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I can't understand how electric vehicles are more cost efficient than gas, based on the cost per mile. When you look at the cost of heating, electric is way more expensive than oil or natural gas. Wouldn't generating heat with electricity be about as efficient you can get?
Light a fire 100% conversion to heat energy.
Controlled explosion, 20% conversion to mechanical energy.
Makes sense. Got it.
You are correct that electric heating is 100% energy efficient in the sense that all the incoming electric energy is converted to heat. However, most electricity is produced from coal, gas, or oil generators that convert only about 30% of the fuel's energy into electricity. Because of generation and transmission losses, electric heat is more expensive than natural gas, propane, and oil.
If the electric source is hydro-electric, then what you really have is solar energy. Don't forget hydro-electric starts with the sun evaporating water.
It is 100% efficient if you only consider the conversion of electrical energy to heat. When you consider the cost and/or the generating and distributing efficiencies I don't think it even comes close to natural gas.
When you consider the cost and/or the generating and distributing efficiencies I don't think it even comes close to natural gas.
Electric heating doesn't beat oil, either. Which makes me wonder how it is that electric vehicles are more "fuel" efficient on the cost per mile.
Internal combustion engines are something like 10% efficient. You can burn oil to generate electricity, lose a lot in transmission and have it still be more efficient end-to-end; once attached to power, electric motors are pretty efficient. What sucks, has always sucked, and is the reason that electric cars are still less practical than ICE is batteries. They're heavy; they're dirty to make; charging them tends to generate a lot of waste heat.
So instead of assholes for whom electric is convenient begging the government to force everyone else to inconvenience themselves, everybody should just use what's good for them and wait for batteries to improve. That they will is as certain as any research breakthrough, and in any case they get incrementally better every year.
Electric heating doesn't beat oil, either. Which makes me wonder how it is that electric vehicles are supposedly more "fuel" efficient on the cost per mile.
Because I drive about 4.5 miles on each kWh of electricity. Do the math. If you're paying 12 cents a kWh you can drive about 36 miles for every $1 of fuel. To match that in a gas car you have to get 108 mpg at $3 per gallon for gas.
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