diy solar

diy solar

Half price electric cars

I didn't like the way the ID4 drove, and when I was looking they had no range. The KonaEV is MUCH smaller than the NiroEV. It's also more fun to drive. I was not aware the headlamps were Halogen, I assumed they were LED for power reasons, but before a trip with some night driving, I looked that one up, and experienced it first hand: Running the headlights doesn't affect your range that you would notice. If you are thinking that is going to get you a few miles or something you would be totally wasting your money. On the battery front, the Kona had a big recall on some 2021's and all prior years. The batteries in mine were replaced in late 2021 just before I bought the thing. This is actually a pretty big deal, new traction batteries after 2 years, means it's unlikely I'll have an issue with degradation for an additional 2 years. There was also an SB on some motor noise bearings vibration thing, The motor got replaced about 3 months later, so I have a new motor and batteries, basically a new drivetrain.

If you just need to bop around the seats fold down in the Kona, I've done a few Costo runs with 3 cases of water, cat litter, TP papertowls, etc No problem. OTOH:

1713237707820.png

I toted 16 250W solar panels across town in the Niro. . . A little annoying listening to the chime complaining the hatch was open, and flashing on the dash but hey . . . I didn't have to rent a truck!
 
@ksmithaz1 my main reason for the LED is to fight fire with fire 🤣
My night vision isn’t getting any better and I run HID on all my vehicles (I prefer how far the light beam “throws” vs led) but the harshness of oncoming LED on the single lane roads are painful.
I can’t even flash my giant light bar out of frustration when in the truck as I know they aren’t even using their high beams. The new ford super dutys seem to be the worst.

Although it is comical when I get flashed and I hit the sun button. It’s like they got hit with photo radar hah
 
G00SE said:
@ksmithaz1 my main reason for the LED is to fight fire with fire 🤣
My night vision isn’t getting any better and I run HID on all my vehicles (I prefer how far the light beam “throws” vs led) but the harshness of oncoming LED on the single lane roads are painful.
I can’t even flash my giant light bar out of frustration when in the truck as I know they aren’t even using their high beams. The new ford super dutys seem to be the worst.

Although it is comical when I get flashed and I hit the sun button. It’s like they got hit with photo radar hah
Click to expand...
I have a set of 4 old school KC highlighters on my truck... two wide beam fogs, and two narrow beam driving lights. but all four are 150 watts per.. when people refuse to dim.... I give them the wakeup call and it works every time.
 
Anyone here buy a white Niro today?... Was about an hour from the dealer when the salesman messaged me saying it was sold... I should have put a deposit down, my bad. On a positive note I got out of work early and it was 2 hours of nice driving weather.
 
JoeHam said:
Sadly, Fisker filed for bankruptcy late yesterday :

Click to expand...
Ch11 restructring bankrsupty, not ch7 "the end" bankrupsy.

It's hard to understand their issues. I have an ocean, and it's an awesome car. I drive it everywhere. It is better than any other ev i've seen, including tesla, kia, hyundai. More power, more range, more room. Sure some software glitches, but they're being fixed with software updates, and I rarely ever encounter an issue.
 
fatjay said:
Ch11 restructring bankrsupty, not ch7 "the end" bankrupsy.

It's hard to understand their issues. I have an ocean, and it's an awesome car. I drive it everywhere. It is better than any other ev i've seen, including tesla, kia, hyundai. More power, more range, more room. Sure some software glitches, but they're being fixed with software updates, and I rarely ever encounter an issue.
Click to expand...
Frankly you can say the same thing about the reliability of most all the electrics. They just don't blow radiator hoses, overheat, smoke from the tailpipe, etc. Their manufacturing issues OTOH are the same as any other car maker. You have to build cars for less than you sell them for. You cannot build a few thousand cars and sell them at a competitive price, that creates positive cash flow. It is difficult to scale up production building cars.

Hyunda/Kia make some awesome electrics, The newer European models are very nice. If established companies like Ford, GM, Nissan, Hyunda, Kia, BMW, VW, have trouble making money on electrics while they figure it out, It's and order of magnitude harder and more expensive to try it from scratch.

One other problem with the reliability is going to hit soon. EV's are simpler, and just keep on chugging, you don't need regular expensive maintenance like timing belts, nor expensive engine problems. A few items like axle's and tires, but not much really except the traction batteries. This means that old EV's are likely to stick around longer than ICE. Should be interesting
 
Ampster said:
Exactly as you point out the fundamental technology has been around for over a hundred years. It is the ability to store energy which has made it economically feasible.
Resistance to change takes odd turns. In the early days of Rockefeller when his fortune depended on kerosene which was used for lighting, Rockefeller was opposed to the electric light bulb. Ironically gasoline was a worthless byproduct of kerosene refining. The Internal Combustion Engine changed those economics.
Click to expand...
Funny you equate impracticality, expense, and being sold a false premise on environmental benefits with "resistance to change".
If a product really is better nobody resists it. It doesnt need government mandates, incentives, or shills on the internet pushing propaganda.
 
Ampster said:
Economics is why I love EVs. Sophistication is not important to me.
Click to expand...
For non homeowners there is "other". For you we will see those benefits erode when subsidies disappear, road taxes increase to offset pump gas tax losses, increased insurance cost, tire wear, and electricity scarcity.
 
ksmithaz1 said:
Frankly you can say the same thing about the reliability of most all the electrics. They just don't blow radiator hoses, overheat, smoke from the tailpipe, etc. Their manufacturing issues OTOH are the same as any other car maker. You have to build cars for less than you sell them for. You cannot build a few thousand cars and sell them at a competitive price, that creates positive cash flow. It is difficult to scale up production building cars.

Hyunda/Kia make some awesome electrics, The newer European models are very nice. If established companies like Ford, GM, Nissan, Hyunda, Kia, BMW, VW, have trouble making money on electrics while they figure it out, It's and order of magnitude harder and more expensive to try it from scratch.

One other problem with the reliability is going to hit soon. EV's are simpler, and just keep on chugging, you don't need regular expensive maintenance like timing belts, nor expensive engine problems. A few items like axle's and tires, but not much really except the traction batteries. This means that old EV's are likely to stick around longer than ICE. Should be interesting
Click to expand...
Sure they will. Count the number of electronics devices in your possession now that are over 10 years old.
Now go price any 60s muscle car on ebay motors.
You lost the internet today.
 
Batvette said:
Funny you equate impracticality, expense, and being sold a false premise on environmental benefits with "resistance to change".
If a product really is better nobody resists it. It doesnt need government mandates, incentives, or shills on the internet pushing propaganda.
Click to expand...
Tell us how you really feel. He made a valid point, and people are indeed resistant to change. I'm 100% against subsidies. I think the EV product has a number of benefits over ICE, and will over time take a significant share of the automotive market if allowed to grow organically. I, for one, am unlikely to ever own another ICE vehicle. I would agree that there is little environmental benefit.
 
ksmithaz1 said:
Frankly you can say the same thing about the reliability of most all the electrics. They just don't blow radiator hoses, overheat, smoke from the tailpipe, etc. Their manufacturing issues OTOH are the same as any other car maker. You have to build cars for less than you sell them for. You cannot build a few thousand cars and sell them at a competitive price, that creates positive cash flow. It is difficult to scale up production building cars.

Hyunda/Kia make some awesome electrics, The newer European models are very nice. If established companies like Ford, GM, Nissan, Hyunda, Kia, BMW, VW, have trouble making money on electrics while they figure it out, It's and order of magnitude harder and more expensive to try it from scratch.

One other problem with the reliability is going to hit soon. EV's are simpler, and just keep on chugging, you don't need regular expensive maintenance like timing belts, nor expensive engine problems. A few items like axle's and tires, but not much really except the traction batteries. This means that old EV's are likely to stick around longer than ICE. Should be interesting
Click to expand...

The problem here is the battery. The car might be cheaper in it's first 10 years of ownership but once the battery is fried the car becomes a brick as it just costs too much fix.

This *could* become non-issue if things get standardized or one car gets sold at exceptionally high volume which would mean profit could be made in parts repair and sales.

Yet, I don't see that happening. The raw parts themselves are massively expensive. In other words, a pack could be rebuilt but you can't double your money on the rebuilding of that pack because the wholesale cost of the cells is so high.
 
Batvette said:
For non homeowners there is "other". For you we will see those benefits erode when subsidies disappear, road taxes increase to offset pump gas tax losses, increased insurance cost, tire wear, and electricity scarcity.
Click to expand...
Governments will figure out the tax angle, likely with registration fees. At some point apartment/condo complexes will likely have charging availability at discounted / off-peak rates. In the mean time, local delivery vehicles are sort of a no-brainer. Think: Mail delivery vehicle.
 
Batvette said:
Sure they will. Count the number of electronics devices in your possession now that are over 10 years old.
Now go price any 60s muscle car on ebay motors.
You lost the internet today.
Click to expand...
This makes no sense. I don't drive my cell phone, nor did I spend $40K on it, nor would my old Star-Tac even operate on today's cellular network. Today's electronics are are many,many,many,many orders of magnitude better, faster, and more efficient than those of 10 years ago. The only thing you change with an electric vehicle vs an ICE one is the drive train. Your 60's muscle car is likely on it's 3rd engine, but at the core, cars from the 50's on are pretty much the same basic design: A carriage with a motor. You can go on Ebay motors and get a 2012 Nissan Leaf, which people do, and upgrade the battery packs from the original NiCd with a simple module. Still light on the range, but exactly how many horsepower did your '66 GTO with the 400+ cubic inch engine and Holly double-pumper put out? How many miles/gallon? Did we perhaps retro-fit a more modern fuel injected small V-6 in it? If not, do you ever actually drive it much?

A vehicle is a durable good, not a disposable one. Totally different paradigm than modern electronics.
 
I like EV but think everyone buying ev should have to Add Solar charging vs over taxing the current electrical grid even more.

Not sure why Biden is keeping BYD out. His Buddy Buffet has been dumping BYD stock
 
Checkthisout said:
The problem here is the battery. The car might be cheaper in it's first 10 years of ownership but once the battery is fried the car becomes a brick as it just costs too much fix.

This *could* become non-issue if things get standardized or one car gets sold at exceptionally high volume which would mean profit could be made in parts repair and sales.

Yet, I don't see that happening. The raw parts themselves are massively expensive. In other words, a pack could be rebuilt but you can't double your money on the rebuilding of that pack because the wholesale cost of the cells is so high.
Click to expand...

Now we are getting to the crux. Battery packs are a free-for-all. We do have some history with the leaf, but the total volume with the majority of the vehicles is still very small. There are technologies coming down the pike that I think will breathe new life in older EV's allowing for aftermarket batteries to be installed, but the total numbers will need to be higher to make it work. The problem with over-promoting the technology is that the current engineering is the wild-wild-west! There has been little to no standardization in any of the design elements, thus every manufacturer is doing something completely different re-inventing the wheel on every pass. With more organic growth the tech would likely progress like the original automobile, picking up momentum after the tech matures, not before.
 
D71 said:
I like EV but think everyone buying ev should have to Add Solar charging vs over taxing the current electrical grid even more.
Click to expand...

Still working this angle, and one of the reasons I went solar. The majority of EV charging can be done during off-peak/low-demand times, which could actually make the grid more efficient. Ramping production up and down is wasteful. Solar still has a lousy ROI for charging an EV for most charge-use cases, because you can usually pick low-demand times to charge. Further the optimal time to charge with solar is during the middle of the day which is rarely convenient. I try and work from home 1 day a week to charge my car.
 
  • Like
Reactions: D71
Peak demand is mid to late afternoon. It's just that PV peaks Noon or early afternoon and still supplies much of the demand.

Used to be that the grid had off-peak surplus at night. Today the most surplus is around Noon.
What we need is PV putting power into the grid and EV charging while we're parked at work, with some reasonable payment for value of the power and value of redistributing power between rooftop PV and work EV chargers. (default is credit $0.02/kWh for backfeed, charge $0.50/kW for charging.)
 
Seriously doable here too. Put a cover over the work parking, add panels/inverters/modest battery to smooth the output. Go to work, plug in and grab early AM production, let the 13:00-.... Production cover the wicked afternoon demand peak. Even micro-inverters tied, KISS.
 
Oddly, I find the best time to charge is actually during peak. In the early AM excess PV production needs to bring the batteries to near 100% SOC to have adequate power for the evening. That time has moved from 11:00 to 13:30 with additional summertime cooling demand. Today the car (red) started ramping up at 13:00ish, as the battery SOC got above my threshold to allow it. A little bit of a game because I can only charge around 7+KW, but can produce 14+. My target is 90% SOC at 16:00. In an EV forum there was a discussion about DCFC's and why would I want one for home... Just this reason, and the prices of small DCFC's has dropped dramatically. I could wait until I hit 99% kick the DC charger up to 12-15KW and float the rate to keep the home batteries at ~99%. fully optimizing battery fill. I do something similar but have to start earlier since I can't use all the production. As it is I just have to have a sliding threshold with looser SOC targets. I may adjust, but currently my SOC window is 35% at 07:00 and 90% at 16:00 and I calculate the slide with a non-linear function. Love for some math whiz with ideas on that to have a simple way to calculate the expectation on a curve.

1718830966244.png
 
Yes, there are PV/EV charging stations.

Thing is, they represent investment and take up space. People who buy PV are likely to invest in PV. With net metering dead, can't charge at night unless we buy a similar size ESS. Would like to pay a fair price to PG&E for short-haul redistribution of power across town. In reality, our PV could charge someone else's car at a near by business, while someone else's PV charges ours elsewhere.

Need unbundling of various distribution network sections for that to work.
Presently we're told generation is $0.05 wholesale and we pay $0.50 retail, leaving $0.45 or 90% distribution.
But CCA run by cities, it is more like 50/50 "generation" vs. "distribution".

Can't fight the system unless maybe if you're at the scale of Tesla. So PV panels at charging stations, or ESS at home, it is. Just need an ESS that repurposes a wrecked Tesla's battery to charge your Tesla.

Actually, EV charger using CT to do zero export is going to be important for anyone on NEM 3.0


Half price electric cars? If they don't have to Phone Home to keep working or otherwise suffer from Bit Rot, Software Calendar Aging, I'm interested.

I started to get excited about Subaru Solterra with 2k to 7k miles for $25k or so. Until I priced out the first year and ongoing costs relative to my old beater. I think the DMV and insurance cost increase completely uses up the gas money savings over a decade, and that's assuming my kWh are free.
 
ksmithaz1 said:
This makes no sense. I don't drive my cell phone, nor did I spend $40K on it, nor would my old Star-Tac even operate on today's cellular network. Today's electronics are are many,many,many,many orders of magnitude better, faster, and more efficient than those of 10 years ago. The only thing you change with an electric vehicle vs an ICE one is the drive train. Your 60's muscle car is likely on it's 3rd engine, but at the core, cars from the 50's on are pretty much the same basic design: A carriage with a motor. You can go on Ebay motors and get a 2012 Nissan Leaf, which people do, and upgrade the battery packs from the original NiCd with a simple module. Still light on the range, but exactly how many horsepower did your '66 GTO with the 400+ cubic inch engine and Holly double-pumper put out? How many miles/gallon? Did we perhaps retro-fit a more modern fuel injected small V-6 in it? If not, do you ever actually drive it much?

A vehicle is a durable good, not a disposable one. Totally different paradigm than modern electronics.
Click to expand...
In CA vehicles are disposable since the state has chosen to regulate what years are allowed on the road, this includes all off highway equipment ….that is unless you fall under AG or some other subsidized industry .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Will Prowse
LFP for EV's projected to be less than $56 per kWh within 6 months
16 17 18
Replies
431
Views
22K
upnorthandpersonal
upnorthandpersonal
TOU47
EG4 PowerPro vertical stacking?
Replies
22
Views
926
wpns
W
3
Direct to PV pump, variable resistors, lions, tigers...
2
Replies
28
Views
1K
wpns
W
M
Tesla car charging stations.
Replies
12
Views
558
aenyc
A
E
Experiences with Longi HiMo-5?
Replies
6
Views
579
SeaGal
SeaGal

diy solar

diy solar
Back
Top