2019 Chevy BOLT
 

The original 'plan' was that, I'd be buying AeroStealth's BOLT this coming September.
He called to report that he could get a good deal on a Hyundai IONIQ 5 ( right now! ), so I did an electronic funds transfer last Monday ( $15,000 ). He made the down payment on the '5', and drove it home that day.
So, now I'm juggling activities, figuring how to get myself, one-way, to New Mexico, to take possession of the car, and drive it back to Texas.
John's been keeping a log on the BOLT in the 'garage' section of EcoModder.
I have a 'wind power' option through my electric co-op, and, other than a seldom road trip each year, will essentially be carbon-free for most of the year.
The car has a new, 'larger' battery, and my typical commute is 14-miles, round- trip commuting, now about 3-times / week.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The long-term goal is to fabricate an extremely light, composite monocoque, 1-wheel, full-stinger, gap-filled trailer with only 2-degrees freedom of movement, shooting for Cd 0.155 aerodynamic singularity, half the OEM drag, and negligible weight penalty. 300-miles / charge.
And that's on top of completing the 'Spirit' project at the A2 Wind Tunnel/ AeroDyne Wind Tunnel.

Which two degrees? My surmise is pitch and rotation.

' which two '
 

I'm going to stick with the ' pitch-allowing', motorcycle front fork-to-trailer hitch-type connection to the car.
This will allow pitching freedom at both the hitch, plus at the trailer's swing-arm.
The 'fork' will have a minimum of 'rake', to allow for automatic 'centering' of the trailer, trailing behind, plus 'yawing' in turns.
There won't be any 'roll' allowed in the connection, which extremely simplifies the gap-closure, which will be an inflated bladder, energized at 45-mph, once away from 'urban' driving scenarios.
Since it's a 1-wheeler, there won't be any rotational torque ( roll moment ) induced, as in a two-wheeler, where one tire might experience a different elevation from the other ( pot holes, or oblique driveway ramp attack ). K.I.S.S. methodology.:)
The trip to North Carolina will allow me to simulate the aerodynamics of the 'singularity' in the wind tunnel. And if I like the 'numbers', the mockup can become a 'plug' to create tooling for laying up a thin-shell composite trailer body to pull behind SPIRIT. The 'numbers' will also inform me about any expectations about the BOLT trailer performance.
I was close to having everything ready for the 2017 testing, but just couldn't pull it off in time. No cigar!

little update
 

* I got insurance on the car.
* I managed to buy an electronic bus ticket online.
* I depart for New Mexico on Tuesday, late afternoon, on a 21.5-hour trip.
* AeroStealth will pick me up at the bus station Wednesday, early afternoon.
* I might have flown but our mass-transit system has no user protection from foul weather, between Denton and Dallas. And we've already had a supercell come by which tore up Frisco, Texas with softball-sized hail and an EF-0 tornado.
* I've struggled to get on electrifyamerica's charging system for 6-days straight, without any luck. If I can't, I'll be paying 25% higher rates for electricity on the road. The problem stems from leaving all my user names, PINs, and passwords, by accident, at the local Toyota dealership parts department a few years ago.
Electrifyamerica requires an email/Gmail account user name, and password, and It's been a struggle to navigate GOOGLE, as it's 100% AI, and zero human beings to assist ( Cricket wireless, and Samsung couldn't help), and I'm at the mercy of Google's robots.
* The BOLT has enough range to travel for the total solar eclipse. The greatest challenge will be the anticipated gridlock all over the a viewing area. Anyone going may be interested in the comet, which will also be visible in binoculars, not far from the sun, when the 'lights go out'. There will be 4-1/2-minutes of totality where I'm going, if the weather cooperates.:)

As you pointed out, Google has no human support. If you can't fix it yourself, they don't care, but the good news is Google has plenty of resources intruding into the genitalia and skin hue of their employees. That might be an access vector to exploit for the purposes of getting customer service.

More likely you are overthinking the search process. Wife who is relatively computer illiterate has huge success with google while I tend to throw my devices at the wall because the precisely defined search string is too limited in scope and returns a null answer.

' overthinking'
 

* I believe that to be the case.
* Whoever did the technical writing for the accepted Google ' password recovery' protocol, used language that I still do not comprehend.
* I think that when their AI uses the word 'recovery', it's actually 'talking' about a password 'reset.'
* The AI never 'reveals' the forgotten password, it's just going to allow for a 'new' password, if you throw the 6-digit verification code back at it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was able to purchase the bus ticket with my phone number, the original user name, and debit card info.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* What worked for Greyhound, is a fail within electrifyamerica's app, when trying to set up an account.
* And the 'fail' there is also a function of 'password.'
* They accept the GMAIL user name, then ask for a 'password', without specifying whether they want the GMAIL password, or to create a new, electrifyamerica password ( when I try that, using their metrics, they refuse it [ three times in a row ] ).
* I'm gonna talk to a third party about it after lunch today.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll be able to get home from New Mexico without being an EA member, but it will cost me an extra 25% on each KWh.:(

I feel your pain. Literally. A technician came to fix my land line last Saturday, the symptom was inability to receive incoming calls. 15 minutes after he left I lost dial tone and DSL. (It appears, from Recent Posts that nobody missed me) Five days of waiting, three calls and two service tickets later, I'm at the city library to check in with Ecomodder.

OTOH I read a whole book (first time a decade) and rebuilt a bookcase and am working on restoring a 1940s metal kitchen cabinet. And I've taken to listening to the radio.

What's up with that? I heard rumors of civil unrest in it's path.

I've seen four so far. The best one was from the Stonehenge replica at Marysville, WA in 1979; when the Druids drove a big cloud away at the last minute. 2017 was good, I saw it from my brother's back yard.

Few more days of that, and you'd have sold the paper weights you've got, and finished the big projects. Maybe we all need to lose internet for a week.

I'd have noticed you were MIA after another week. This week has been much more busy than usual for me. Plus, I'm engaged in combat with the incompetency that is my HVAC. It annoys me whenever I can spot the flaws of a professional knowing nothing in particular about the trade. It annoys me more that paying for "home inspection" is completely worthless. They didn't tell me the intake ventilation for the attic was inadequate (which is obvious by anyone with eyeballs and a functioning brain), or that my HVAC was installed by apes.

Here's my overall gripe; that the Law of Diminishing Returns works both ways. I'd gladly pay 2% more for a house if it's 20% better. At some point paying more doesn't justify the increased cost, but practically no homes these days are any where near that threshold.

On the theme of internet woes (mine a 1st world problem), we're past year 2 of the fiber internet installation. So far I've gotten damage to my sidewalk, and an inferior replacement (brush finish).

I just called again from the public phone at the library. Their new (3rd or 4th) service ticket is scheduled for Friday. That would make a full two weeks. I am going to look into a different vendor once they deliver. (their maintenance yard is 2 blocks from my house)

The other thing I've been doing is working on some designs. I showed five or six to my brother (shed, garage, house, shopping mall, Mars colony) and he just said "Are those from somebody else, or did you do them yourself?" A few might show up in my I Had A Dome Idea thread. "Conventional construction for the price of a mobile home"

You're going to need an X account if your designs are going to be seen by Musk.

When the time comes. I still struggle with HDRI lighting.

And transparency in Blender is controlled multiple different places. It could be Transparent. or Alpha, or Transmission. :(

What is the problem? OK you lost your password book and are locked out of your gmail account. You can just create a new one. You aren't limited to only 1 Gmail account - I have 5. Create a new account and move on.

Once you have a new email account signing up for EA is easy. Name, phone number, email, and then create a NEW password for EA. (They aren't asking for your email password but you can use the same one if you want)

I recommend you sign up for one of the charging apps like Plug share or ABRP. Electrify America is fine but there are also about a dozen other charge networks out there that might have more convenient charge locations or better pricing. Your Bolt is capped at a 55 kW charge rate so even the older 50 kW chargers will work fine for you. If the Charger site has a mix of chargers try to be polite and use the low power ones instead of taking one of the 350 kW chargers that will still only charge your car at 55 kW.


When we had a total eclipse pass over Oregon about 5 years ago the news was going on and on about gridlocked traffic for a week ahead of time. It didn't happen. I drove an hour down to a Walmart in the path of totality and then drove back after. The trip was maybe 5 minutes longer each way.

It was funny to see the difference in attitude between people camped out the parking lot to watch the eclipse and just average customers. It seems a lot of people didn't know that the eclipse was even happening. There were people just going about their normal shopping. Even a few minutes before totality some people would just shrug and walk inside went told we were a few minutes from totality and it was something that wouldn't happen again for 50 years. Couldn't be bothered to take a few minutes out of their day.

The rate begins to taper around 50% if I recall correctly, and becomes nearly pointless to continue charging after about 80%, unless that extra bit of range is a requirement to get to the next location.

Salem Walmart? I'd have invited you to the farm. We had maybe 30 people there, half of which I'd never met before.

My brother's place in the 'town' I grew up in (more like an intersection) was the same. Bunch of people from Portland, they even set up a band. ...of sorts. My son caught the whole thing from a drone hovering above it all.

Not for 50 years? As I said in Permalink #8, I've seen IIRC four so far. Least exciting was when we pulled off the highway outside Reno, NV. I forget the year.

It was the first full one for me, and I was 34 at the time. Hate to say I'll miss the one coming up.

Was in Redmond about a year ago when we had a partial, but it was overcast. For those who say they saw a 95% eclipse, so it's just as good as a full, I say they missed 95% of the wonder of a full eclipse.

Correct. That last 20% takes about as long as the first 80%

McMinnville Walmart. It was a quick 30 minute trip and a place with bathrooms for my elderly parents. (My mom thought it was boring - I have no idea were I got my interest in the natural world from - certainly not my parents)

I was a bit off. The next total solar eclipse that will pass over Oregon is in 2169

In the last century Oregon had total a total eclipse in 1918, 1979, and 2017.

Eclipse Date: https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/solar.html

We travelled to see one when I was 13 but it was cloudy. It was still cool to see it go completely dark in the early afternoon and have the crickets start chirping.

Yes, that last few percent makes all the difference in the experience. I'm trying to convince my sister-in-law that it is worth it to drive my nieces the 2 hours to see a total eclipse insteady of 95%

I can't believe the people I talk to in Portland who said they got 95% of total, and were satisfied with that. Maybe like your mom, they just lack that sense of awe and wonder.

I'd have travelled to Texas if it wasn't such a busy time of year and the need to tend to family.

Next opportunity I'll try to position myself precisely in the best path of totality.

August 12th, 2045 is the next total eclipse to cross the lower 48.

Should be retired by then. I'll put it in my calendar.

I'll see your eclipse and raise a nova.

Two Spacecraft Failed on The 13th! What Are The Odds? Deep Space Updates
Still waiting on Betelgeuse.

Edit: 2nd source: We're About to Witness a Once in a Lifetime Space Explosion Visible From Everywhere

' gmail '
 

*Since I never took my phone to town, I could never use my gmail, since GOOGLE was calling my phone at home, asking if my phone was being hacked in town.
* So I never used it. And I never missed it.
* Greyhound closed their Denton 'office' and the only way I could get to New Mexico was to buy my ticket online. ( now I 'needed' my gmail )
* I opened a second gmail account, but no one can conduct 'business' on a Cricket smart phone unless they use the original gmail account.
* Google AI does not do a ' recover your lost password'.
* Google only allows you to get a 'new' password.
* To get a new password, you must be at Google's website, plus in your text messages, simultaneously, to get a verification code
* I'd never done this, didn't know how, and couldn't 'talk' to Google's robots.
* Nothing at Google's website offered any 'solutions' that were germane to my needs.
* Giving my original gmail name, phone number, and debit card number was good enough to get an email ticket on my phone for Greyhound.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* To get home, I'd need an account with electrifyamerica, unless I wanted to get raped on pricing.
* I was able to get into EA's system without a gmail password, but when they requested a 'password' their 'robot's didn't explain whether I'd be giving them some password from somewhere else, or create a new EA password ( which after waiting a half hour on the phone, was told by a human, was the case ).
* And I got home, 743-miles, without a gmail password, but needed the password for the EA account one time, otherwise I would have been stranded in Midland, Texas.( none of the equipment functioned, nor the EA app on my phone ) A friendly voice in Indonesia was able to re-boot the hardware, and turn on the charging session remotely. All I had to do was plug in. ' High anxiety '.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Consumer Cellular said all my phone trouble has to do with my phone, and I'll have to look into replacing it, now that I can't do much commerce of any kind without a smart phone. Certainly no road trips in an EV.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* I ' topped off' the car this morning at the local EA @ Walmart, capturing the last of the trip data. The APP worked perfectly for the 1st time. No explanation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To get to the 'eclipse' and back ( which may be clouded out ), I'll have to open half a dozen new charging accounts according to ABRP.
At least, now I know they'll all be asking for something I've created just for their APP. ( less anxiety )

Made it home with BOLT
 

So, I made it in yesterday, late afternoon.
Weather is threatening large hail, so I scrambled to clear enough space in the shop for the car ( originally I had until this coming September to accomplish this ).
743-miles, from AeroStealth's to home, with an overnight in Midland, TX.
After the first DC fast charge in El Paso, I stuck the cruise control on 62-mph, to see what that'd do, compared to the EPA HWY rating.
For the whole trip, the BOLT averaged 4.4-miles/ kWh, or 133-mpg-e, @ 91% charging efficiency.
I charged to 80% S.O.C. each session.
The longest leg was the last, Eastland, Texas, to home, then to Walmart this morning to charge ( simulating no home charger ), although not to 100%, as I did before departing AeroStealth's.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll have some more numbers for Thursday, but from the raw data, it looks like, for the well-healed, someone in a Lucid Air could have made this trip with one stop, and if it happened at a 'friend's' home, with an electric plan like AeroStealth, with 'time-if-use' pricing @ 4.7-cents/kWh, the entire trip would have set them back $ 9.17.:)

Yes, you will need a working smart phone if you plan to travel and DC charge your car along the way. You will also need about a 1/2 dozen apps. The ones you need will vary by your location. All of those will want you to set up new accounts with new passwords and likely 2 factor authentication. Some may also want you to prefund your account with $10 or $20. Charge apps tend to like to have you fund the account in blocks instead of just pay-as-you-go to minimize swipe fees.

Here the primary networks are: Electrify America, EVCS, ChargePoint, and Shell Recharge.

Soon Chevy will also want you to pay a monthly fee to use the Chevy app. I think it is the first 5 years that are included with purchase. The app gives you remote monitoring, remote start, vehicle location, and route / charge mapping.

Of course there are 3rd party apps like ABRP for charging / route planning that you can use in the car with carplay or android auto. Also the remote start on your key fob will still work.

more BOLT quanta
 

As to the recent trip, at the day's pricing:
* using only public charging, the trip would cost $ 83.43.
* an ICE version of the BOLT, at 32-mpg, would have cost $ 76.59.
* the BOLT, at my electric coo-op wind plan pricing, $ 25.22
* the Lucid Air, at AeroStealth's El Paso Electric, off-peak, time of use plan, $ 9.12.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Electrify America charges a $1.146 /gallon-e tax.
* Texas will extract a $200 EV tax from me when I title and register the BOLT.
* At an average 15,000-mile/year travel distance, between electrifyamerica, and the Denton County Tax Office, some BOLT owner, forced to do public charging would be hit with $ 282.32 / year in 'fuel'
taxes.
* This works out at 731.21-gallons-e / year for the BOLT.
* Indicating for 20.5138 mpg, compared to EPA 122- MPG HWY, and an actual 147-mpg HWY actual ( based on thee 62-mph driving )
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* This places the BOLT owner with a fuel tax burden which is 296% higher than the theoretical 'ICE' Bolt owner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Topping off the car at electrifyamerica allowed me to document the charging session, from 20-miles ave. indicated, to 209-miles ave. indicated.
* Outdoor air temp was 73F.
* It took one-hour, eight-minutes.
* Charge rate ranged from 17-miles/ hour pack gain, peaking at 19-miles / hour, and tapering off to a minimum 8- miles / hour, at the end of the session. From which I could construct a charging curve, as has been reported by others.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Compared to MotorTrend's Road-Trip Range test, from 100% SOC, to 5% SOC, at 70-mph, and climate control set at 72-F:
* Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor = 250-miles, @ 321.48 Wh/mi.
* Polestar 2 Dual Motor...... = 229-miles @ 340.17 Wh/mi.
* Hyundai IONIQ 6 Dual Motor= 227-Miles @ 323.92 Wh/mi.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Driving the BOLT at 62 mph cost me about 13.8-minutes extra drive time / trip leg, but would net 269-miles range, at 229.07 Wh/mi.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Comparing the BOLT power and consumption curves I prepared for AeroStealth in 2019, to the actual trip numbers, showed a 97.6% agreement to the actual, allowing known unknowns for wind, grades, curve drag, air density, and actual frontal area.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I like the kW meter, you can see immediate effects of climbing, descending, wind spectra, etc..
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to the 'math', if I were to 'Coventry University' the BOLT, as was done with the 1999 Audi A2, I could expect to see 375- miles range under the same trip conditions as the Radium Springs, NM, to Denton, TX run.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
With the 'Coventry' mods, plus the gap-filled, hyper-light, tadpole trailer, 441-miles range. Not Lucid Air range, but with a 65-kWh pack, and $ 104,000 between the Lucid and the Chevy, I'd be okay with the 441 mpg.

Tangent, but in a theoretical world where a fast charger was located wherever you happened to need it, there's practically no upper speed where driving faster results in a slower trip due to needing to charge more frequently. That upper speed is at least 80 MPH.

That said, chargers are not ideally located, and one must travel at a speed that allows them to reach the next one.

Charging above 80% is mostly pointless (it's so slow), unless one really needs more juice to make it to the next charging location.

... I might be making my first EV trip this month. If I do, I'll make a thread on that.

What does this mean? e-gallons are a nightmare unit of measure. Is Electrify America adding a tax per kWh to every charge? If so what is it?

It sounds crazy to me that Texas is both charging a flat fee supposedly to made up for lost gas tax revenue but then also levying a tax at the charger too.

' theoretical '
 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For Texas:
* Phase-1 is targeting DC Fast Chargers every 50-miles along designated corridors, @ 80% charge within 40-minutes ( coming up to 80% from a 93-mile HWY stint in the BOLT requires 33-minutes ).
* Phase-2 will hit more rural areas.
* New installs are running $ 150,000 / charge port.
* Repairs & upgrades are running $ 19,565.22 / port.
Note: I notice that LUCIDs, IONIQ-5s, MACH-es, Taycans, E-Trons, M-B EQEs, RIVIANs, Teslas, etc.. can hit a 350 kW CCS and be gone in less than 20-minutes.

' $ 1.146 / gallon-e tax '
 

1) It's almost a 'miracle' for electrifyamerica to provide a charge summary after you unplug ( they are 'obsessed' that you not 'idle' in place, after the charge is complete ).
2) The 1st time I got an accounting was in Denton:
* 1-hour 8-minutes.
* 45.877-kWh.
* $ 20.45 ( @ 44.575-cents/ kWh ( gross ).
* ' a $ 1.56 tax has been applied to your payment '.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
a) they provided me 45.877-kWhs @ $ 18.89 ( pre-tax ) = $ 0.41175 / kwh.
b) a 'gallon-e ' is recognized @ 33.705 kWh.
c) I purchased 1.3611- gallons-e, with an added tax of $ 1.56.
d) 1.0000-gallon / 1.3611-gallons X $ 1.56 = $ 1.1461 'gallon' gas tax equivalency ( $ 1.1461 /gallon = 296% higher tax rate than for the 'pay-at-the-pump' gasoline tax, on a 'gallon' basis ).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
e) the Federal gas tax is $ 0.20 /gallon
f) the Texas State gas tax is $ 0.188 / gallon
g) OR, $ 0.388 / gallon.
h) The Texas DIESEL tax is $ 0.20 / gallon ( plus the Federal $ 0.20/gallon Diesel tax ) [ $ 0.40 /gallon ]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Texas Legislature's Senate Bill 505:
1) all new electric vehicles are taxed $ 400.00 for registration ( 1,030.927-gallons gasoline equivalency, & 14.55- mpg-e, on a 15,000-miles/year basis )
2) subsequent annual registration tax of $ 200.00/year ( 515.463-gallons-e, @ 29.1 mpg-e, and 15,000-miles / year.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It seems that, so far, the American Petroleum Institute lobbyist-owned Texas Congressmen have more sway in Austin, than American Anti-Petroleum Institute lobbyist-owned Texas Congressmen. Perhaps a class-action lawsuit, taken to the Texas Supreme Court ( or higher ) might remedy the matter of economic prejudice and discrimination against the nascent EV owner's subset of the citizen population ( or some local kindergartner could teach the fine gentlemen 'reading and arithmetic' ).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm given to understand that, on Mars, the Gary Larsen- Bizzaro-esque sci-fi cartoonists are making good sport of Earth's Texas Legislature's epic buffoonery.:)

Is $20k in repairs an annual budget, cause that's a ton of money. Seems you could replace the charging cable every month and spend less than $20k per year, so why is it so expensive?

That's the big problem with DCFC, that it has no path towards sustainability. If consumers paid the actual cost to install and operate them, they'd probably be paying $2/kWh, in which case rational people would just drive an ICE.

My prior research found that chargers need to be utilized 8hrs per day to break even on cost, and that's for the cheap 50kW units. Higher output units cost more to install, cost more in demand charges, and require even higher levels of utilization to break even on cost.

How was the eclipse?

'reported costs'
 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1)There is absolutely zero specificity in TEXDOT's reporting, so we don't really 'know' what it that they're telling us.
2) a guess is that: Electrifyamerica pays $ 150,000 for the land, permits, ditching, cabling, transformers, ABB-manufactured charge station, labor, telephone network, global support staff, etc.. to place a single new service 'port' into service for the 1st time.
3) After that, the hardware will require $ 19,565 at some 'interval' in order to keep that port in service ( we don't know this time interval ).
4) Three-years is currently the repayment interval for a solar farm or wind turbine. If so for an EV charging port, then ElectrifyAmerica is grossing $50,000/year/port, will break even @ 36-months, then begin returning a 'profit' in the 37th month, selling at $ 0.42/kWh for EA phone APP members ( $0.64-kWh for 'non-members' .
5) All expenses are tax-deductable, including parts and labor to repair/replace/upgrade.................
6) Texas alone is getting $80-million/ year, for five years, from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, for EV charging.
7) North Central Texas Council of Governments is being awarded tens of $ millions from other sources for EV infrastructure.
8) ElectrifyAmerica is currently getting $ 15.024/gallon for their 'electrolene,'in the Walmart parking lot, while REGULAR UNLEADED is selling 50-yards away at 'Murphy's' for $ 3.299/gallon.
9) To compete with a 32-mpg Chevy TRAX CUV, the BOLT needs to return 141-mpg, which it will just do if I keep my foot out of the go-pedal.
10) Charging at home cuts my 'fuel' cost by 69%, @ $ 4.3816/gallon-e.
11) Aerostealth has just under 10-kW of onsite solar PV he can charge with, and then $ 0.047/kWh, time-of-use from El Paso Electric ( $ 2.527/Gallon-e ).

$20k might include demand and electricity costs?

A charger needs to gross more than $50k to break even given that demand and electricity costs need to be accounted for, and maintenance, and interest on the construction loan, and repaying the principal amount.

Assuming your $50k gross figure, and assuming an average of 50 kW rate of charge, that's 2000 hours of charging that needs to occur for each and every charger. That's about 6 hours of utilization each and every day, which represents a 25% utilization rate. The figures I've seen said it needs to be a 33% or more utilization rate to break even, especially for the faster chargers.

Gas pumps need something like 5% utilization rate to break even.

' how was'
 

Our 'eclipse' was mostly 'eclipsed' by clouds. We ended up in Uvalde's public park. Got only a few 'glimpses' between clouds. 4.5-minutes of 'night time' , a temperature drop.
No regrets. I had an advancing respiratory infection. It's a miracle I'm not on a ventilator in an UCU somewhere. Five days without sleep.
Basket case right now.:o

I'm empathetic to your plight.

On an unrelated topic, I just updated my signature.

In 1979 my little brother and I went to the Stonehenge replica at Marysville, WA. and my [future-ex]wife took our son to Shaniko, OR. Shaniko was completely overcast, whereas at the Stonehenge replica the Druids pushed a cloud about the size of the Battlestar Galactica out of the way at the last moment.

I prefer the 14 side of the river to the 84 side, and Stonehenge is among the delights. There's always someone wanting to drive 40 MPH on that single-lane though.

' $ 20k '
 

The money would be for hardware:
1) on the 'amplifier' portion of the DC-fast-charge power electronics, a 277- 480 VAC, 3-phase power input must be converted to up to 920- volts, involving some sort of forced-air cooled power transistors ( MOSFET, IGFET, ect. ) thermally bedded onto a heat sink.
2) after ' amplification', this AC voltage must pass through a rectifier section full of Shotkey barrier diodes, also thermally bonded to a forced-air-cooled heat sink.
3) if you've lived off the grid, you'll know that inverters and PV power limiters/ trackers, have a limited service lifespan ( PACE, Heart-interface, Sunny-Boy ).
4) perhaps the CCS connectors wear out after so many 'plug/ un-plug' cycles.
5) the oil-cooled, 11,794-lb, 1500 KVA transformer, which all power passes through may also have some fixed lifespan.
6) same for the single ' Trilliant' electric meter.
7) 'Carrington events ' :D

240 rms is about 410 peak to peak, 480 is like 820 +/-a bit. Can get to higher via capacitance doublers, but 800 and 1200 are commercially available although expensive and need a substation. Up to a Kwatt just needs a heatsink or paralleling igbts. Got 300 kw switched load under the hood of the ranger being cooled with two computer fans even on a hot Reno summer day. My motor is the heat limited item.

20 year lifespan on my power electronics, so far. On the DIY solar forum I frequent, the not cheapo chinese inverters have a 20 year life, or so the forum indicates, but that isn't MTBF. Jury is out on vicious EMP events, evidence so far is erratic and inconclusive. Tree falling on system is more hazardous to solar generation so far.

A Carrington Event would bring additional problems. A Charlemagne Event would moot all the problems.

' events '
 

Since light travels faster than ions, and since there are solar observatories, around the world, continuously observing the Sun, plus satellites surrounding the Sun, if and when a CME event takes place, and NASA calculates that it's path will intersect that of Earth's magnetosphere, utilities around the planet will have a matter of minutes warning, to 'open-circuit' there infrastructure, until the threat passes.
Even the 'earth-ground' protection of transformers will be interrupted, to prevent telluric currents traveling from the ground, 'upwards' into the transformers from 'below.'
There won't be any 'surprises,' and less risk of service interruptions than ever before.
Even Earth-orbiting satellites can be 'powered down' temporarily in order to protect their electronics from static charges penetrating the magnetosheath.
On-site power generators and grid-scale batteries/ inverters can handle emergency loads until the grid comes back up.
Presently, hotels in Tokyo, Japan can 'run' off the ' micro-grid' bi-directional electric flow from Nissan Leafs parked outside in their parking lots, and onsite hydrogen fuel cells.