OK so perhaps all my research into affordable energy and housing could be summarized in my latest purchase. Two days before Christmas 2025, I purchased a used Chevy Bolt. This car is spec'd at around 200 miles per full charge. Well the first thing to note as that you really get about 130 miles per charge during a sub zero (Fahrenheit) winter.
But the bigger breakthrough here is that an EV can charge off of your house electric outlets. Not only that, the electricity is cheaper than gas (below 50 cents USD per kWh). Not only that, but this can be thrown into reverse and you can use your EV car battery during a power outage to power your appliances.
That's all well and good, but here's the trick. Your house grid electricity fluctuates in price as the peak times of day are reached. As you can imagine, more people pull electricity in the mornings before work and around dinner time. This means the electric utility has to charge more for the electricity that is used during these times.
Out of the box, the car comes with a 110V AC charger. It says it's rated for up to 220V, but the plug is definitely a 110V plug. The trouble is it takes two days of charging to charge the Chevy bolt from empty to full from a 110V outlet.
That means, that you would be charging your car most certainly during the peak electric price times of day.
So to avoid this, use your 220V dryer outlet to charge your EV overnight. That way it can charge the car from empty to full at the target time of day for the best electric rates, which is overnight.
The other way to avoid this is to charge your EV using solar. But a 220V AC solar inverter is going to cost you well over $200 (not mentioning the battery array that would be strong enough to pull that kind of current).
No comments:
Post a Comment