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Why do EVs mostly be charged at night? We have electricity run to almost everywhere there is a road, and every building that we spend any significant amount of
by dghlsakjg 5y ago
Why do EVs mostly be charged at night?
We have electricity run to almost everywhere there is a road, and every building that we spend any significant amount of time in. We can charge at work or on the street during the day. Basically anywhere a car is stationary.
With the right incentives and infrastructure we can shift electric vehicle charging to daytime, or whenever there is excess generating ability coming from the grid.
- shapefrog 5y ago> whenever there is excess generating ability coming from the grid That would be nighttime.
- ZeroGravitas 5y agoTrue, though it depends on energy mix and location, and all day on weekends are also often similar. If any of your local electricity providers have a variable time of use tariff, that's a pretty good guide to when the cheapest (and often, but not always, the greenest) electricity is available. Some EVs can automatically charge at these times, and sometimes you get discounts for charging at these times, but you can also usually just set a timer on your charger. https://www.oeb.ca/consumer-information-and-protection/electricity-rates#main https://www.oeb.ca/consumer-information-and-protection/elect... For example the above suggests it's usually nighttime, but weekends and statutory holidays are also good. As an aside, I wonder how much money an economy could save by having a new "cheap electricity holiday' which chooses one or two days a year that they announce a month in advance as national holidays when an extreme weather event is predicted.
- dghlsakjg 5y agoI live in a province where 90%+ of electrical power comes from hydro sources. Essentially we can arbitrarily scale for time of day demand to a pretty large degree.
- robertlagrant 5y ago> Why do EVs mostly be charged at night? Because most people don't drive at night.
- ciphol 5y agoMost people don't drive all day long either. They drive half an hour at a time several times a day, going to work or school or the mall and back. The remaining ~22 hours a day are available for charging. If a country has abundant solar power (probably not Finland!) it would make more sense to wire up workplace parking lots so that EVs could absorb the excess midday electricity.
- robertlagrant 5y agoSure, but at night the car will probably be in place for, say, 10 hours, every night. Not faffing jumping between places and trying to find a public charging point. Even just driving to work and charging there is say 6 hours of continuous charging. The main block of time will still be at night.
- ciphol 5y ago6 hours charging is more than enough for work/school/shopping. On the rare occasion that you want to drive all day, you can add a night charge to that (before or after the drive as appropriate). Overall, the large majority of charging will (or can) be during the day.
- robertlagrant 5y agoI'm answering the question "why are most charged at night?" There's no point reading what I'm saying in isolation!
- ncmncm 5y agoAlso: people who live in apartments will generally find it easier to find a place to charge at work.