Robin <mixent...@aussiebroadband.com.au> wrote:
> Electric cars have DC batteries but AC motors. That means they need to > have powerful built in inverters. When the car is > parked, these inverters essentially do nothing, but could be gainfully > employed to allow charge/discharge of the parked > vehicle. My point is that it would be very expensive to put a charger (or discharger) in every parking place in an office park. Not only expensive, but many of them would be smashed up by people parking carelessly. I have seen damaged chargers in public parking places. Chargers have to be placed above a curb. Putting hundreds of them in a parking lot would be prohibitively expensive. Whereas putting one in your house can be cheap. As I said, my daughter did this in downtown Washington DC for $100. Plus, the landlord had to add another 220 VAC connector. The dryer was too far from the front window. DC regulations say this is okay, as long as you cover the cord with a bright orange sidewalk cover used in construction. Also, until most vehicles are electric, it would not be worth putting in many chargers (or dischargers). Most would not be used. As it is now, I have seen many chargers that I do not think are used at places like the FAA parking lot near my house. They look abandoned. People think that an EV charger is similar to a gas station. It is on a highway, but in urban Atlanta it is not, because nearly every EV owner charges at home. Commuters do not need a public charger, except on rare occasions. I had an EV for several months, and I never used a public charger. (I gave it to my daughter when I closed my office on account of COVID.) People tend to think that a new technology will be similar to an old one. They think we need gas stations with ICE, so we will need charging stations with EV. The difference is, you cannot fill a gasoline tank at home, but you can recharge an EV. Not only that, but recharging at home is more convenient than filling a gas tank. It takes only a moment. There are many EVs in Atlanta. Around 40,000, I think.
