He drives an electric truck in Yellowknife, but his home can't handle the charger it came with
He drives an electric truck in Yellowknife, but his home can't handle the charger it came with
A Yellowknife man bought a fully electric truck, expecting to install the 80 amp Level 2 charger it came with at his home. Then he found out he'd need to pay $12,000 to upgrade a transformer in his neighbourhood to make it work.
Sounds like he needed to ask questions before making the purchase.
Northland Utilities told him he'd have to pay $12,000 to upgrade the transformer in his neighbourhood as well.
He can be forgiven for not asking if he would have to upgrade his grid
I'm sure the dealership that sold him the truck didn't bother to make sure it would work either.
He clearly didn't do his research and now he's bitching about paying to make it work.
I do find it unrealistic to pay to upgrade a transformer. That's the utility's job ffs.
At least he can use a regular outlet until then but he should have asked more questions before buying an expensive electric truck.
Like how we ask pointed questions about the airplane we're about to fly on instead of just assuming some level of competence, maintenance and capacity improvements and safety.
Hey, when you were taking the course and attending the meetings describing everything you may ever need to know about your power grid so you could ask all these questions, did they serve lunch? Was it hard to schedule with the similar courses and meetings with the water company? Mine were so hard to get scheduled, but I think they just didn't have enough people to present the infrastructure and code compliance docs that space just seemed tight.
Lol, that must have been after the courses describing all the laws in my country, how to pay taxes, and general adulting - which somehow I missed. As a kid I thought that might be how that worked, but it turns out there is too and you have to go out of your way to learn some of those things.
For anyone not reading the article.
The truck came with an 80 AMP charger (I'm assuming it's the one that also lets the truck power the house).
His house is currently only a 100 AMP service, so he would need to update the panel to 200 AMP.
The transformer his house uses and shared with his neighbors is already at capacity and would need to be upgraded (that's the bulk of the 12k charge)
He ended up installing a different 30AMP charger which is still more than he needs (I believe he also acknowledged that the 15 AMP household outlet would also have worked for his needs)
The $12000 charge from the utility is a "fuck off" fee.
It's not like the next person to build a house in the area is going to pay for a new distribution transformer. That's not how things work.He made the right call in just getting the 30A charger. Even if he drained it down to almost nothing, he'd still be fully charged overnight.
The average Canadian commute is less than 100km round trip, even a 15amp charger can do that overnight (and it's better for the battery). People's fixation on recharging their car is the result of shit reporting and anti-electrification propaganda. No one complains that they can't charge their phone in under 5 min, why should a car be any different?
I do complain about this. I have other devices with swappable batteries. I leave one on the charger at all times for instant recharging. I would like this on my phone too, but a car would be impractical.
Just install a smaller charger? 80 amps is a fuckton of power.
It says that's what he did in the first sentence of the article...
CBC needs to fuck off with anti-electrification propaganda.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
In an emailed statement to CBC News, Jay Massie, ATCO Electric's VP of northern development and Indigenous relations, said the need for infrastructure upgrades for Level 2 chargers can vary significantly.
"It is important to understand that a power system's costs, maintaining and replacing all electrical infrastructure, are set in approved rates, and borne by all customers," Massie said.
Jeff Philipp, who also drives an electric vehicle in Yellowknife, told CBC News in an email a Level 2 charger in the North is like a garage: "very nice to have, but not essential," he wrote.
Mark Heyck, the executive director of the Arctic Energy Alliance in Yellowknife, agrees Level 2 chargers are not necessary for owning an electric vehicle in the N.W.T.
Heyck and Massie both urged people considering installing an electric vehicle charger at home to contact an electrician.
Heyck has heard anecdotally of people who don't have adequate electric service for the installation of Level 2 chargers at home.
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