Althouse: "Drivers who park on the street have found novel ways to charge their vehicles, using extension cords running over the sidewalk or even into the branches of a nearby tree...."

January 26, 2024

"Drivers who park on the street have found novel ways to charge their vehicles, using extension cords running over the sidewalk or even into the branches of a nearby tree...."

"Car companies advise drivers not to use extension cords to charge their vehicles.... Charging with an extension cord also means only Level 1, or the slowest form, of charging. But... for most Americans, who only drive 30 to 40 miles a day, that’s perfectly acceptable...."

From "You want an EV, but you don’t own a house. Here’s how to charge it. It’s possible to charge an EV even if you don’t live in a single-family home with a garage. Here are the options" (WaPo).

46 comments:

Duke Dan said...: Pretty sure city ordinances don’t allow people to put tripping hazards across city sidewalks.; 1/26/24, 4:05 PM
jaydub said...: Yeah, the principal option is to dump the EV and buy a real vehicle. You're welcome.; 1/26/24, 4:06 PM
rhhardin said...: I think 15a house wiring is only 14 gauge so it's easy to have a hefty-enough extension cord. I'd go with 10 gauge. The trouble is that the extension cord is itself pretty valuable at that size.; 1/26/24, 4:06 PM
Rocco said...: If we lived in the Back to the Future world, we would've had Mr Fusions by now. Drop a banana peel and some cheap beer in, and that would hold you for at least a trip from 1985 to 2015.; 1/26/24, 4:09 PM
iowan2 said...: WAPO says you can charge EV's even if you dont have a garage.

In a How to piece, they should be explaining that the EV manufactures say not park your EV in your garage. Or park it close to your house.
Because EV's have a nasty habit of spontaneously combusting.; 1/26/24, 4:14 PM
rcocean said...: Or perhaps find someone gone for the weekend. Open their garage door and get some 'lectricty.; 1/26/24, 4:25 PM
RideSpaceMountain said...: "You want an EV, but you don’t own a house."

The road to hell is festooned with tripping hazards and misplaced priorities. It's in the Talmud under "placing a stumbling block before the blind" and I don't mean the visually-challenged.; 1/26/24, 4:25 PM
n.n said...: Environmental hazards.; 1/26/24, 4:32 PM
Howard said...: Que Karen scolds to aisle 9; 1/26/24, 4:33 PM
R C Belaire said...: Another day, another verdict. How many other people could withstand this onslaught day after day?; 1/26/24, 4:35 PM
retail lawyer said...: "Most Americans . . ." would certainly not find extension cords running over or above sidewalks acceptable. Bums would steal electricity. Extinction Rebellion would unplug the cars in the middle of the night. Skaters would crash and sue. And thats if you can park right outside of your home. In San Francisco I would often have to park blocks from my home. I had a garage but could not use it if I had to be in court the next morning because it was so frequently blocked by a car, which took all morning to get towed.

I read a story of a guy driving to Alaska in a F150 electric model. His trick was to to use 110 volt outlets at an RV park. It took over a week to fully charge his truck.

See, the problem is that people who only drive 30 miles a day often want to use the car for an excursion. I have a Toyota plug-in hybrid. And a garage. It charges at the rate of 4 miles of range per hour. Or rather it will, in two weeks. It has been recalled because it is likely to catch fire if it is being charged while the temperature is 41 or less.

Electric cars are not suitable for people living in a dense older city. We will see when California outlaws the sale of new IC cars, won't we?; 1/26/24, 4:46 PM
madAsHell said...: The Safeway parking lot was full except for the electric vehicle re-charge parking place. I parked in the EV zone with my gas guzzling Ford.

I proceeded to the entrance, and was taunted by "You parked in an EV charging zone!!".

My 10 year old Ford is not an EV.

My immediate response was "FUCK OFF!!!" Some soy boy. I should've slugged him.

We've created a new class of people that are virtuous for their social awareness. It's the 14-year-old-girl club. You can't belong unless you can repeat the mantra!!; 1/26/24, 5:24 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Any cord you could charge reasonably well with will immediately get nicked by a thief- you are talking about a significant amount of copper at that point- it is both thicker and longer than your run-of-the-mill cord you plug a table lamp into. We are talking about construction equipment electric cords- those ain't cheap.; 1/26/24, 5:27 PM
Quaestor said...: Using an extension cord burns more coal.; 1/26/24, 5:35 PM
tcrosse said...: There must be considerable i-squared-r losses in those extension cords.; 1/26/24, 5:40 PM
Ampersand said...: The ineptitude of government EV production edicts, and oversubsidizing of initial EV purchases, is apparent. EVs are great for mild to warm climates, and for areas in which users rarely need to drive their vehicles more than 50 miles a day.

Before I installed a Level 2 charger at my home, my Chevy Volt hybrid was charged with a heavy duty 50 foot extension cord. The regular duty extension cord would heat up in a way that seemed obviously dangerous, so I paid for a 12AGW cord.

The car's design allows me to choose between battery power, and a system in which the gasoline powers a generator. More than 90% of my driving is solely battery power.

Electric vehicles are simply a means of moving most of the vehicle's pollution from the tailpipe to the power station. In short, they are not a panacea. But they are fun to drive.; 1/26/24, 5:43 PM
Mikey NTH said...: Nothing says safe more than patching together extension cords to charge your multi-thousand dollar electric car.; 1/26/24, 5:54 PM
Jaq said...: Pretty sure Howard has a STEM education, but he has no actual responses to the points made here.; 1/26/24, 6:05 PM
Michael said...: So convenient these EVs; 1/26/24, 6:42 PM
Michael said...: So convenient these EVs; 1/26/24, 6:42 PM
Biff said...: rhhardin said...
"I'd go with 10 gauge. The trouble is that the extension cord is itself pretty valuable at that size."

Exactly. I wouldn't be surprised if the half-life of an unattended, heavy-gauge extension cord running across a sidewalk would be measured most conveniently in hours, not days, in the cities mentioned in the article (DC, Seattle, and Cambridge).

Hey, if we switch to EVs, the guys who steal catalytic converters will need to find new revenue streams!; 1/26/24, 6:42 PM
tcrosse said...: The obvious solution is to get a gasoline generator. In London they use diesel generators to charge up their electric buses for the sake of Net Zero.; 1/26/24, 6:49 PM
Narr said...: My wife's little space heater for her bathroom says not to use an extension cord.; 1/26/24, 6:53 PM
Patrick Driscoll said...: Extension cords left out in the open will be stolen by dirtbag drug addicts. Dependable electric cars have been just around the corner for over a century, and they always will be.; 1/26/24, 6:59 PM
Ambrose said...: But... for most Americans, who only drive 30 to 40 miles a day, that’s perfectly acceptable...." - see, they will ban cars eventually.; 1/26/24, 7:12 PM
Doug said...: See how easy it is, kids? Get your first EV, and your second and your third! FJB is counting on you.; 1/26/24, 7:25 PM
Douglas2 said...: The cords draped over the sidewalk to curbside are something I'm familiar with from living in a cold city where block-heaters were a necessity for many. I felt very fortunate that I owned a car that started easily at any temperature.

I'm reading the bit of the article that says:

EV advocacy groups are working on changing building codes in cities and states so that all multifamily homes with parking have to be “EV-ready.” “EV-ready” spaces have upgraded electrical panels and conduit running to the space. . .

And thinking that once again, rich people are finding a way to make things cheaper for themselves while making things more difficult and expensive for poorer people. If it specified 'new' multifamily homes rather than 'all' multifamily homes, I wouldn't think it so bad. Just as grid-tied home solar is a fantastic deal for people who own homes and have excellent credit ratings or free cash for the installation, but paid for by increased prices for all the ratepayers, they're insisting that landlords of the housing type most used by the lowest two quintiles puts in expensive amenities that are so far only used by people in the highest two quintiles, and not expecting this to have second order effects on housing supply or affordability for the poor.; 1/26/24, 7:35 PM
Aggie said...: If you want to be clever, buy the EV docking socket - it's a dummy wall socket where you park your charging cord when it isn't in use. Install one of these on the side of your car or truck, pull up to a charging station, and park the charging cord into the dummy socket.

Everybody will think you're charging up. As long as nobody notices your gas filler cap and exhaust pipe, you're golden, and you have a great free park.; 1/26/24, 7:42 PM
cf said...: Jadub said it best.; 1/26/24, 7:42 PM
Breezy said...: EVs are for people without enough stress in their lives. Perhaps the street crud makes up for it.; 1/26/24, 7:57 PM
Original Mike said...: Blogger Breezy said..."EVs are for people without enough stress in their lives. "

Heh; 1/26/24, 9:11 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Another problem. Last winter I parked my pickup by my new garage in MT. Disconnected the battery, and hooked it to a trickle charger. Came back the next spring, and found that the battery had frozen, and the GFCI breaker popped. The problem, most likely was that I had used a couple of 25’ cords, from the house to the garage. And by the first of November, the 25’ extension cords were under snow. The problem was that the snow would melt enough to trigger GFCI circuit. A friend recently pointed out that the intersection of two wires have to be protected, and there are a couple devices that do just that.; 1/26/24, 9:33 PM
loudogblog said...: Everyone needs to remember the West Virginia law: W=VA. (Wattage equals voltage times amperage.)

Most household extension cords cannot handle the load of charging an electric vehicle. You're risking, at best, a severe voltage drop and, at worst, starting a fire.

12 AWG wire is good for 20 amps (2400 watts) but only up to 100'. But nobody has those in their home. Longer than that, you need 10 AWG. (The smaller the AWG, the thicker the wire.)

Most household extension cords are 16 AWG. Which is only good for about 10 amps (1200 watts) at less than 100' length.; 1/26/24, 9:45 PM
loudogblog said...: rhhardin said...
"I'd go with 10 gauge. The trouble is that the extension cord is itself pretty valuable at that size."

The problem is that the largest circuit breaker that you can (according to the NEC) install on a 5-20 Edison (PBG - parallel blade with ground) outlet is only rated for 20 amps. And most modern houses have 5-15 Edison (PBG) outlets that are only rated for 15 amps.

Now, you can go with a 6-20, (20 amps at 250 volts) but literally no one has that in their house.; 1/26/24, 9:55 PM
typingtalker said...: I saw one of these once in a crowded and busy commercial district and thought, "What could possibly go wrong?"

EVs are interesting and sometimes a good choice for transportation but they are not yet the almost-universal solution that petroleum-powered cars are.; 1/27/24, 5:46 AM
Mark said...: Where is Musk's lieutenant, Drago?

He insists that Telsa and EVs are the future and worth their insane stock valuation.

Yet most commenters here see EVs future accurately.; 1/27/24, 6:30 AM
Jamie said...: Most household extension cords cannot handle the load of charging an electric vehicle. You're risking, at best, a severe voltage drop and, at worst, starting a fire.

I'm surprised it took so long to get to this! It was my first thought.

Well, actually, my very first thought was that this was yet another article trying to persuade people that the longed-for green utopia is (a) possible, and (b) utopian. "Just run an extension cord out your window to... wherever you parked!" In parts of Philadelphia, the street parking is in a median between the traffic lanes. How realistic is an extension cord - much less a bunch of extension cords - running across the southbound lane? Any thoughts on snowplows?

Extension cords running across sidewalks - any thoughts on snow removal there? Insufficiently long extension cords connected together, running through puddles - any thoughts? Heck, sufficiently long extension cords whose covers have been abraded or nicked by being run over or plowed, running through puddles?

But sure, it's doable! On the same way that the articles saying you can make gluten free copycat recipes for your favorite restaurant foods are doable, as long as you buy five specialty ingredients from an online purveyor and then spend your entire weekend attempting to cook with them.; 1/27/24, 7:06 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Welcome to Fantasy Island!
The three flush toilet was a warning.
How much to re-roof with those solar panels?; 1/27/24, 7:27 AM
cfs said...: Buy an EV! No more stopping for gas makes it so convenient!

A decent outdoor extension cord costs between 40 to 70 bucks at Lowes. Buy in bulk because thieves will steal the first one before your car is charged sufficiently to make the trip to Lowes to purchase a second one.; 1/27/24, 8:56 AM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Buy the yellow ones. Lawyers need income.; 1/27/24, 9:39 AM
PJ said...: If I fill the bathtub in my third-floor walkup with gasoline, then run a siphoning hose out my window and drape it over the power lines that run above my parking spot, will some clown at WaPo credit me for finding a novel way to fuel my vehicle?; 1/27/24, 9:48 AM
Iman said...: Gee, it sounds so convenient.; 1/27/24, 11:18 AM
Josephbleau said...: Now that I have read this article, I think it is unconscionable that we in the US have not draped extension cords to Africa to give them the benefits of reliable electricity.; 1/27/24, 9:05 PM
Sprezzatura said...: I see 120V wires going across the sidewalks all over the place around my Seattle house in Tangle Town.

I have a hardwired fifty amp charger in my driveway. I'm thinking about telling nearby neighbors that they can use it whenever they want. It breaks my heart to see an R1S four houses away that is charged by a lame 120v circuit w/ an extension cord running across the sidewalk. Plus the other not-cool EVs (i.e. not Rivian or Porsche) w/ lame charging are also sad.

IMHO.; 1/28/24, 12:14 AM
Cappy said...: These people are assholes.; 1/28/24, 8:14 AM
JAORE said...: For God's sake. People are stealing air conditioner units for the copper. Extension cords don't yield the same amount of metal but are sure easier to take.; 1/28/24, 6:06 PM