BYC Café

[Ladies-Eight]

Cafe good evening one and all!

Tea is ready.

Spent my Saturday driving about 2 hours to pick up our new fur baby.

Then I drove another 2 hours to get back home.

She is beautiful and will get a picture of her posted so everyone can see her.

Temperature is in the 70s.

Have a great day!

 

[bruceha2000]

Is that what it takes to charge an electric vehicle? I never, ever hear that on the ads. Or, more importantly, what is the cost at a charging station? NEVER do they say, oh, my recharge was $20. Or $5 or $50.

It depends on several factors including

• The vehicle. DW is driving a 2020 Nissan Leaf which is all electric. The EPA range is 215 miles. I am driving a 2018 Toyota Prius Prime which is a plug in hybrid. The EPA electric range is 25 miles, total mile range is 650. I drove 1,500 miles from September last year to March this year and put 8 gallons of gas in. Most of my driving is to and from town 6 miles away 2-3 times a week so mostly electric (except in the winter when the car decides to run the gas engine). I have no way of knowing how much electricity I used. It would be nice it there were some stored data on that.
• The temperature. Batteries don't like very hot or very cold so have lower performance/range as you head toward the extremes. Either extreme will also add to the electric usage for heating or cooling. We don't have very hot so I can't discuss that but in very cold (like -10°F) the range can drop substantially. In the summer DW's Leaf uses about 20 kWh for her 70 mile commute. In the depths of winter (snow tires also lower range as they do with gas or diesel vehicles) it can be as high as 30 kWh. As an aside, our daily usage for the house is about 20 kWh.
• The roads you travel. Just like all vehicles, doing 70 mph on the interstate will use a lot more fuel than running 40-50 mile back roads. DW's commute is about 25% interstate, 75% 40-50 mph roads. I have gone 39 miles on back roads in the summer in my Prime, all electric. Remember that the EPA is 25 miles.
• The cost to charge at home can be calculated based on your electric rates. Charging elsewhere at this point is a crapshoot. There is a level 2 charging station (same as you would put in your home) at a local gas station that charges $2/hour, minimum 2 hours. I think that is ridiculous. My Prime, if "empty" will take 6.6 kWh in 2 hours or $0.60/kWh. DW's Leaf would take twice that so half the cost. The chargers are actually in the vehicle, the "station" may have a limit to how many amps they can put out but the vehicle dictates the max it can take. There aren't big signs out front like at gas stations showing the cost. We charge at home so don't have a good feel for how much other charging stations would cost, I assume most of them charge by the kWh same as you pay by the gallon for gas or diesel. There are websites/apps that will show stations and sometimes will show cost. Hopefully as electric vehicles become more common it will be easier to find what the rates to charge are at each place. You can find some free stations. There are 2 at the local hospital, 2 at a grocery store in South Burlington, 2 more at one in Burlington. The Harbor Freight in South Burlington also has 2 free ones. There are 3 at a Mexican restaurant in Bangor, ME.

I always felt the lack of staff was related to the almighty dollar.

As it is with everything. If you pay a proper salary to adequate staff, the costs to the "residents" has to cover it. And how much can they afford to pay daily? I have no solution to this problem.

 

[LaFleche]

It got rained out a couple of hours after we got there, but we saw some pretty cool kites, and the older grandkids (the 3 pack of granddaughters and their parents came as well) all got to fly kites.

Grandpa built and brought a “drum set” for 3-year old GS.
View attachment 3632103
It started out with just the cans. The pot lids were added after we got here, and then it grew to this:
View attachment 3632104

For some reason, the parents want it outside… (They live in town. I bet the neighbors will be thrilled! ) GS refers to it as his “Glockenspiel”. (Because apparently true xylophones are made of wood, and glockenspiels are made of metal. Yep, I got schooled by a 3-year old.)

Looove this grandpa!!!

 

[cow whisperer]

Whatever you need is right next to the coffee pot so brew a cup and enjoy the quiet morning while I curl up next to Savage on the couch and take a nap while waiting on FH to get up.

 

[DobieLover]

Good morning Cafe. Coffee is ready.

Had a bum day yesterday. Going to try to make up for it today.
I think M&S have settled on Brody.
They brought him over yesterday to pick up the food. Bella did no screaming and running from him. I think she likes him. She never took to Shadow in all the time they knew each other.
Piper, of course, LOVES him! She got him to play with her in the living room...under big sister's watchful eye.

 

[bobbi-j]

Looove this grandpa!!!

Yeah, I kinda like him, too…

 

[Sally PB]

There is a level 2 charging station (same as you would put in your home) at a local gas station that charges $2/hour, minimum 2 hours. I think that is ridiculous. My Prime, if "empty" will take 6.6 kWh in 2 hours or $0.60/kWh

Well, this does NOT make me want to go buy an electric car. Charge overnight at home, sure. Charge during the day at work, sure... except I'm retired, so that doesn't apply. Charge for an hour while I'm at the store... maybe.

Am I misunderstanding this, or if I'm out on the highway somewhere and need to recharge, I will be sitting around for 2 hours? How will they sell that idea for someone driving from Michigan to North Carolina and wants to go straight through with two drivers, as DH and I do?

 

[Mtn Margie]

Good morning and thanks for the coffee!
We pay about 16 cents a kW around here in the summer, it seems.
Most of the fees are tied to the electric usage amount.
So, my 366kWh last month was $57.85 and that is as low as it will get for the year.

 

[bobbi-j]

Well, this does NOT make me want to go buy an electric car. Charge overnight at home, sure. Charge during the day at work, sure... except I'm retired, so that doesn't apply. Charge for an hour while I'm at the store... maybe.

Am I misunderstanding this, or if I'm out on the highway somewhere and need to recharge, I will be sitting around for 2 hours? How will they sell that idea for someone driving from Michigan to North Carolina and wants to go straight through with two drivers, as DH and I do?

Instead of going to a fully electric vehicle, I’d look into getting a hybrid instead.

 

[DobieLover]

Instead of going to a fully electric vehicle, I’d look into getting a hybrid instead.

My hybrid Kia Niro averages 44-45 mph during my normal weekly driving. Both trips to VT and DE it averaged 50-52 mph.