Featured Potentially really fast charging

i could have predicted it, no need to go to cnn.

in fact, i say they will, instead of could be

 

Hey, my new laptop with a fast charger charges up to 80% in 20 min or less. That's a vast improvement from my other 5 years old laptop.

 

Read the last paragraph. Draws a lot of power (6MW estimated) from the grid.

 

Well, in Europe they are already running 3 phase electrical.

Can’t speak to the prime, but for the smart Cars, overseas you have a 22kW/hr charger option available that, while it takes 6-8 hrs on a level 2 here, they can charge in 45 minutes over there.


iPad ?

 

I think most of the ultra fast chargers right now have local energy storage (batteries?), because it's expensive to get hundreds of kW service to random parking lots.

 

Everywhere in the U.S. has 3 phase power. You'll see three high capacity lines on the pole, and often 3 transformers. It might cost you more to get 3 phase to your block and your house or business.

 

It's probably going to be more complex than just running more wires to those stations. You're going to need to either slow-ramp the draw or have some sort of feedback mechanism to the generator to allow it to increase power to meet the demand. Otherwise at the power levels they're talking about there will be lots of brownouts involved. Get enough of those chargers together and that's a non-trivial load on the power network.

I can see worst case (you've had a blackout), you have a bunch of cars plugged in, now they all come on and all switch on at the same time, now you have an extra megawatt or two of load that suddenly is present on the line. the system may be able to handle that for a few stations but when you have a whole bunch that come on all at once...

 

i'm sure some type of failsafes can be built in

 

Yes, but in Europe they rarely if ever step down to 120v circuits and stuff is wired for 220v, so there's way more high voltage options rather than just the one circuit common for Dryers and ranges in the domestic parts of the US.

For example Bosch makes a little tiny 220v wood chipper for home use that's a beast... I've always wanted one of those but near impossible to get shipped to the US... Still breathing small engine fumes with my wood chippers. I have a 220V electric motor that some day will be mounted to one of my chippers and hopefully powered by a couple racks of old Prius packs wired at 24v with a 220v inverter, but that project has been on the back shelf for a while...

 

New battery chemistries will also need to be developed. This will fry Lithium batteries if done too many times.

 

It's annoying that 220V (or 240V or whatever) appliances are almost non-existent in the US. For example I'd love to have a 220V electric kettle to boil water faster. We're limited to about 1500-1800W here. But 3KW kettles are common in Europe, so they can theoretically boil water twice as fast. I've thought about wiring in a 220V circuit and importing some kitchen appliances, but it's not quite worth the hassle.

And for outdoor power equipment, 120V 12-15A can really limit the amount of work a tool can do. Even though 20A circuits are relatively common, I've literally never seen anything with a 20A plug since there are enough 15A circuits that average people would be confused by a 20A device. Table saws, welders, and EVs are the only things I can think of that commonly use 220V in a garage.

It wouldn't be too hard to transition the US to 220V. The National Electric Code (NEC) could start requiring one 220V outlet in the kitchen and one in the garage for new construction. It would hardly cost anything extra. Companies could start selling high-end 220V appliances for early adopters. People with new houses could buy them, or if someone with an old house wants one badly enough it's not hard to run new wiring. Eventually, after a few decades 220V would be common. Plenty of people are rewiring their garages for EVs, and I think the NEC is requiring (120V 20A) circuits for EV charging in garages, so it's not that big of a step to add 220V as well.

 

There's still not an unlimited amount of power there. I can't find much information, but it looks like around 12.5-15kV is common for distribution lines (3 phase power on regular wooden poles, found almost everywhere). Those lines might carry something like 10MW. If we're talking about charging a few EVs at 350kW (available today Electrify America switches on the first 350 KW Fast Charging station in Chicopee, Mass. ) or more, that's a huge portion of the capacity, not something you can just add without considering the effects, even if it's only used for short intervals.

Having banks of batteries at super fast chargers is an almost ideal solution (except for the cost). If the utility company owned these sites, they could use the battery capacity to stabilize the grid and store extra renewable power without putting any extra burden on EV drivers. The batteries could be used to fast-charge EVs, and they could send power back to the grid when renewable power is not available. For example, probably no one is fast-charging EVs between midnight-6am, so these stations could send power back to the grid during that time. The stations could keep enough charge that an EV can always get at least some fast charge, or maybe they could charge at a lower power if the station's batteries are empty. During the day the stations could recharge on solar power.

 

Excellent points... It's one of those classic notions of the government protecting you from yourself... Kinda like a cop that gives you a ticket for crossing an empty street before the light says you can start walking across it. It's so stupid, but near impossible to argue against.

 

I don't think we have 120V for our safety, more just because that's the way it's always been. European outlets are safer than American because there is no exposed metal if the plug comes slightly loose. The plugs are insulated, with metal only on the tip, and the receptacles are often recessed (depending on the style). We could easily make European style outlets for the US for 240V circuits, and then manufacturers wouldn't even have to make a separate line of 240V appliances for the US market.

 

And if we did that how many of my power bricks wouldn't fit? 4 connected to the apparatus (router, modem, speaker, printer) I'm using to send this. Not to mention phones, chargers, weather stations, etc spread around the house)

 

It's pretty easy to step down to standard 110v as needed... Not so easy to deal with way too many different kinds of plugs and limited number of circuits in a home to step up to more powerful 220v products, especially when you have to import them from Europe.

 

Why doesn’t the US use 220V like everyone else in the world? - Electronic Products

Always been? "Nearly all homes in the US have 240V alternating current lines at the service entrance to the household as well as select locations within the home. The reason it’s 240V is because that’s the power line that has been standardized over here."

There's plenty of details as to what you're saying though in this article quoted above:
Why doesn’t the US use 220V like everyone else in the world? - Electronic Products

 

'probably' being the operative word. Then again, we could talk 'probably' fixing the grid we already have which they're not doing. The prime suspect of these nasty California fires has been Powerline causes. They stuck the wooden power poles right next to the roads, & the first careless car that veers off, bam. Down they go & then you better run for your life if it's a breezy day.

you don't have to have 3 phase coming to your house in order to get it. My dad and I installed machine equipment in the garage that was 3 phase. DIY project was a 3-phase rotary converter motor. They're very efficient - less than 5% loss modernly. If you don't feel comfortable playing with power that can kill you, an electrician can install it for just over $1K.
As for 240v tea kettles? EBay can be your friend.
Xiaomi Mi Smart Electric Water Kettle 1.5L 220V Used PLEASE READ DESCRIPTION 889148525992 | eBay
If your house is wired for an electric dryer and or an electric oven, then yeah, you have a ready-made source to plug in your kettle.
Even faster, if you have an inductive cooktop, as these babies can really heat up fast, without heating up all of the surrounding surfaces.
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