EV charging

I heard that people in CA are being told not to charge their EV’s.
Anyone on here from CA know about this?

Just not in the evening AFAIK.

They are supposed to NOT charge them between 4pm and 9pm. But either way, it wasn’t a good time to make that limitation since they just signed the law banning new gas car sales in 2035 just one week prior.

i would guess they don’t want charging during prime time when load is highest.

i set the timer to charge my EV late at night such that it is full and ready to go in the morning, e.g. 3Am to 7Am. Most EVs have this feature, either thru remote or in-car programming.

Yeah, it appears that is true for the most part; especially between 4 & 9 pm.

But hey, California seems to be right on top of things…… :wink:
…………

California Wants Residents to Limit EV Charging Over Labor Day Weekend

Record high temperatures are expected to put additional strain on the state’s power grid.

…….

California EV owners asked to curb charging ahead of travel holiday

…….

California grid officials ready to ask for conservation as extreme heat wave approaches

Anyway, the best time to charge anyway is between 21:00 to 6:00 in the morning.

Lowest costs overall on the meter :slight_smile:

Some daze when load peaked in summer I had hose hydraulic radiators so the units didn’t trip. Because the fitters and electricians were to lazy or didn’t know how to fix them. Some of those earn $250k a year and are about as handy as an ashtray on a motorbike. Last year I earned $180k and slept 80% of the time. Recently I took a voluntary redundancy and straight up I set up my own power system so I didn’t have to pay them inbreeds for power.
Yes that is harsh but they are not worth feeding.

Looks as though some in Colorado had power use restrictions forced upon them.

Company locks customers from changing smart thermostats due to ’energy emergency.’

Link to article

C’mon. It is misleading to say it was forced upon them.

The customers had a choice to join a program that gave them a discount, a certain amount off their power bill. IF they had read the agreement the customers would have seen that they give the power company the ability and the right to adjust the set temperature and lock it if the power company wants to in exchange for the discount.

So the real problem is that too many people don’t read before signing and/or don’t think enough before thinking something is a good or bad idea.

Don’t blame me for being “misleading”, I was simply using the language from the article by the ever so trustworthy ABC News. :wink:

As far as I am concerned 90°F is not that hot & 78 or 79°F is not that bad.

And your probably right about people not reading or understanding what they signed up for. :money_mouth_face:

Portion of & link to complete article below.

.

MINNEAPOLIS (TND) — A utility company prevented thousands of customers in Colorado from changing the temperature on their smart thermostats due to an “energy emergency,” leaving customers upset and confused.

Minneapolis-based utility company Xcel confirmed to KMGH-TV in Denver that 22,000 customers who had signed up for the Colorado AC Rewards program had their smart thermostats locked. The program gives customers a discounted rate but forces them to relinquish some control of their devices to Xcel.

“I mean, it was 90 out, and it was right during the peak period. It was hot,” Xcel customer Tony Talarico said. “Normally, when we see a message like that, we’re able to override it. In this case, we weren’t. So, our thermostat was locked in at 78 or 79.”

Company locks customers from changing smart thermostats due to ’energy emergency’

I live in South Florida and its been in the mid 90’s. We keep our thermostat at 78, so these people in Colorado who knowingly signed up for this discount can cry me a river. If you don’t want to let the utility company have control, better read the fine print before signing anything.

+1

regarding the Colorado controls….locally, our power company offered something similar years ago.

we tried it out for two years, but quit after a wedding weekend disaster. we had guests at our house
to attend a cousin’s wedding. the power company reduced power that Saturday morning when the
women were getting ready. the guys got up early and were already done. lights dimmed,
a/c (June wedding) slowed, and the electric water heater would not get the water hot enough
to satisfy them. crying, vulgar language, and nasty phone calls to the power company.

yes, we read the fine print.
everything was fine for a “normal” weekend,
but there was no override option for a Full Blast.
the power company discontinued the program
after they changed the meters to “smart” ones.
now, they probably have all the control they want.

In general power are “cheapest” in Denmark during the night, but can also be “cheap” in the daytime if it is windy.
Still there are talks to cut the power tax down to the EU minimum of 0.08 Dkkr, which is about 0.80 Dkkr cheaper for each KW/h

Still dont amount to much VS what the price have gone up, some people ( small family ) with 2 heat pumps for heating the house now look at a electric bill of 30.000 Dkkr / about 4000 USD, in a normal year they would get a bill 1/3 of that.
So a 4000 DKkr annual saving on power tax, well a drop in the ocean with current prices.

I blame the truly guilty ones, our politicians, if they was sane not a single one of them would have talked to Putin since he came to power, and sure as hell not made them self dependent of anything from that guy.

Even in normal circumstances the power price in Denmark are top 3 world wide, if not #1 ( that would be the average price in the course of a year )

I am old enough to remember the 70ties when the Arabs held the oil knife to our throats, i can not state how important it is to NOT rely on those people for anything too.

Le’me tell ya’
90 in Colorado is a long way from 90 in Florida where the humidity matches the temperature!
All the Best,
Jeff

If the grid cannot accommodate 20 EV’s, how is it going to accommodate hundreds of millions of EV’s.

The politicians are selling us a huge mouse trap and we are falling right into it.

Shame on them but more so shame on us.

Old house (and old wiring, haha), don’t intend to stay here forever, so no AC anywhere in the house except in one room that I don’t even use.

I use the down-south method of “cooling”, ie, close off everything facing the sunny south, use the chimney effect to draw in cooler shaded air from in back, let heat rise, and let it escape out the attic window. Still hot as ambient outside air, but very little greenhousing.

So for those “suffering” in 78° dry air, let me play the world’s smallest violin…

One simple fact of 21st-century life, 50 years after our people were playing golf on the moon, is that middle-class people should never have to give a second thought to having the exact inside temperature they desire in their home, and much less to whether they will have electricity that day at all.

This,
If only we could have frozen world population growth 100 years ago or so - It might have happened.

And LB - So true about humidity.
Where you live a swamp cooler is useless. In dry climates one can get the house down right chilly after the sun goes down.

Back when I was renting an old house to live in, a cheap window unit in the bedroom was a life saver on hot humid days.
Also used to hose down the roof after dusk. The water would come off the roof so hot it would burn you.
But with no insulation in the attic, it would help the place cool off for the night.

On EVs. Had one of the first Ford Hybrids. AC would not run when on battery power - well OK, I’m getting great gas mileage.
What’s a little sweat? I could afford the difference in price. And somebody needs to be buying these things to get the ball rolling - so to speak.

The local Ford dealer had no techs “qualified” for the Hybrids. They managed to screw up something almost every service.
Then when the thing was getting on in age, a new set of batteries was 3X the value of the car.
Decided to trade it in while the batts were still going strong.
Never came close to getting the price payback for the extra cost in gas savings.

All the Best,
Jeff

Oh that’s a new one for me, i didn’t know that about the Fords. Seems like a huge oversight not to have working AC in all driving modes.

Unfortunately the Chevy Bolt and Ford E-Mustang EVs are having trouble getting out of the gate—recalls due to battery pack issues.