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Electric Cars.


Cuban8
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3 hours ago, Martin Harris - Moderator said:

Just don’t forget that those of us doing so are helping subsidise your use of the roads. 

I think it only fair we should acknowledge the subsidies handed out to ICE drivers:

 

Autumn Budget

 

Fuel duty has been frozen since 2011 and now reduced:

 

Fuel duty rates 2022-2023

 

As the saying goes “the only two certainties in life are death and taxes” ?
 

idd

 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, IDD15 said:

I think it only fair we should acknowledge the subsidies handed out to ICE drivers:

 

Autumn Budget

 

Fuel duty has been frozen since 2011 and now reduced:

 

Fuel duty rates 2022-2023

 

As the saying goes “the only two certainties in life are death and taxes” ?
 

idd

 

 

I think the increased VAT total collected on fuel more than justifies any small reduction in fuel duty!

 

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3 hours ago, Rich Griff said:

 

Is it true that, a private solar panel roof "must" sell the electricity produced to the "grid" these days ?

 

Only what you don't use..................

 

My son is about to have a few panels fitted, as they are out at work most of the day, he's going to set it up to heat his hot water via the immersion heater during the day rather than from the gas central heating.

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14 hours ago, J D 8 said:

Save the planet, keep the old ones going.  The carbon foot print from producing this one went up 32 years ago. Still my main work truck-local run around and even takes models to the strip.:classic_biggrin:

Land rover.jpg

Absolutely JD, go for it. Probably not a cheap option but may be worth enquiring?


Fully Charged Green Laning

Things get really interesting though when you stick a motor on each wheel…

 

Rivian

 

cheers

idd

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14 hours ago, Rich Griff said:

 

I will probably never have any money to buy an electric car.

 

If I did win on the lottery I would never spend mega bucks on a car, or anything else for that matter, apart from a multi purpose van perhaps.

 

I will keep the pug ( 2001 year hdi estate 126k miles 60mpg ) going for as long as possible.

 

The fiesta, 1.1 petrol tax and mot exempt will do about 50mpg but needs some cash injection to make it mot able.

 

Retirement project when the pension comes thru. Sadly only 11 large banana boxes will fit in it !

 

Rich

This may get you an electric car and prove an interesting retirement project in one. Keep that Fiesta going!

 

Electric car kit

 

cheers

 

idd

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I believe there is a company in n mid Wales/Aberystwyth area that does conversions ?

 

But would a convertion to electric change its status tax wise, insurance wise ?

 

Electric motor driving the gear box, so a clutch needed ?

 

Regency braking, and electric vacuum um pump for brake booster, tank area for battery ?

 

Then there's the cost ?

 

Better option fit a 1.3 engine ?

 

5 main hearing crank, fi and ECU for tight fuel control...

 

Or leave as a 1.1 ( 1117cc ) which is quite nippy anyway ?

 

I excellent condition and it's reg number it would be worth quite a bit.

 

Fifi has quite an emotional attachment, it was my aunt's car.

 

Tax and mot exempt so worth some cash injection.

 

I don't need Aircon, sat NovAV, WiFi, power steering, electric windows, auto hand brake or any of the other moronic things modern car have.

 

Yes, airbags are a good idea as well as abs...

 

Economy is what we need, and reliability.

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17 hours ago, Frank Skilbeck said:

 

Only what you don't use..................

 

My son is about to have a few panels fitted, as they are out at work most of the day, he's going to set it up to heat his hot water via the immersion heater during the day rather than from the gas central heating.


Indeed. Without the generous feed in tariffs of yesteryear the model for domestic solar has really changed; getting the quickest payback is all about consuming as much of what you generate on-site in order to avoid paying for expensive electricity from the grid.
 

That is why we have specked a 5.2 KWh battery in our new install, it should enable us to be about ~85% electricity independent over the course of the year (it is a big system on a perfectly south facing roof). Without the battery we’d only be ~72% independent and payback is estimated to be a year longer despite the lower upfront costs. We’ve also gone for a solar iBoost system to top up the hot water via the immersion when we have an excess of solar, though apparently it can be entertaining getting the battery and iBoost to work together effectively! Ultimately though  I suspect domestic battery systems may get superseded once EVs are more widespread and have V2G (vehicle to grid) capability as std.

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The Welsh company is featured in a tv programme , quoting prices for a comprehensive  conversion at £30,000 up.  One conversion was a Ferrari which had its engine stolen and it was cheaper to go electric, faster into the bargain. Transition One  seems more realistic   at 5,000 euros for a town runabout rather than a performance showoff. thought provoking  thanks IDD

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5k£ or there about a, naaaaaa...

 

Even if I won the lottery, naaaaaa...

 

She was born a petrol car so can stay that way....but a diesel version was made....

 

She is tax and mot exempt so she can stay as she is, a peppy 1.1 with relatively good mpg.

 

She will leave an mg metro behind and did a ton one morning on the racetrack to work.....I was quite naughty that morning.

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11 hours ago, Rich Griff said:

I don't need Aircon, sat NovAV, WiFi, power steering, electric windows, auto hand brake or any of the other moronic things modern car have.

 

Yes, airbags are a good idea as well as abs...

 

Economy is what we need, and reliability.

 

Aircon - yes please

satNovAV (eh?) no ta but bluetooth - yes please

WiFi - ?

Power steering - yes please

electric windows - yes please

Auto handbrake - for me no;  for my wife, yes please

 

Why are these moronic?

 

Economy needed - tick

Reliability - tick

 

Plus..... comfort and enjoyment. If you dive 5 hours a day, economy and reliability are not necessarily top of the list.

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17 hours ago, john davidson 1 said:

Transition One  seems more realistic   at 5,000 euros for a town runabout rather than a performance showoff.

 

Or, buy a 10 year old Leaf for the same money.

 

I have to say I don't see the point in this particular market myself. Obviously they have a lot of interest. I'd also assume that's not a new battery going in? Just appears that a straight motor swap seems to be the worst of all worlds, keeping the box and clutch of an ICE drivetrain.

 

That said, the real stickler for me is that the old affordable second hand cars currently come with old and "well used" (read, big loss of range) batteries. And it seems we're still awaiting a reasonable replacement battery service to be offered for this kind of price point.

 

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18 hours ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:

What did your battery and switching system cost Matty ?, I have 20 panels on my roof so worth looking into,,,

 

We have bought the GivEnergy system - it is a British owned company and seems to be well thought of, with a long warranty (10 years) on the battery. Obviously whatever you choose though you are relying on them still trading for the duration of that warranty period!

 

This should give you an idea on costs, though ours was a fair bit cheaper as VAT was recently scrapped from all solar and battery installs. Unfortunately though it looks like you still pay VAT on retrospective battery installs that go in after your panels, though with such a big array I suspect you would still see a pretty rapid payback given current energy costs.

Edited by MattyB
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We had a GivEnergy system installed in January this year @MattyB, 11 panels, 3.6kW hybrid inverter and 5.2kWh battery.  The system has performed faultlessly so far and output peaks at about 3.5kW up to yet.  The panels all face SW.  They improved the monitoring app recently so that it polls the system locally and updates at 10 second intervals.  I think I should have bought a larger battery but otherwise very satisfied.  We rarely suffer power outages here so haven't missed the ability to "island" and power the house during an outage.

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On 04/05/2022 at 15:59, Nigel R said:

 

Devil's advocate:

 

How are the lifetime environmental costs of solar PV looking these days?

 

China made panels (coal electric, poor mining practices, etc etc) with UK sunlight levels didn't look so good last time I checked - things may have changed though. Panels manufactured elsewhere (clean electric in germany) were pricey and had massive payback times - again, things may have changed...

 

 

Missed this post earlier, and it definitely deserves a response...

 

The short answer to your environmental costs question is "extremely good". Whilst I agree the overall environmental credentials of EVs in terms of lifecycle carbon emissions can be difficult to make work unless you were already a high mileage IC driver, that really isn't the case with solar. This is due to the advances in panel performance, durability and manufacture in the last 10 years + rapidly rising energy prices.

 

Even if they are produced with the dirtiest coal (which I accept some of the cheaper panels probably are), solar panels today have such long operational lifespans and improved efficiency that they are massively carbon reducting over the course of their lifetime. To give you some idea here are real world stats (i.e. adjusted for specific geographic position in the UK, panel direction, shading etc.) for our install - it uses panels from REC, manufactured in Singapore or Norway, with a warranty offering >92% output guaranteed at 25 years:

 

image.png.a943107e602e10ee8ee46ae070e60e4f.png

 

Caveats

  • The carbon figures above don't include the battery system, as those weren't provided in the quote; this is purely for the solar panels and inverter setup
  • Our installation is a big one, and is almost perfectly due south with no shading. Installations that aren't so well optimsed won't have quite such such good figures.

So in summary our panels are carbon neutral after ~2 years in terms of pure manufacture. Even if we assume that a combination of "dirty" manufacture (which these definitely aren't, I've researched that) and the carbon cost of transport and installation double that figure, we are still only talking about a CO2 payback of a maximum of 4 years, but they will be generating for a minimum of 25 years, almost certainly longer. Yes you can argue there are better financial investments out there, but for us the value of being 80+% energy independent and knowing our bills can't really increase dramatically in the future is well worth that.

 

Edited by MattyB
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1 hour ago, Tim Kearsley said:

We had a GivEnergy system installed in January this year @MattyB, 11 panels, 3.6kW hybrid inverter and 5.2kWh battery.  The system has performed faultlessly so far and output peaks at about 3.5kW up to yet.  The panels all face SW.  They improved the monitoring app recently so that it polls the system locally and updates at 10 second intervals.  I think I should have bought a larger battery but otherwise very satisfied.  We rarely suffer power outages here so haven't missed the ability to "island" and power the house during an outage.

 

Good to hear ?. We know that our battery won't be big enough to soak up all the excesss solar on good days, but we will have an EV within 18 months whcih will do that job whenever it is on the drive.

 

Edited by MattyB
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