Charging Energy needed to charge FFE similar to what a freezer needs?

[howardbc]

Before I bought my 2013 FFE, I was talking to a handyman who is also an electrician. I asked him about the energy required to charge a Fusion Energi. He said it might be comparable to the energy needed to power a refrigerator or freezer in one's garage. Is this a fair comparison? 

 

I am not questioning the handyman, but I liked the comparison. Some people keep an extra refrigerator or a freezer in their garage/carport and I bet they usually don't think twice about the power it consumes. 

 

I have used this analogy when trying to educate a skeptical ICE-owner who says "Yeah, but I bet it costs a lot to charge your car." I can tell them x cents or x kilowatts, but I think the average person understands the extra fridge/freezer story better. But I'm wondering if the refrigerator or freezer would consume even more power since it is plugged in all the time - whereas a FFE is only plugged in for maybe 5-6 hours. In my case, I just use a standard 120v wall outlet. I plug my car in after 9PM.

 

That also got me to thinking about the energy required to run a water heater. Everyone has one of those in their garage or inside their home. I know it depends on the size of the heater and the temperature setting, etc. But would, say, a 50-gallon water heater use a comparable amount of energy over a 24-hour period? 

 

I'm always trying to think of easier and better ways to explain my car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Russael]

A freezer or fridge isn't quite that accurate.  It has a high start-up current, and then dials back to maybe 300 - 600 watts.  A more accurate comparison would be a 12A vacuum cleaner, 1500 watt space heater, 1500 watt microwave, a 1500 watt hair dryer, or running 15 100 watt light bulbs for 6 hours to describe how much energy the car is taking from the wall while it is charging.

 

As far as a comparable amount of energy consumed on a daily basis...  Maybe an electric water heater (I have gas) or a freezer would be a good comparison.  Most electric water heaters are put on at least a 50A breaker for 240 service, so they suck down the juice a lot while it is heating the water.  I found an article that says a 40 gallon water heater takes about 2 hours to recover from being used, so that may wind up using more power than your vehicle.

 

I would just stick to how much it costs to recharge your battery.  I describe it as "I can drive about 30 miles in summertime for about 80 cents.  Winter... not so much."  :)  I also like to indicate that I refuel at home, which was a nice side-benefit.

[Rhynri]

I have exactly this use case, with a freezer on the same circuit as the EV.  Attached you'll find a dropbox link to a screenshot I took of the circuit the 110v charger for my FFET is on.  You can clearly see the freezer as a little "chair" shape that peaks first at 180w, then settles to 140watts.  The car pulls just a hair more than 1400watts.  Usually 1420w or so.  This software (and the very accurate circuit reading hardware) can resolve draws as small as a few watts (I've seen 4watts tested at wall show as 4 watts in the software...)  According to the use-by-cost pie chart, even after two days of charging the cost for that circuit is moving up, and will likely eclipse my kitchen circuit, which has a large fridge/freezer combo, the 500watt igniter for my gas stove (which is stupid if you ask me) and the 1500 watt Panasonic IR Oven I use daily on it.  Hopefully this gives you a better idea of your usage.

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/n9oii1io9earf0h/Screenshot%202014-11-15%2008.40.07.png?dl=0