Take your blinkers off. A lot of people don't NEED to be driving. Some do. Maybe those who don't should get out of their cars and leave more room for those who do.
I used to ride my bike home 15 km in the freezing cold rain after working as a "tradie" at 1 in the morning. And I'm not even especially tough.
sr2,
Jun 12, 10:13pm
And, the point you're trying to make?
sr2,
Jun 13, 11:30am
Have to say I have a great solar system on my boat that keeps the engine battery and two large domestics topped up over the winter months when it gets little use, (yes I know call me a fair-weather sailor!). The technology has improved in leaps and bounds over the last two decades.
I work as a contract project manager and although my background is in mechanical engineering increasing of late I have been working on cost/benefit analyses that involve the alternative use of power, (it's a hot topic). Last year we were part way through a rollout of 30 new electric hoists (replacing an older 50% LPG fleet) in a large distribution center. I was asked to look at the viability of using part or all of the 14,000 square meter roof to charge the hoists. With a company that size financing large projects is never an issue as long as the numbers add up - and here lies the catch. Despite having a number of companies vying to sell me on their systems and access to an electrical engineering consultant company we could not come up with a solution that was in any way economically viable. As the CEO put it, ‘great job guys but no cigar’.
Bottom line was that even with the economy of scale behind us we could not justify the investment through cost benefit and/or payback period. I wonder how well the average small domestic system would withstand such scrutiny?
bill1451,
Jun 13, 1:45pm
Road user charges COMING by end of thhe year so EV,S will be on a parity with ice CARS to run.
harm_less,
Jun 13, 2:43pm
The government have already hinted at extending the RUC (and probably therefore ACC levy) holiday for EVs.
In any case it will take a lot more than an extra 7c/km (if EVs are even charged at that rate) to bring their running costs up to that of a fossil fueler.
We don't use enough power for solar panels to make economic sense. The house is perfectly situated for them though.
harm_less,
Jun 13, 5:13pm
What's your current annual electricity spend, and how much do you expect electricity prices to rise in the next decade or two?
elect70,
Jun 13, 5:48pm
As china holds all the lithium & make most of the EVs cant se them dropping the price , little competition so no incentive . . Used luxury cars in NZ will hold their price & utes for at least next 5 years .
We are with Powershop and spend maybe $1500 per year on average. If the power price doubles to 60c kw/h then a solar system starts to make more sense.
sr2,
Jun 13, 9:14pm
Mate; no offence intended but if I turned up with that as a well researched coherent cost benefit analysis my CEO would have difficulty suppressing his laughter as he directed me to the local WINZ dole que.
mine is 22.00 a month and 1 LPG bottle fill a year for heating hot water for shower work out my total energy spend for a two bedroom house is $ 636.00 a year. (my wood for heating is almost free, takes me a saturday afternoon and 40.00 bucks of diesel to have a winter load of firewood), Now if a solar system costs 20k, it would take me 31.4 years to pay it off using the saving.
framtech,
Jun 13, 11:10pm
this .
ofaatudesigns,
Jun 14, 8:13am
What is your daily charge for the electricity, and how many units are you using per month please?
Also the Stuff article assumes people will charge from a 10 amp socket. Most EV owners will upgrade to a 15 amp socket, if not a dedicated 3-7kW charge unit. 7kW is a 6 hour charge for a 40 kWh battery, though the Leaf will restrict that to 3.3kW so all night charge time.
harm_less,
Jun 14, 10:10am
The calculator in the link I posted was in reply to your question "I wonder how well the average small domestic system would withstand such scrutiny?"
Just Google 'NZ Solar farms' . There are no shortage of examples.
framtech,
Jul 25, 11:40am
don't know, don't care just pay the bill at end of month, I just have a policy of turn it off if you are not using it, works for me.
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