Why wouldn’t fast home charging scale? Presumably, homeowners are doing their own installations.

sandworm101 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

> Why wouldn’t fast home charging scale?

Because current grids are not setup for 10,000-watt chargers in every home and/or parking spot. Just think of trying to provide chargers in an apartment complex, one to each apartment. The power requirements become crazy very quickly. This parallels the issues with rental car companies trying to charge dozens of cars at once, such as at airports. Our grid standards never conceived of such loads becoming commonplace. Whereas today when every EV owner just expects their home charger to be available 24/7, if everyone had an EV some sort of rationing/scheduling would be necessary

Some parts of Canada have already seen this with heat pumps. People were encouraged to switch from natural gas to electric heat pumps. But incentives have been withdrawn as power spikes during cold weather challenge local grids, especially when there is no wind/solar power available locally (think cold winter mornings in the midwest/prairies.)

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rsolva 3 days ago | parent [-]

I always set my eUP to the lowest charging speed at 5A, which is less than many household appliances. No need for quicker charging if I get home in the evening and leave with a full, or close to full battery in the morning.

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sandworm101 3 days ago | parent [-]

The rate doesn't actually matter. Over time and with a large pool of users it all averages out. Whether you charge fast or slow, your EV still consumes the same number of watts per day/week/month to cover your driving. (5A is about 600 watts, which is like having a space heater running: Not a small load.)

	▲	rsolva 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		The wattage matters a great deal to the grid! If a whole neighborhood charges at max speed, that can become a problem. Here in Norway, you can get a discount on your electric bill if you let the grid operator adjust the charging speed at peak hours to help them balance load, and I guess frequency. A sensible approach. 600W is not much, that is an average gaming computer running a somewhat demanding game. Nerds all over the world have this as a multi hour nightly ritual. I choose to charge my car now and then instead :P

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eloisant 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

It's about cheaper parking for EV.

It exists now as an incentive to buy EVs, but as EV become more popular it's bound to disappear.

	▲	germinalphrase 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		Yes - I misread the parent comment. Didn’t realize they were referring to subsidized installation of home chargers.