Big changes in our lives have been taking place recently. If I were to spell them all out here then most people would switch off or go away and do something more useful with their day.
But as it turns out many of our lifestyle changes are associated with electricity in one way or another. Take our bikes, for example. From riding on machines for most of our lives which moved about solely by the power of our leg muscles we transitioned to ones that can move easier and quicker through having a small electric motor. After we moved into our our present house we changed it from one heated by gas to one using electricity both for heating and for cooking. This made even more sense (to us) since the house came with solar panels on its south facing roof, the effect of which is that when the sun shines brightly a lot of our electricity needs are met at no cost. We make best use of this by timing some things so they switch on at around midday when the sun gives us most benefit. As I am writing this the sun is beaming down outside and as a consequence we might be tempted to monitor this constantly so as to switch things on to coincide with the sunshine, making best use of the electric power coming from our roof. But we choose not to live in a sort of electricity paranoia, waiting for the sun to shine before boiling a kettle. Instead we take the more relaxed view and accept some of the inefficiencies that go with this.
Things began to get even more exciting for us when we reviewed our transport needs and we realised that after transitioning to folding bikes our large road vehicle no longer made sense. Once folded, the bikes could be carried inside a much smaller vehicle. We began thinking more about this as we realised that although our small village does not have a petrol station it does have electric vehicle (EV) charging points, six in total at three different locations. If we decide we need a car, surely it makes sense to have a small electric one (indeed one wonders why every local car is not electric). We clearly needed to learn more about these relatively modern machines and inevitably when you start searching the internet for advice on a new topic you soon get bombarded with offers of all sorts. I believe this is called 'marketing'.
Despite this we carried on and, once we had discovered the cost of using those public charging points, we realised that it would be cheaper to charge up an electric car at home by connecting it to our home electric supply, especially if we could arrange a cheap overnight rate. Home charging an EV might sound simple but in fact for us it was not, due to the position of our house above and away from the road - an overall distance of over ten metres. Worse still, our electricity supply enters the house at the rear, about as far away from the road as it is possible to get, and since wires that carry electricity longer distances need to be thicker, this adds to the cost of setting up a charging point in order to get those kilowatts into a car. Our EV investigations suddenly came to the fore when we agreed upon the date on which we would bid farewell to our campervan; soon to be sold to someone who will make better use of it.
It seemed to us that implementing such a change in the way we live our lives was less straightforward than we might have wished but we pressed on regardless, taking one step forward at a time.
One thing that has come sharply into focus is the way cars have been 'spreading' in recent years, something that is particularly relevant to us given that a lot of our cycling is on narrow roads where the competition for space is limited. We soon discovered that there are only a limited number of small electric cars available in today's marketplace, although once again this research led to intensive marketing from enthusiastic car dealerships.
One thing that separates electric vehicles from those with internal combustion engines (these can be regarded as fossil cars) is the 'range', the distance one can drive with the amount of charge in a battery. This figure is always quoted in the vehicle specifications as if it is cast in stone and can be relied upon as being accurate - which it is not. (Strangely our electric bikes have a small display screen which also shows a 'range' figure, ignoring the fact that cyclists can use their legs to extend the range quite easily, not something that is possible with EVs.) Most batteries work better if they are warm, something that might increase the range just as on a cold day the temperature will decrease it. Energy is also needed for the heater, for the windscreen wipers, cooling fans, lights, etc., and it appears that some of these things run off a separate twelve volt battery mounted under the bonnet of an EV. Charging this from the traction battery that moves the car about must reduce the range to some extent. None of this has ever been relevant in those fossil cars where a heater makes use of waste heat from the engine and electric power for the wipers, lights, etc., is produced by the engine spinning an alternator and the energy for this is never measured. It seems that the only vital figure here is the number of miles that can be driven on a gallon of fuel, although this is a number which one might expect to decline as vehicles become bigger and heavier.
The whole world of EVs has been one of discovery for us and a steep learning curve fraught with misconceptions and steered by biased car enthusiasts. Nevertheless it was at this point that we committed ourselves by putting a deposit on our own small EV.
Having done this the next part of the process began with some space reorganisation, starting with the garage, where we planned to store the car. Again, it is a strange feature of modern life that few garage owners (nobody we know) keep their cars inside. Could this be due to the car-spreading phenomenon mentioned above which has rendered garages unsuitable for car storage?
Next we committed to some investment, getting an electrician to fit the electrical wiring through the house to give us an external socket at the front that we can plug into. A lengthy connection lead was also ordered although there was some doubt as to whether this would arrive before we had the car so we waited impatiently until suddenly, both the electrician and the lead, which fits into a rather nice bag, arrived on the same day. We solved the conundrum of getting the heavy car charging plug across our steeply sloping and overgrown front garden to the car by means of a zip wire which allows us to slide it safely downwards. We emptied our garage and measured the internal space carefully then finally, one rainy morning, we set off to catch the early bus to Dumbarton where 'Bob', as we decided to call him, was waiting to meet us.
We were confident that Bob's range would get us home without needing an electric top up but as soon as we drove away from the dealership the rain started, torrential bursts which swept across the busy road. Frantically we searched for the controls for the wipers and the demisters so we could see out of the windows and avoid bumping into anything but in the end we decided to pause in a layby so we could work out where everything was. Like all modern cars there were switches on stalks behind the steering wheel with meaningless symbols on them and these had little in common with those we were used to on the campervan. A short while later we set off again and thankfully made it home safely, still with a comfortable thirty three per cent of battery power remaining.
Bob seems quite happy with us and is delighted to be out of the rain in a home of his own.
No comments:
Post a Comment