air webcam midday's and see the stop and go not only uphills!

Max
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Re: Electric cars

Post by trevnhil »

Well the shop workers don't drive home at midday, and neither do most of the people in the building trade..
Trev..
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Re: Electric cars

Post by Devil »

cyprusmax47 wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2021 5:28 pm This is the perfect time to charge the E-car as midday is the highest production from PV modules...
The output from PV modules drops at temperatures above 25° C. You will need to cater for about 15 percent extra output from your PV system when the temperature of the junctions exceeds 40° C. They can even reach higher temperatures than the ambient from direct radiation; it is not impossible for the junctions to reach higher than 50° C. Your sentence is perfectly correct when the ambient temperature is lower than 25° C.
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Re: Electric cars

Post by trevnhil »

But the majority of working people are not home for long during the daytime..
Trev..
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Re: Electric cars

Post by jeba »

Devil wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2021 5:57 pm
cyprusmax47 wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2021 5:28 pm This is the perfect time to charge the E-car as midday is the highest production from PV modules...
The output from PV modules drops at temperatures above 25° C. You will need to cater for about 15 percent extra output from your PV system when the temperature of the junctions exceeds 40° C. They can even reach higher temperatures than the ambient from direct radiation; it is not impossible for the junctions to reach higher than 50° C. Your sentence is perfectly correct when the ambient temperature is lower than 25° C.
The highest production my BiL's PV system in Germany was on a very cold but sunny day in February.
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Re: Electric cars

Post by Devil »

jeba wrote: Fri Feb 12, 2021 8:55 am The highest production my BiL's PV system in Germany was on a very cold but sunny day in February.
Exactly! A bright late-winter and cold day is the ideal. The output actually rises by as much as 5 to 10 percent under those circumstances. The nominal output of a PV system is at 25° C ± the manufacturer's tolerance. It is well known that the output of a PV panel goes down as the temperature goes up and vice versa.
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Re: Electric cars

Post by WHL »

cyprusmax47 wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2021 5:28 pm
Devil wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2021 4:04 pm
cyprusmax47 wrote: Thu Feb 11, 2021 10:06 am People considering to buy a electric car should have a PV solar system installed (5kWp) in order to charge them at their premises. Only this way does something good for the environment as in CY most of the electricity from EAC is produced environmentally harmful with heavy oil...

Max
If, like most working people, the owner comes home at night and goes off to work in the morning, he won't get very far charging it from a photovoltaic system. :-)
As we are in Cyprus, most working people (nearly all of them) driving home midday, and spend quite a time there for lunch and a rest (siesta).
This is the perfect time to charge the E-car as midday is the highest production from PV modules...
Just watch the Green Air webcam midday's and see the stop and go not only uphills!

Max
Max I dont know anyone in todays Cyprus who drive home for a siesta ?, let alone most working people?
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Re: Electric cars

Post by Mighty Sprite »

Nobody seems to have mentioned that if you use the PV to charge a car then the electricity that would have been used in your house has to come from somewhere else. The end result is that much more electricity has to be generated by EAC.
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Re: Electric cars

Post by trevnhil »

I would agree with that, although some would say get more PV panels.. :-)
Trev..
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Re: Electric cars

Post by chatsworth »

I would have thought the EAC's method of generating electricity will have to change and probably before electric vehicles replace the clapped out old pick up trucks much loved on this fair isle
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Re: Electric cars

Post by The Aquila »

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Re: Electric cars

Post by Lincoln »

The UK Govt now states that HYBRID vehicles are classed as Electric vehicles. We hired a Hybrid which self charged. We only put some petrol in it after five weeks. The batteries do hold the charge and recharge all the time when using the petrol engine._Way to go in my opinion.
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Re: Electric cars

Post by trevnhil »

That certainly sounds like a better system
Trev..
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Re: Electric cars

Post by Devil »

My present hybrid is nine years old and my previous one I traded in after five years because a back condition disagreed with its seating. For long runs, most of the year, I would have a consumption of petrol of about 4.5 L per hundred kilometres, rising to over 5 L per hundred kilometres for short trips and in very cold weather. In both cases, the cars were medium-size five seaters.
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cyprusmax47
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Re: Electric cars

Post by cyprusmax47 »

trevnhil wrote: Sat Oct 02, 2021 6:30 pm That certainly sounds like a better system
Hybrid self charging e-cars are the only way in Cyprus at present as there are only a few charging stations available. However you can charge them at home.
In my case I drive two years now a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), which is a hybrid car whose battery can be recharged by plugging a charging cable into an external electric power source, in addition to internally by its on-board internal combustion engine-powered generator. If I charge it at my home where I have some photo-voltaic modules installed, it is more environmentally friendly, as electricity from EAC is still produced with heavy fuel!

When I drive from up the hills where I live, down to the harbour, (14 km) it is mostly downhill and instead of breaking I use the features of regenerative braking during normal deceleration (braking or coasting), with the front and rear electric motors working as generators so that electricity can be generated and fed back into the main battery pack. In addition, the plug-in hybrid has a set-up that allows the driver to control the strength of the engine braking with paddles behind the steering wheel. The driver switches on regenerative braking either by sliding the central selector to the "B" position, or by operating the paddles. So the petrol engine does not switch on, only when I drive back uphills the last bit if the journey. I drive in this mode most of the time to avoid breaking for example I can see red traffic lights ahead etc etc.
To keep the main battery bank in a good condition I charge sometimes at home for 1/2 hour ca to get them really fully charged as the built in generator charges them only 90%. If the batteries are nearly empty the charging time is ca 4 hours.

So far I am very happy driving that car and the maximum range pure electric was 53 km (no hills, no air-con.)

Max
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Devil
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Re: Electric cars

Post by Devil »

cyprusmax47 wrote: Sat Oct 02, 2021 7:58 pm However you can charge them at home.
... Provided that the car is designed to allow you to do so. In other words, it is a PHEV. The great majority of hybrids do not offer this feature because, unlike Max, most users can't be bothered to plug their car in, while their dinner is hot on the table. I cannot quote chapter and verse but I did see, a year or two ago, a survey in the US indicating that the majority of owners of plug-in vehicles do not actually plug them in. I do not know whether this was because of laziness or, for example, the cost of electricity was higher than the cost of gas. Certainly, in Cyprus, a PHEV would never be an economical proposition without self generated solar energy (such as Max has!). I do not have solar panels (for various reasons), so that a simple HEV is the best answer. Of course, there is also the question of timing the charge of cars from solar panels. Most users run their cars during the day and have to charge at night, when solar panels are useless (without a massive and expensive backup battery!).

I don't believe that there is a single "one size fits all" solution to this problem.
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Re: Electric cars

Post by 71 Trans Am »

These have just been released for general sale this month and are HEV after three years in the making and would be Ideal for Cyprus but I cannot see them catching on anytime soon with a price tag of 149,000 euro

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49249884
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Re: Electric cars

Post by 71 Trans Am »

Sorry Forgot the link

https://lightyear.one/
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