4 ms·
Petroleum is really frickin' energy-dense (leaving aside the fact that unless you're heating something only a small fraction can be turned into useful work). A
by frankus 15y ago
Petroleum is really frickin' energy-dense (leaving aside the fact that unless you're heating something only a small fraction can be turned into useful work).
A mid-range home EV charger peaks out at about 20kW.
By contrast, the energy flux of a gas pump is around 20MW.
- bhousel 15y agoA mid-range home EV charger (like the GE WattStation), is spec'ed for 30A at 240V, which is 7.2kW, not 20kW. You might be confused because a typical battery in an EV is around 20+kWh, which is why it takes a few hours for the wall charger to charge it! For comparison, a 20kW load would draw 83A at 240V. A smallish pole mounted utility transformer may supply 20kW. Of course, none of it detracts from your point that petroleum is very energy dense :)
- frankus 15y agoGood point. Most homes around here are wired with 200A, 240V power, so a 20kW charger would eat up about half of that. So a 7.2kW charger is about 2500 times slower than a fast gas pump. Even slow gas pump (say 10MW), used with a conventional engine (say 20% efficient), compared with a state-of-the-art fast charger (say 200kW) would still be ten times as fast in a miles-per-hour contest. EVs make up for this somewhat by being able to charge anywhere that has a decent supply of electricity for hours at a time, but it still shows you what they're up against.