• @aubeynarf
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    2 days ago

    How much of your EV charging money goes out the power plant smokestack, into the river/cooling tower, or heats up the air around the electrical wiring though?

    i’m a proponent of EV’s, even when they charge from fossil powered grids, because of the thermodynamic efficiency gain.

    But ragememes, no. Let’s not be like that.

    • @[email protected]OP
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      2 days ago

      In most places, at most times of day, a lot less.

      Why? First, because a lot of electricity is generated using wind, water, solar, and nuclear. Those don’t have that problem (ok, nuclear wastes a lot of heat, but really, who cares). The second reason is that power plants that burn stuff tend to be a lot more efficient than internal combustion engines; the best case is combined-cycle gas turbine power plants, which turn over 60% of the energy available into electricity, as compared with a gasoline engine which turns about 20% of the energy in the gas into motion.

    • @[email protected]
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      42 days ago

      That depends on the production and distribution of electricity and not so much the EV.

      It’s impossible to state any number that would be correct for all cases, but I would guess with a great deal of certainty that it’s a hell of a lot less than is lost on production and distribution of gasoline.

      And even in some crazy home made diesel generator scenario where the power isn’t produced and distributed more efficiently than gasoline, the EV is still about four times more efficient in using the energy after it has been produced and distributed.

    • @[email protected]
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      22 days ago

      The meme only mentions the efficiency of the vehicle so it’d be unfair and in bad faith to compare it to to electric infrastructure and assume it also comes from fossil fuels.

      How much energy is spent in mining, refining fossil fuels, transporting it and distributing to gas stations? Crunch these numbers before starting to compare it to electric grid.

    • bluGill
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      52 days ago

      0 - 100% of my electric comes from wind. Which is the real win for ev, we have a path to better.

      • @[email protected]
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        32 days ago

        I’ve always emphasized that gasoline comes from oil. Electricity comes from oil. Or solar. Or nuclear. Or wind. Or hydro. Or hamsters running on wheels. Lots of sources to choose from!