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V2G & V2L


Solarexploits

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Hope this hasn't been covered b4, but couldn't find anything on a search

 

I'm a bit of a newbie to solar & battery storage & even more so on V2G & V2L

 

I own a Kona Electric, '21 plate, so far as I'm aware it does neither of the above, tho' it does have a "camping mode" where you can draw power from the 12V system reasonably indefinitely as it gets topped up from the 64kWh battery, (normally charged on 5p/kWh overnight leccy) personally I couldn't be bothered with popping bonnet & hitching up jump leads to take 12v power (horrific amperages to an inverter if you want any significant load!), even if you wired in a plug/socket of some sort (probably invalidating warranty & possibly insurance!) it would still be hardly worth the faff

 

Do any current/previous vehicles have a direct access to the battery power or are we still waiting for V2G or V2L to actually become a usable thing?

 

Apologies for my ignorance, trying to gain knowledge!

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V2G or L seems a bit of an odd concept to me.

I can see that the concept is attractive, but in reality you just drive about carrying extra mass because the batteries are part depleted.

No one has thought it a good idea to run their oil central heating of the car's fuel tank.

The arguement goes that when a few million people get home from work and shower, cook, watch TV, etc, the vehicle can supply some of the load and reduce the strain on the grid.

Cheaper and easier to just fit static batteries where they are needed.

 

If people can still get off peak power at 5p/kWh (my night rate is 14p) and peak power at 30p/kWh, then you are hard pushed to beat that.

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Although it has its downsides, and has not been fully thought through I cannot see this not being a 'thing' very soon. I know that our infrastructure, GridCo if you will, are working on it and think that in the advent of EV ownership on a grand scale some sort of load shifting will be required. There are all sorts of opportunities and loads of challenges. EG keeping track of who owns what aspects of the systems, so you top your car up on overnight rate to 95% you take 10% (points) out for your home during the day and then grid co takes out a further 10% (points), you now have a 75% charge and want to go for a drive, you cannot charge fast at home so you toddle down to your local 'filling station' and pop the missing 20% in, how much of the charge should be paid for by you? Yes 10% the other bit is owed to you by gridCo!

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Last time we discussed this did we not determine adding extra charge / discharge cycles can do nothing but harm and shorten your vehicles battery life.

 

The analysis last time based on expected charge / discharge cycles is  an EV should be able to do in the region of 200K miles before it's batteries are end of life, but it would be less if you add extra charge / discharge cycles to the batteries.  This could result in "old" EV's being scrapped sooner than otherwise as when they get to a certain age, a replacement battery pack is no longer justifiable.

 

And if / when I do buy a second hand EV (unlikely to ever be able to afford a new one) "has the car been used for V2G" will be a question to ask the owner, and value the car accordingly.

 

I guess if you have only leased the car, and the lease terms do not prohibit V2G use you have nothing to lose?

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12 minutes ago, ProDave said:

has the car been used for V2G

My understanding is that the vehicle always shows zero to 100% charge (as for phones/laptops etc.), but that the capacity will become reduced and so the mileage too.

Isn't that something that can be measured easily though? So the battery capacity could be stated/ displayed just as the mileage is?

 

I imagine it will become a carrot and stick process. If you charge with off-peak it will be much cheaper,  and if you give back to the grid when required you get discounts. 

Yes it uses the battery, but avoids a new power station or the existing power stations storing off-peak power in ....batteries.

 

 

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certainly with Toyota Hybrids, battery capacity is massively more than that shown on the dash. Actual charge state in use starts between (roughly IIRC) 40 and 90% of the capacity, so even if the battery loses a bit of "size" over time the useable window stretches down to remain the same

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