Antique & Classic Cars Blog
Zen(n) and the Silent Errand
Friday, October 19th, 2007Outside Linden Hills Co-Op recently was a tiny car–so small it was parked where the bikes go. Its name? Zenn–zero emissions, no noise. This road tot uses a standard 120-volt outlet and recharges fully in eight hours; 80% charge in four hours. With a top speed of 25 miles per hour, one could easily ask who would want one. If you’re a city dweller, ask how many of your errands in a week are exclusively run on surface roads. The speed limit on Minnehaha Parkway is only 25 mph.
Some people argue that electric vehicles make no sense because the pollution then comes from the power plant. First, that’s true only when you’ve gotten it from such a plant. Wind, water and solar don’t create hydrocarbons, and many cities allow consumers to buy “off the grid” power generated exclusively by such alternative sources. The second relevant question is how much? Shae Singer, at Aspen Electric Cars and Carts in Aspen, CO, notes that recharging an electric car for 8 hours uses no more electricity than an electric garage door consumes raising and lowering the door for two round trips. It goes up and down when you leave for work, up and down when you return; add one grocery run later (up, down, up, down) and you could have recharged your urban errand runner from “empty” on the same amount of electricity–enough juice to drive 35 miles.
These mini rides aren’t the only answer to reducing fuel consumption and dependence, but like the burgeoning scooter population, they’re an answer–a bigger one than their size suggests.
8 Responses to "Zen(n) and the Silent Errand"
Call me crazy, but some things just sound too good to be true. Running a garage door opener through four cycles uses the same energy as driving an electric car 35 miles? Maybe there’s some terrific efficiency in the car’s drive motor that the door opener’s motor lacks, but both are converting electrical energy to mechanical work.
Here’s a question. Which would you rather do - raise and lower a manual garage door 4 times, or push the electric car 35 miles with the drive disconnected? Don’t forget to have your better half ride in the car while you push it. Hardly sounds like the same human energy would be used to perform these two tasks, and hardly sounds like the same amount of electrical energy would be used in the motorized versions.
Gary Johnson
Good comment, Gary. Let me get my wife, her running shoes, my travel mug, and some coffee and we’ll see how she feels around Forest Lake. I’m too cheap to have an opener on my garage door, so it’s a perfect test bed for her arms when we get home.
I’ll post the results. Maybe the graph will have Wife’s Fatigue on one axis and Odds Husband Sleeps in Garage on the other.
More seriously, I understand your point. If we hooked the electric car’s battery up to the door opener, would it really be out of juice after opening and closing it four times (for 8 ups or downs)?
Kris Palmer
First the Zenn is powered off 110 not 120 or 220. It and most all electric cars work off any simple plug found in the house or even at the base of most street lamps.
They also go 40-50 miles on a charge not just 35.
As to that example it was actually stated that it uses as much or more to open and close the garage that many times as it does to fill an electric car if it was completely empty. So the car gets better mileage than the garage so to speak.
People who drive the NEV learn to plug it in as they go say to and from work and it is never completely empty.110 outlets are allaround if youbegin to look. Also the ZENN has regenerative brakes so every time you use them you are adding power back in the system.
Is electric NEV the end all? NO! does it help cut emmissions and is it fun to drive? YES! Does it get better milage than gas or more standard fuels? YES!
If you drive an NEV which by it’s very nature goes speed limits in towns that being 25mph or less .. you are forced to support local business. ie these do not go down the freeway to the closet walmart.
It is a start not an end all…. to be aware of environment and emmissisons and hey they are fun.
Hey Gary- We have a 1955 vintage porsche spyder that goes 100 miles an hour holds a charge for about 70-80 miles and is electric 100%. Your garage will have to open and close alot to keep that baby going but hey it still has zero emissions and we tracked it to cost about $5 to charge it. More your style? wanna picture?
Shae Singer Aspen Electric Cars and carts
I got my voltage and range info. from the Zenn website, here:
http://www.zenncars.com/specifications/specs_index.html
It’s a Canadian company, so perhaps their specs differ. Whacky Canadians.
Kris Palmer
yes it is on the site as 120 BUT they are made in french Canada and I think it is the same. Here we only have 110 and 220 so not sure why it says that on line. all my brochures are in english and say 110. FYI
Shea,
I don’t dispute that the car may be economical to run, may be fun, and may help by reducing emissions. Just that the cost comparison to your garage door opener seems a little improbable.
I just took a look at my garage door opener. Rating of 6.0 amps. Then took a look at a simple battery charger. also 6.0 amps. I’ll also make a couple assumptions favoring the car. That the opener uses the full 6.0 amps all the time,and that it takes 2 minutes for the door to go up or down, and that the car charger only draws at 1/2 my small charger’s rate for only the 4 hours necessary to get the 80 % charge.
So what does it cost? My electric bill rate is pretty steep at about $.08 per KWH.
Opener. 4 cycles at 4 min. per cycle
6.0(amps) x 110 (volts) x 16 (min) equals 10.56 KWM (kilo watt minutes)
or .176 KWH
about $.02 and I rounded that up from 1.4 cents.
Car charger on for 4 hours
3.0(amps) x 110(volts) x 240 (minutes)
equals 79.2 KWM (kilo watt minutes) or 1.32 KWH
or about $.11
not a lot of money, but no where near as cheap as the opener.
That claim is about as believable as the Fish carburetor.
On the other hand, making some of the worst assumptions; that you need the full 8 hours at 6.0 amps (that spec was not available on the web site) to get just 35 miles, the cost for your electric fuel would be..
6(amps) x 110 (volts) x 480(minutes)
equals 316.8 KWM or 5.28 KWH.
about $.42
still a really low fuel cost, just not an unbelievably low one.
Gary
Gary, I had my finger on the send button for the fish carburetor on eBay. I wasn\’t sure how carburetion would improve a fish, but as an aquarium owner and car buff, I found the combination irresistible. Glad I saw your post. I\’m sure it was a fake–probably a mink caliper doctored with Photoshop.
[…] hard copy paper today has some stats on electric cars, particularly the Zenn, which we discussed here several months ago. They reveal operating costs, for anyone considering options to pump […]
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MotorMouth Kris Palmer, freelance auto writer and editor, blogs about vintage cars, the collectible auto scene and just about anything else that goes vroom.
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