Most people use their cars during the day and sleep at night. They charge when they are sleeping.
AI's strain on power markets
- Thread starter buster
- Start date
In residential areas with no TOD utility cost changes my guess is most people arrive home from work and plug them in, which also happens to coincide with peak demand. Possibly I am wrong, but that is what I would do.
If there is no incentive to charge off-peak, I have to believe you are right.
What's funny is, if the grid could handle it, perhaps I should charge in the afternoon to align with peak renewable energy generation instead of aligning with time-of-use costs?
There are no commercially functioning SMR's in the western world yet I don't think, and I don't believe anything China "says" they did - could be smoke and mirrors for all we know. Promising for sure, but not here yet.
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I'd love some panels for my system, especially in the summer. All our appliances are natural gas (dryer, furnace, water heater, generator, outdoor grill, oven, stovetop) so with LED lamps our electrical consumption is practically nil in the winter, but it would come in handy with AC in the summer as you note. Unfortunately for 2025 we have very little in the way of an incentive here. With our low natural gas cost I need an absorption system
No, maybe commuters do? But not multi EV families and retired people. And what is "most" of 50 million vehicles if EVs ever become more than a niche market?
//.. and since this is about AI ... do you think AI is going to stop using power overnight?
We keep commenting on the current market for EVs not the reality if they ever became popular to the point of competing with gasoline and AI competing with power.
SO what is that most in hard numbers? 3% of the vehicles on the road?
Also not everyone pays more for electricity during the day.
and ...
How are 2 or 3 family cars going to charge up all at one time? (please dont answer*LOL*)
Switch has built several gigantic (city block sized) data centers here in the last few years. Google also has a sizable center here.
I'm going to have to look more into how they are feeding them.
We did just loose 2 Tesla Megapacks.
https://www.fox5vegas.com/2025/09/24/fire-breaks-out-solar-power-plant-boulder-city/
I'm going to have to look more into how they are feeding them.
We did just loose 2 Tesla Megapacks.
https://www.fox5vegas.com/2025/09/24/fire-breaks-out-solar-power-plant-boulder-city/
Just look at the waiting times for steam turbines. There's not any new power generation projects coming online for years to come. Nuclear or other, unless the project started years ago.
You can split the circuit to accomodate multiple Wallchargers. That's a key benefit of the Wallcharger...
I used to use a NEMA 14-50. An electrician friend installed the Wallcharger.
EVs are very popular around here. Perhaps close to half the neighbors on my street have an EV; some are EV only. And many others have hybrids. That's what the cost of gasoline will drive consumers to.
Yes but cant fully charge three vehicles in one night.
Hybrids run on gasoline and a statement to the usefulness and convenience of gasoline.
Even at my cheap electricity rates, it's starting to look better. It will still probably never pay for itself, but, being somewhat immune to grid outages is what I'm after, not necessarily the cheapest power possible.
I was quoted a 31 panel, 14KW system with Tesla Powerwall 3 for $41K out the door before the tax credit. I probably will not do it at this time for personal reasons, but if the prices keep falling, I might just. I realize the tax credit is expiring but, we'll see what happens with the prices. I don't think it's unreasonable to think they will continue to decline, they always have.
I suppose someone might suggest just doing the panels. I won't do solar without some sort of battery system, after the winter storm in 2021, having my own source of electricity would be one of the primary reasons for doing it in the first place. And if you do the panels at one time and the battery at another time, you're increasing your installation costs.
Why not? No one runs the battery down to zero and most charge to 80% regularly. I charge to 75% unless I am going further.
AG, IMO, much of what people seem to think about EV ownership is not reality. You learn. That's my experience.
According to whom, exactly? I have no problem charging two up to 90% every night, and often before midnight. Adding a third would be more of a question of how much space I have in my driveway than not having enough juice in my utility service.
Maybe not possible for everyone, really depends on duty cycle and vehicle used. If you have 3 Silverado EVs with the big 200KWH batteries and you're expecting to charge all 3 from 5-100% every night on a 200A service, that's probably not going to work.
But for most people who have a 200A service? Probably not an issue.
Throwing out blanket statements is what the anti-ev crowd loves to do. The correct answer is that it's use case specific.
I don't have a Power wall. It's possible that one day in the future, I may. Prices permitting... Right now I am happy with my solar projects; sometimes you get lucky.
I'd be more likely to buy the batteries without the solar, than the solar without the batteries.
Prices were far different in early 2018. Mine as switched on in March 2018.
You can set most EVs to start taking charge on a schedule. Both of mine can do it. But with power the same price 24x7, there is no incentive to do so. We plug in when we get home, also.
for sure, battery costs have fallen quite a bit since then.
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