sbisson: (Default)
Add MemoryShare This Entry
posted by [personal profile] sbisson at 12:03pm on 02/03/2007 under , ,

Charge my car
Originally uploaded by sbisson.
An electric car charging station on a London street.

Spotted originally with a small vehicle actually plugged in - and with what appeared to be an official photographer at work, snapping away while the car was disconnected.

I suspect that it's a fairly recent installation...

Covent Garden, London
March 2007
location: Putney, London
Mood:: 'busy' busy
There are 14 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 
posted by [identity profile] mnelson.livejournal.com at 01:51pm on 02/03/2007
The charging stations would be more popular if they were designed to look like a TARDIS...
 
posted by [identity profile] megadog.livejournal.com at 01:55pm on 02/03/2007
Or a Dalek?
 
posted by [identity profile] quercus.livejournal.com at 02:13pm on 02/03/2007
Just wait until the next Who episode, when they're all posessed by Cyberchargers....

If you see electric cars in Cardiff, start worrying.
 
posted by [identity profile] quercus.livejournal.com at 01:56pm on 02/03/2007
Does it work though, or was it just a repainted plastic dustbin brought along by the photographer?
 
posted by [identity profile] marypcb.livejournal.com at 05:18pm on 02/03/2007
it went from blue to green when they plugged the car in...
 
posted by [identity profile] tanais.livejournal.com at 08:20pm on 02/03/2007
or

Someone needs to talk to them about User Interface Issues especially use of colour
 
posted by [identity profile] marypcb.livejournal.com at 08:23pm on 02/03/2007
thinking about it, we saw it plugged in and we saw the light go from green to blue when it was unplugged, so green could = finished charging. Would amber for charging or green for you have power make more sense here? Need to see it from scratch to be sure; wonder if we could get a review model...
 
posted by [identity profile] tanais.livejournal.com at 08:33pm on 02/03/2007
That would make more sense from a UI perspective but that was not what you initially said.

Every charger in my house indicates Green as an optimally charged state. Red is universally regarded as "Low" so Blue could indicate an interim state.

I'm wondering how we can be sure this is a green evergy source? Any indication as to who and how the electricity was generated? What is its idling consumption? Just because its an alternative to burning petrol/diesel doesn't mean its green.
 
posted by [identity profile] marypcb.livejournal.com at 08:37pm on 02/03/2007
some chargers show green; some turn the light off; some make it flash. the colour codes are horribly confused.

this comes out of what I'd want to call the National Grid. It's a great big wall socket. So the power comes from wherever power comes from overall... no wind turbines in Covent Garden and no more idling than any other socket AFAICT
 
posted by [identity profile] tanais.livejournal.com at 09:01pm on 02/03/2007
That light when not used requires power no matter how miniscule. Plus there might be various traffos inside away (presumably 110VAC to 24VDC) which might have a draw when idling.

The assumption it is greener because it doesn't burn diesel/petrol is a bit lame if the energy came from a traditional non green source.

Is this a standard power interface BTW? Will we see other vehicles using this or is it just for a few select designs or council vehicles?
 
posted by [identity profile] alex-holden.livejournal.com at 02:29pm on 02/03/2007
What do they expect you to do if your battery's flat but the charging stations are all in use? Are they going to put a charging socket next to every other parking space in the country?
 
posted by [identity profile] quercus.livejournal.com at 06:07pm on 02/03/2007
Go for a pint with the other driver and celebrate the bizarre coincidence.
 
posted by [identity profile] marypcb.livejournal.com at 08:38pm on 02/03/2007
we did actually see two of them yesterday; one blue one black (as I initally assumed it was the same one twice)
 
posted by [identity profile] zecherman.livejournal.com at 09:34pm on 02/03/2007
Sure would be nice to see more of that over here in Canada...everyone here is driving fucking Suburbans and other SUVs...it's sick, and stupid. There is apparently no market for fuel-efficient cars here...no one cares...

January

SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
  1 2 3 4
 
5
 
6
 
7
 
8
 
9
 
10
 
11
 
12
 
13
 
14
 
15
 
16
 
17
 
18
 
19
 
20
 
21
 
22
 
23
 
24
 
25
 
26
 
27
 
28
 
29
 
30
 
31