Tag Archive for: Electricity

Go Electric: Electric Cars….Are you ready??

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It seems as though while electric vehicles may be popular and that they seem attractive to a lot of us. Electric vehicles are still confusing to the majority of UK consumers. As a result many potential customers are not seriously considering an electrified vehicle for a future purchase. This is according to new research* that is commissioned by Ford. Which is part of their UK Wide consumer education roadshow: Go Electric.

New Purchases Aren’t Electric

So, electric vehicles currently only account for about 5%** of total new car sales in the UK. The survey however highlights that there are still barriers before the mainstream adopts it. The apparent lack of appeal for electric vehicles is a reason why nearly half (46%) of Brits say that they don’t intened to buy an electric vehicle in the future. While 21% say that it is likely that they will not consider an electric vehicle in the next 5 years. While 20% say that they will likely only purchase in the next 3-5 years.

Reasons for this is mixed. Anxiety makes up 37% of those surveyed, apparent lack of affordability 53% and worries of charging locations make up 51% of those surveyed.

Furthermore the survey reveals that there is confusion around the tech itself. With 64% of those surveyed correctly identifying that an electric car is a vehicle that has one or more electric motors. Three quarters said that they are not confident in the difference between hybrid and battery electric cars. While 43% say that they don’t know enough about the technology to consider purchasing an electric or electrified vehicle. 29% don’t think the average person is ready to change to battery powered electric vehicles.

Go Electric. 

To help resolve this, Ford have created Go Electric. Go Electric is a consumer education roadshow. That aims to demystify the questions that many of us have about switching to electrified vehicles. Whilst also helping to address consumer concerns around hybrid and electric vehicles. It is an interactive experience designed to teach consumers about CO2 emissions. The future of local Clean Air Zones,  vehicle charging methods and finding the right vehicle for their lifestyle.

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Teaching about Electricity

Helping Ford continue the electric educational journey, technology presenter Georgie Barrat has filmed a preview of the experience. Which is due to return to the road later on this year. The informative video breaks down some of the most misunderstood phrases. Whilst answering some of the biggest questions on electric vehicles.

 “Technology has always been something that excites me but I totally understand that not everyone is at the same stage on their journey. For me, it’s all about making things easy for anyone to understand. There is no need for fancy language when something instead can be made simple to grasp. That’s why I was so excited to work with Ford on the Go Electric campaign and help make electrification accessible to everyone!” Commenting on Go Electric, Georgie Barrat

“While the move to electrification is gathering pace, there’s no mistaking that this is a huge task ahead of us that will require fundamental efforts to ensure consumers are taken on the journey, and the first step is understanding what their options are. Our roadshow will help demystify electrified vehicle options for all of our customers and give them all they need to make the right choice to fit their lives.”

Cont..

Beyond this, a range of stakeholders – including national and local government, energy providers and vehicle manufacturers – need to come together with a unified goal if we are to meet the electrification challenge. Given the size and scale of what we want to achieve in the UK, we need to kick-start this process. A fast start could include the creation of a specific senior role in government to help coordinate a comprehensive electrification strategy for the UK – a “Minister for Electrification” who can work cross-functionally across government and with the various stakeholders.

Ford has always sought to democratise vehicles and technologies and now we intend to do the same for electrification. “ Andy Barratt, Managing Director at Ford of Britain

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Notes:

*Source: Survey of 2,000 UK Adults conducted by 3GEM Research & Insights in August 2020

** Source: Latest SMMT figures for market share: https://www.smmt.co.uk/vehicle-data/car-registrations/

So, to learn more about electrification and find out when Go Electric will be back on tour head here. Furthermore, go to any Ford dealer for full information on Ford’s electrified products.

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Netflix Money

Netflix cost us ALL a lot of money during lockdown!

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So we all spent a ridiculous amount of money on Netflix during lockdown. According to research by USwitch Our Netflix binges cost over £2BN in global energy usage. The exact number spent on electricity to power Netflix is £2,120,503,521.30. That’s ALOT of money. The data uses global costs per KWh and average energy consumption to calculate the cost of 2 hours of watching per day. The UK has the second highest cost for a country at £245,873,114.79, behind the USA at £788,546,852.28.

Furthermore it has been discovered that it costs on average £22.20 per person to watch Netflix in the UK per year. However, lockdown may have increased the time we spend watching. This is the 10th highest cost per person in the world! While, Orange Is The New Black is the most expensive show to watch by energy usage, with the UK spending £121,302,434.51 in total to watch all 7 seasons

Netflix Consumption Costs Per Country:

Energy costs per KWh and subscriber numbers differ between countries; the table below shows the top 10 countries by total Netflix cost:

Country # of Subscribers Annual Cost (Country)
1 United States 60,103,000 £788,546,852.28
2 United Kingdom 11,073,894 £245,873,114.79
3 Germany 5,774,730 £192,324,062.18
4 Brazil 9,624,550 £126,273,374.16
5 Spain 4,529,200 £109,703,564.88
6 France 5,661,500 £108,560,819.41
7 Japan 3,707,463 £82,316,615.62
8 Canada 7,133,490 £79,192,260.90
9 Netherlands 3,328,962 £60,474,090.14
10 New Zealand 2,264,600 £45,709,818.70

Cost Per Subscribers

The cost per person is dictated by the cost per KWh of electricity in the country and the total number of Netflix subscribers.

The table below shows the top 10 countries by per-person cost:

Country # of Subscribers Annual Cost (Per Person)
1 Denmark 927,354 £34.31
2 Germany 5,774,730 £33.30
3 Belgium 894,731 £28.26
4 Italy 1,585,220 £27.25
5 Ireland 283,075 £26.24
6 Portugal 248,010 £26.24
7 Spain 4,529,200 £24.22
8 Austria 645,411 £23.21
9 United Kingdom 11,073,894 £22.20
10 Japan 3,707,463 £22.20

Netflix Cost Per Shows

Based on the cost per KWh in each country, the number of viewers of each show** and the length of five of the most watched shows of 2019 in hours, we can see how much each country spent watching each show:

Country Orange is the New Black You Umbrella Academy Dead To Me Stranger Things
United States £389,032,582.88 £25,397,617.34 £16,823,529.36 £6,007,671.06 £23,618,963.97
United Kingdom £121,302,434.51 £7,919,112.56 £5,245,666.19 £1,873,223.88 £7,364,518.95
Germany £94,883,806.14 £6,194,397.86 £4,103,205.15 £1,465,251.81 £5,760,589.98
Brazil £62,297,448.47 £4,067,028.90 £2,694,023.58 £962,034.02 £3,782,205.54
Spain £54,122,670.17 £3,533,346.38 £2,340,509.18 £835,794.26 £3,285,898.03
France £53,558,892.35 £3,496,540.68 £2,316,128.87 £827,088.07 £3,251,669.92
Japan £40,611,214.79 £2,651,264.03 £1,756,212.70 £627,142.38 £2,465,589.93
Canada £39,069,802.53 £2,550,634.41 £1,689,555.06 £603,338.98 £2,372,007.64
Netherlands £29,835,121.93 £1,947,757.19 £1,290,205.68 £460,731.58 £1,811,351.29
New Zealand £22,551,112.57 £1,472,227.66 £975,212.16 £348,247.61 £1,369,124.18
Italy £21,310,801.38 £1,391,255.14 £921,575.49 £329,093.99 £1,293,822.35
Poland £17,874,071.97 £1,166,891.57 £772,955.76 £276,021.98 £1,085,171.48
Sweden £16,664,414.30 £1,087,920.23 £720,644.69 £257,341.73 £1,011,730.68
Denmark £15,698,962.09 £1,024,891.61 £678,894.16 £242,432.65 £953,116.10
Belgium £12,473,748.70 £814,336.67 £539,421.34 £192,627.00 £757,306.80
Switzerland £8,637,078.11 £563,863.32 £373,506.34 £133,378.86 £524,374.68
Finland £8,083,292.75 £527,709.98 £349,558.16 £124,826.98 £490,753.24
Austria £7,391,127.14 £482,522.61 £319,625.78 £114,138.15 £448,730.45
India £7,216,356.02 £471,112.85 £312,067.89 £111,439.23 £438,119.74
Colombia £6,515,020.01 £425,326.80 £281,738.95 £100,608.79 £395,540.19
Ireland £3,664,555.79 £239,236.99 £158,471.98 £56,590.24 £222,482.68
Portugal £3,210,620.80 £209,602.29 £138,841.77 £49,580.30 £194,923.36
Peru £2,697,115.45 £176,078.58 £116,635.48 £41,650.45 £163,747.40
Chile £2,577,028.74 £168,238.84 £111,442.38 £39,796.00 £156,456.69
Turkey £1,982,436.08 £129,421.43 £85,729.51 £30,613.95 £120,357.75
Romania £970,888.83 £63,383.54 £41,985.63 £14,993.04 £58,944.65
South Africa £774,229.80 £50,544.85 £33,481.20 £11,956.11 £47,005.08
Greece £699,477.34 £45,664.70 £30,248.57 £10,801.74 £42,466.70
Argentina £452,150.01 £29,518.18 £19,553.01 £6,982.37 £27,450.95

Research

Speaking of the research, Sarah Broomfield, energy expert at Uswitch said:

“Lockdown has almost certainly impacted global spend on home energy and people will be thinking more about how the small things they do to use electricity in their home contributes to the bigger picture when it comes to their annual bills.

“Noting that energy costs are so different around the world, we wanted to explore the relative cost of common activities to understand how those differences impact us on a practical level.

“We encourage home energy users to regularly review their energy bills to identify any savings and to compare energy prices annually to ensure they’re getting the best deal possible.”

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Methodology:

The global cost of Netflix electricity was calculated by energy market analysts at Uswitch, the comparison and switching service.

The global cost per KWh was taken from the World Energy Council; this was then applied to the energy use requirements of common household items as defined by the Centre of Sustainable Energy.

The cost of powering a television was then applied to the average Netflix consumption of 2 hours per day, which gave a cost per person based on the country’s cost of electricity. This was then multiplied by subscriber numbers per country, as sourced from Netflix, to calculate the total cost per country per year.

Uswitch’s World Powers report is a study of the global cost of energy applied to common household activities to provide a clearer picture of the relative impact of energy cost differences around the world; the full study can be found at https://www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/world-powers/.

The research from Uswitch comprises data relating to a range of common household activities including charging a laptop, boiling a kettle and topping up an electric vehicle. The full study can be found at https://www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/world-powers/.

**Netflix doesn’t publish country-specific viewer figures, so USwitch took global viewer figures and multiplied them by the percentage of total subscribers in that country to calculate the number of viewers per country.

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Electric Vehicles Charging Points In The UK

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Our environment is under threat and we should do everything we can to help the world. Our friends over at carwow are doing a lot to help promote sustainable, green automotive solutions for this! Electric Vehicles is one important way to do this!

We all like the thought of an electric car but we always are thinking where can we charge up?! Well the guys over at car wow have developed an interactive Electric Car Charging Map to help electric car owners find their nearest electric vehicle charging station!

Check out the interactive map, it’s pretty cool! By clicking here: https://www.carwow.co.uk/electric-cars/charging-points

It will tell you how many charging points there are at a location and how much it will cost! It may be easy to find one as there’s 20,000 charging points in the UK and it’s growing!

Does it cost to charge?

It varies and will depend on a manner of things such as your car, the batteries it takes and where you get your electricity from. Some public charge points ask for a monthly or yearly subscription, while others use a pay as you go model. While some are FREE! However a rule of thumb is, it will be cheaper to recharge the electric car than your petrol one.

How does it work?

There’s 3 different types, rapid, fast and slow charger. These are categorised by their power outputs. Thus, how fast they will charge your vehicle.

Rapid charger

This is the fastest way to charge your electric car. Rapid AC chargers have outputs of 43kW and a Type 2 connector. Rapid DC connectors have atleast a 50kW output. While Tesla Superchargers have a 120kW output and are Rapid DC. Using a rapid charger it should take between 30-80mins to charge to 80%

Fast charger

This is the type of charger you will see at most public places. These will be between 7 and 22kW. Fast Chargers will have Type 1 or 2 connectors and will take between 3 – 4 hours to charge.

Slow charger

These chargers have a three-pin plug. Similar to the home charger many electric vehicles owners have installed in their house, it can take up to 10 hours to fully recharge EVs at one of these locations. However, all the latest charging points in the UK have a universal Typ2 2 socket.

Type 1 / Type 2 Connectors

A lot of the UK sockets have the Type 2 socket. This has a flattened head and will charge at a faster rate than the Type 1. While both Type 1 and Type 2 cables are able to be fitted with adapters. This allows them to be connected to charging stations with either socket.

What is kWh for cars?

A kWh is the value which is equivalent to power in kilowatts multiplied by the time in hours, assuming the energy is transmitted at a constant rate.

So, therefore a kWh price is the EV equivalent of the price per litre of fuel. The price per kWh will show you how much it will cost to recharge the car at different stations.

To work out how much it will cost to charge your electric car from empty to full, you take the unit price for the electricity and multiply it by the kWh capacity of your car’s battery.

The price will always be a little less because the car will never go to completely empty and you may not have time to charge it full.

How many kWh does a car use?

This all dependes on things like weight and how they’re driven and different electric cars use different amounts of energy.

Also the size of the battery will be rated by how many kWhs it can hold. The Tesla Model 3 Long Range has a 7k kWh battery. So therefore it can store 75kWhs of electricity.

Electric vehicles do have an official range but as with fuel based cars, depends on external factors such as how you drive it. Driving it quickly like fuel based cars will use up the electricity faster and decrease the range.

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PowerWall by Tesla

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Here at How To Kill An Hour we came across this really cool new product from Tesla called the Powerwall What the Powerwall basically is, is a massive battery for your home. It’s automated and compact so it’s not an eye sore and is super easy to install. The Powerwall is really cool in that it charges using the electricity that is generated from solar panels or when utility rates are low and powers your home in the evening instead of the grid. It’s so powerful you can even go off the grid entirely! Saving yourself a few bucks in the process, all from the power of the SUN! It also acts as a back-up so if there is a power-cut you will know nothing about it because the Powerwall kicks in and allows you to keep on playing that COD marathon!