Winter has arrived!
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Garfield by Jim Davis for December 21, 2021 - GoComics[^]
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
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Garfield by Jim Davis for December 21, 2021 - GoComics[^]
"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012
Winter has been cancelled where I live (southern Ohio, U.S.) and it's all my fault. I bought a Columbia winter jacket almost 30 years ago. It's washable and very warm. Unfortunately the end of the zipper has frayed can no longer be used. The snaps along the opening don't hold the jacket closed well enough. I've retired the old jacket and bought a new one (Columbia, of course). For this reason, our temperatures have only dipped to the freezing mark a couple of times since I bought the new jacket.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
Winter has been cancelled where I live (southern Ohio, U.S.) and it's all my fault. I bought a Columbia winter jacket almost 30 years ago. It's washable and very warm. Unfortunately the end of the zipper has frayed can no longer be used. The snaps along the opening don't hold the jacket closed well enough. I've retired the old jacket and bought a new one (Columbia, of course). For this reason, our temperatures have only dipped to the freezing mark a couple of times since I bought the new jacket.
Software Zen:
delete this;If you're the cause, please set up a budget for an annual jacket purchase! My creaky old knees prefer warmer temperatures, and my new EV appears to hate the cold even more than my knees do - I lose 50-60 miles of range when the temperature drops below 35F.
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If you're the cause, please set up a budget for an annual jacket purchase! My creaky old knees prefer warmer temperatures, and my new EV appears to hate the cold even more than my knees do - I lose 50-60 miles of range when the temperature drops below 35F.
With the battery technology of today, reduced range in the cold is just something that you will have to accept. It is how battery technology is. Also, they charge a lot slower when temperature is low. So some cars use a little extra electricity to heat up the battery at the start of charging. Later on in the charging cycle, the charging produces enough heat loss to keep up the temperature, but without preheating of the battery, the first half hour won't get much power into that battery! Norway is The EV Country - more than half of all new cars sold are purely electric, and the hybrids come on top of that. Typical winter temperatures are 5 to 10°C below zero (23F to 14F; right now, we are at 17F, -8.3°C around here). During cold waves, it can easily drop down to -20°C (-4F), or in the inland even to -40°C (-40F). So car magazines and websites all the time bring winter test reports of EV ranges. Loosing 50-60 miles is not at all surprising. At -20°C you should be happy if you get half the summer time range! This is partly due to the batteries not liking low temperatures, but also also, unless you love to keep the car interior at -20°C as well, to the heater. And, on slippery roads, the anti-skid systems use extra power to keep the car on the road. Traditionally, electric power has been cheap here in Norway. Gas prices have been at the same level as in the US - except that for a given amount, we get a liter, while in the US, you get a gallon :-). So people buy EVs to save money. This winter is different: The shortage on natural gas in Europe (due to arguments with the largest supplier, Russia) has brought all sorts of energy prices to extreme levels: A couple days ago, the electricity price was only slightly below 1 USD/kWh in south Norway. So charging your electric car was more expensive than filling your diesel tank (for a given driving distance), even at Norwegian fuel prices!
