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Electric Vehicles: Terrible in Cold Weather, So Add Chemical Energy Complexity?
Related: BIBO, climate science, cognitive dissonance, diesel fuel, dumb energy, electric vehicle, follow the money, follow the self-interest, GIGO, rationalization, virtue signaling, woke psychopathology
re: electric vehicles
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re: ChatGPT: Calculating EV Charging Power Requirements
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ICE = Internal Combustion Engine
EV = electric vehicle
Real science is never settled, and anyone who has certainty on such things is not qualified to discuss it.
EVs are crap in the cold. And the idea of heating a Sprinter van or other large EV in the cold with electricity from batteries is batshit crazy.
Hence the rollout of dumb-ass products like the eSprinter, whose battery pack is 26X too small (according to my estimates based on real usage of my Sprinter*). Another science fair project.
Replacing a time-proven outstanding energy density system (ICE) with a fundamentally nonsensical way of storing energy eg heavy batteries witih very low energy density compared to liquid fuel... is batshit crazy.
So what do you do to fix the 'stupid' in an EV? Add complexity!
* I estimate that I’d need a 3 megawatt (3000 kilowatt) battery pack to deliver something approaching what the 48.6 gallon diesel fuel tank in my diesel Sprinter can deliver. Which I can refill in ~7 minutes for $200 instead vs 7 hours or maybe 7 days eg 3000 kW @ $0.26 kW = $780. But the eSprinter has a toy 115 kW battery pack, 26X too small. A Sprinter with a 3 MW battery pack would also weigh 15000 pounds or more, drastically cutting range in mountains, and turning it into a battering ram that would endanger anything it contacted. Even if you cut the power pack in half, it’s absurd. And the Sprinter can not only heat the cabin with its ample waste heat, it can also generate 1.5 kW of elecricity at 800 rpm at just 0.8 gallons/hour. And with a 2nd alternator, it can generate ~3 kW while driving all while heating the cabin.
Microwave Energy Could Fix The Biggest Problem Facing EVs
2024-02-26
According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), an EV can lose as much as 12% of its range when temperatures drop to 20 degrees, and as much as 41% if you turn on the cabin heater. In other words, for every 100 miles of combined urban/highway driving at 20°F temperatures, the range of an EV drops to 59 miles. Range loss due to low temperatures varies according to the EV model, with...
Researchers from the University of Birmingham are working on an energy storage system that combines microwave energy and a chemical heat pump to produce heating or cooling on demand.
Dubbed e-Thermal bank, the system is designed as a secondary energy source for EVs that can harness electricity to drive a high-density (1600Wh/Kg) thermochemical-based system. The thermal bank is ‘charged’ at the EV charging station by using microwave energy to dissociate a solid-vapor working pair.
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WIND: let’s see... burn fossil fuels to make electricity, then convert that electricity to microwaves to store chemical potential energy... what does that remind me of?
Batteries with 10X the energy density would make EVs a non science-fair project. Along with cheap nuclear power. Then and only then. Someday?
How about just adding a gas or diesel heater to the EV? Also known as an "engine" in an ICE, although there are small and extremely efficient heaters for Sprinter vans and similar. How stupid is this stuff going to become?
