News Coulomb is a channel devoted to providing first-hand accounts of life with renewable energy technologies. My goal is to provide education on strategies and techniques that will empower people to transition away from non-renewable, unsustainable energy sources and to build self reliance.
From News Coulomb. I hope you’re enjoying this season’s Boltmas videos! If you missed it, here’s the video for the First Day of Boltmas: https://youtu.be/dTWG6-fkY40 On this Fouth Day of Boltmas, I braved an atmospheric river to visit EV charging stations located at travel plaza. Along the way, I visit some past sites and potential,…
From News Coulomb. On the 3rd Day of Boltmas, we encountered a series of unfortunate events, culminating in the site that I wanted to feature being out of order. Will the Grinch be a mean one, and steal the spirit of Boltmas? Tune in to find out!
From News Coulomb. While I failed in my mission to pick up a Boltmas tree, I succeeded in checking out another charging site on the 2nd Day of Boltmas. Merry Boltmas to all!
From News Coulomb. It’s a Boltmas miracle! Boltmas is back, and this time, it is more present than ever. This year, I will endeavor to visit a number of charging sites in my region to showcase the current state of the public charging infrastructure. These trips will focus on smaller charging providers and equipment and…
From News Coulomb. Far be it for me to have a hot take, but I wanted to present a counterpoint to one of Walter’s (@thenetworkarchitectchannel ) comments during our recent 50th Episode Coast-to-Coast EVs livestream. Steve (@plugandplayEV ) did a lot of work setting up that episode, so check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/live/boMsI37HJKU Regardless, as…
From News Coulomb. I’ve tried a number of different methods of charging an EV off-grid, and I’ve found that there’s really only one option. Standard pure sine inverters and solar generators mostly have improperly grounded AC outlets, and even the Anker f3800, which has an option for an internal neutral-ground bond for charging EVs, is…
From News Coulomb. I’m intending for this video to be more of a PSA because it’s not information that was readily promoted when I was putting together some of my DIY solar arrays, but I think it’s extremely important for the community to know. Reiterating this type of information is good, and can prevent novices…
From News Coulomb. I’ve been walking through my DIY solar system, correcting issue and upgrading components. I recently upgraded the input power to my Anker Solix f3800, which is now being fed by 27 A of current from solar panels. Typically, a constant current of 27 A would require at least 10 AWG cables, so…
From News Coulomb. Now I know that some might immediately reply with EV that have solar panels integrated into the vehicle, but what I am referring to is an EV that supports a direct-from-solar charging functionality. While that could be integrated into the vehicle, I am not discounting an EVSE that plugs in directly to…
From News Coulomb. As of December 2025, electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids no longer have access to the high occupancy vehicle (HOV) carpool lanes. Rather than eliminating access for these clean air vehicles, we should abolish carpool lanes entirely, and if they are preserved as special access lanes, they should be restricted buses and other…
From News Coulomb. In a recent shopping trip, I found my way to a newly opened Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging station in Red Bluff, California. This station is conveniently located off of I-5 and westbound CA Route 36, and it is situated in a plaza with a Starbucks and Burrito Bandito. While it is possible to…
From News Coulomb. This is the first official episode of my Ryobi RM300e restoration project. This mower worked well for me for nearly two years, but the Achille’s heel of these Ryobi riding mowers is their use of lead acid batteries. As my 12 V batteries started to lose capacity, the mower became more and…
From News Coulomb. Link to newsletter article: https://open.substack.com/pub/newscoulomb/p/fixing-electrify-americas-idle-fees?r=5hboft&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
From News Coulomb. While setting up my solar projects, I was running the numbers and realized just how stupid solar is in comparison to gas. On the surface, solar seems so far behind gasoline that it would never catch up, but the numbers work out very differently. Just on a purely energy-to-energy basis, a single…
From News Coulomb. I will try to make weekly updates moving forward for my various projects, and this is the first installment of my Toyota RAV4 EV restoration project. In this episode, I confirm the presence of the original batteries as well as hook up my J1772 Adapter Box from https://www.tucsonev.com/ From there, I test…
From News Coulomb. In a recent story, InsideEVs covered the topic of how we might have overbuilt battery production facilities. According to a report from AlixPartners, our battery production capacity now far exceeds current EV demand. In my opinion, this is short-sighted. Even with a 2:1 production to demand ratio, that means that our current…
From News Coulomb. I wanted to do a quick discussion about when it is acceptable and appropriate for EV drivers to use ADA compliant charging stalls, and frankly, I think people are overthinking it. Broadly, these charging stalls are considered "dual use," which means that only one of the criteria needs to be met in…
From News Coulomb. I just cancelled my Electrify America membership and account after this latest incident, where a charger errored out just after I entered a store where I don’t have cell service. Rather than recognizing that the charger itself was broken, Electrify America charged me a $6.00 idle fee that required an escalation to…
From News Coulomb. I wanted to share a bit of an update on my solar system, and my recent battery build using an EEL V5 DIY battery box for the 280+ Ah cells. For this build, I used EVE LF304 cells, which should provide a useable capacity of over 15 kWh. I’m not completely enamored…
From News Coulomb. While on a local trip to the vet, I thought it would be fun to chat about the different modern EV generations based on their capabilities and technology. Specifically, in the way they stack up against ICE vehicle alternatives, where the first generation EVs required owners to make concessions, the second generation…
From News Coulomb. Silicon Carbide (SiC) inverters provide 99% percent efficient over a broader range of power/loads, compared to the 97-98% efficiency found in IGBT based inverters. This results in as much as a 7% increase in EV driving range. The 2023 Chevy Bolt EUV was rated at 247 miles of EPA combined range on…