EVs

Brother in Law works at STL Metro bus service, mechanic. He was referencing the company bought four all electric battery powered buses last year but been unable to utilize them as when go to charge them the excess amp draw trips the local substation bot just in house breakers. Tried several different regional yard shops to same result.

So Metro and my previous employer agreed to a mutually finances separate and single service supply substation for Six charging stations at One facility
Are now able to charge the four buses het takes six hours to be able to operate for four hours. All have had to be towed back to the garage as battery power decreased too low at just over three hours and shut the system down to preclude damaging itself.

Electrical suppliers are being informed that a separate 200a service at each home just to supply a Car charger will be a new NEC code, will require replacing nearly every distribution transformer in service today and will end up requiring replacement of nearly every area supply substation transformer. Lines will have to be upscaled and generation Increased to support this.

Geothermal here would require a Deep bore hole.
Not enough heat until reach thousands of feet. Need at least 400 degrees to generate any reasonable level of steam to bring the heat out. Now in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana are hot spots and hot ground springs, could likely get to a source but then have earthquake and volcano considerations.
Geothermal Ground Source heat pumps are a different story.

converting over the electrical system will take TIME... Just look how long it took to conver the old analog 320 dot TV system to the new digital 4K !!!   Time frame was move several times.... "OLD SCHOOL" houses / buildings were 60 amp service... Then everything was changed to 100 amp service. Some have 200 amp (home) already... having more power available never hurts.... Might take 40 years to get everything done.

jaybmiller wrote: yeah, 200A service as most homes have at LEAST 2 cars. ka-ching !!! '22 'Mustangs' battery will cost $16000 Canucks every 8 years to replace. if I knew I'd live longer, I'd go geothermal to generate both heat and power.

 

I appreciate your "body says no" to the wood cutting/splitting/ feeding that particular beast, but I do work for a homeowner that has WATER FURNACE brand of GT heat/cooling that spends at a minimum of $800/year in maintenance on the unit. Between the well (it's shared with the homes water supply) and the initial cost of the unit, they claim they won't recoup their investment until 2035 (it was installed in 2014).

Our Ground SOURCE, not true Geo'Thermal', is 3-500' loops at 5'-6' below grade.  No real annual maintenance, as noted is a Antifreeze(Not Automotive grade) loaded where will operate to 10 degrees F loop temp.  Neighbor has a dedicated 4 deepwell loop and antifreeze system and is nowhere near as efficient as ours financially.  Our home is 1850sf ground floor, with a walkout 1400sf lower level, we pay on average $170/mo heat or ac which includes heat and cool on 1/3 of my worksop space, they have a 1980sf story and half with a full basement yet pay close to $300/mo average just on the house.  

Edited by DMiller - 17 Jul 2021 at 5:00am

john(MI) wrote: Our house was built in 78 and has a 200 amp service. Just lease the battery cars for 2 or 3 years then the battery problem is solved.

Edited by DMiller - 17 Jul 2021 at 2:33pm

i wonder if these batteries will be in a few years like the catilatic converters were when they first came out, we couldn't give them away then, nor did the scrap yards want them. now they are a very hot item!