Reality check on electric cars

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T. A. Gardner said:
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Recharge your car at home...

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This keeps happening, and people STILL want to charge these things in their homes!

Question for you: As an electrician, do you feel it's unsafe to install such chargers, knowing the fire risk they present to the household? This is your professional opinion I am asking about. Not about the electrical code (maybe it should be in the code? Perhaps even in the NFPA code?). I know I have to keep this weight of conflagrants in a secured type 3 magazine that is bullet resistant and double locked and at least 300 ft away from any living quarters, according to the NFPA 1124 code. I also have to keep logs of everything that goes in and out of that magazine as well, and I can't deliver any such materials to anything other than a licensed pyrotechnician.
 
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It isn't just Tesla cars that explode and burn regularly. Tesla's "Megapack" batteries for storing energy from whirligigs and sunshine do too...

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In the early hours on Monday, a Tesla Megapack battery caught fire at a key California power storage facility, the state’s largest utility said in a statement to TechCrunch.

According to PG&E, the utility “became aware of a fire in one Tesla Megapack at its Elkhorn Battery Storage facility” at around 1:30 a.m. in Moss Landing, which is located about 25 miles south of Santa Cruz, in Monterey County. The site is home to a facility that houses 256 Megapacks and is capable of storing up to 730 megawatt-hours of energy…when not aflame. Such facilities underpin the crucial transition to renewables by storing clean energy for use when the sun isn’t shining.
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https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/20/pge-says-tesla-battery-was-source-of-power-storage-site-fire/

Nice to know that California's grid is becoming increasingly unstable, can't produce enough power, and now is subject to having fires in storage arrays that wouldn't be necessary at all if reliable sources of energy were being utilized.
 
Insurer GEICO has just announced it will no longer repair Tesla cars involved in an accident. They are saying it's cheaper to total them, even for relatively minor damage.

A Tesla owner in Phoenix, Arizona, has been having a hard time getting his car repaired. The accident wasn’t his fault yet Tesla-certified repair shops are not accepting Geico due to the insurance company refusing to pay the costs to repair a Tesla. Although the Tesla owner wasn’t at fault for the accident, he is stuck with $2,100 in damages.

In the tweet below from our friends at Wham Baam TeslaCam, you can see the dashcam footage from the Tesla. Teslarati reached out to Wham Baam TeslaCam who shared the story with us. The story will also be in Sunday’s episode of Wham Baam TeslaCam.
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https://www.teslarati.com/phoenix-tesla-repair-geico/

https://twitter.com/x/status/1574841866012561438

When the only car more expensive to insure than a Tesla is a Maserati, I'd say you're better off with a Maserati. At least it will be really valuable in 10 years while your Tesla will be worth next to nothing.
 
Into the Night said:
This keeps happening, and people STILL want to charge these things in their homes!

Question for you: As an electrician, do you feel it's unsafe to install such chargers, knowing the fire risk they present to the household? This is your professional opinion I am asking about. Not about the electrical code (maybe it should be in the code? Perhaps even in the NFPA code?). I know I have to keep this weight of conflagrants in a secured type 3 magazine that is bullet resistant and double locked and at least 300 ft away from any living quarters, according to the NFPA 1124 code. I also have to keep logs of everything that goes in and out of that magazine as well, and I can't deliver any such materials to anything other than a licensed pyrotechnician.
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If the install is done correctly, and you have the garage properly fire rated to code, it probably isn't much of a risk. I'd suggest installing sprinklers in a garage where you do battery charging as a precaution, however. This could be done using 2 to 6 sprinklers for a 1 to 3 car garage, and PEX tied into the house water system. That along with eliminating using the garage for most storage (like that'll happen in your typical home :rolleyes: ) would likely eliminate any serious fire hazard to the home.
 
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