this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2024
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He drives an electric truck in Yellowknife, but his home can't handle the charger it came with (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
25 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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)

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Sounds like he needed to ask questions before making the purchase.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It’s hard to imagine Canada being fully electric by 2035 if the consumers need to upgrade the grids themselves. I’m definitely gonna wait for my neighbour to buy one first!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

We don't need to upgrade the grid ourselves, we need to push the government to force these companies that make astronomical amounts of money off of us to upgrade their network. There's no reason why they need to have even a single drop of profit flow out to investors if they can't modernize their grid.

Maybe we just need to set a deadline for grid upgrades or they get nationalized.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

No, no. I'm ok with us uograding the grid ourselves.

Re-nationalize the power companies.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I'm sure the dealership that sold him the truck didn't bother to make sure it would work either.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

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.

[–] ratman150 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Just install a smaller charger? 80 amps is a fuckton of power.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago

It says that's what he did in the first sentence of the article...

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

CBC needs to fuck off with anti-electrification propaganda.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The other solution is to buy a second fully electric truck and just alternate each while the other one charges up slowly.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

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:Β "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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