Archive for August 2014
Public EVSE Violator – Gashole
I’ve endured over 3 years of this. The gloves have come off.
Fuel Cell Vehicles
None of the Hydrogen compliance-vehicle cheer-leading articles mention the inherent inefficiencies with the proton exchange membrane. Basically, a FCV is an EV with an H2 tank and PEM. Everything else is the same. Even to store the regen power, like all EV/Hybrids it needs a battery (hmm really?). PEMs are between 50-60% efficient, compare that to a battery at 95-99%.
There’s two ways of making H2:
Methane reformation (greenhouse gasses) so the environmental camp is out. Enough said here.
Water electrolysis, basically that science class experiment. Clean, and be powered by ELECTRICITY, hopefully from renewable resources (again count out the eco crowd if not). If you take that electricity and electrolyze water you get approx 83% efficiency. Compare that to 95-99% for charging an EV with that same ELECTRICITY.
Overall an EV “tank” to wheels efficiency is 67-81%, a FCV tank to wheels efficiency is 30-45%. That is better than 20 to 30% that is gasoline and diesel, but not by much.
The only reason FCVs have any interest is the quasi-clean image with range greater than current EVs. If Tesla says a 200 mile $35k EV is in the works, then what’s the purpose of FCVs?
BTW we can all make the fuel for EVs at home. FCVs are dependent on H2-producing corporations.
Pleasant Hill Upgrade Update 4
Looks like all four stalls will be marked as EV only! Thank you Pleasant Hill.
Pleasant Hill Upgrade Update 3
Only two of the four stalls at Pleasant Hill theatre garage will be posted as EV only stalls, says Pleasant Hill City officials:
Devin, fyi, under the code you cited, the City is not required to designated these spaces for EV’s only but may do so. In the case of the Downtown Parking Garage, we will be designated two of the four spaces as EV only; the other two spaces may be used by all cars. All four spaces will also have a 3-hour parking limit. Both spaces at City Hall will be EV only also with a 3-hr limit.
My response:
You’re right, without signage they are just parking stalls with optional EV charging. Since they can only be called EV stalls if they are marked as such per CVC 22511.
My inquiry was to find out whether or not Pleasant Hill had plans to mark them, officially bringing the city wide (public) total to 6 marked EV stalls.
It’s very unfortunate only two will be marked at the garage. It’s good to know that City Hall will have two.
I’d like to thank Pleasant Hill City for the $0.2/kWh scheme as it detours unnecessary utilization.
FYI, Martinez has 6 newly marked EV stalls at one location, 9 total city wide. Brentwood has 9 marked EV stalls at City Hall alone.
Vehicle of the Future 