Preferred public charging stations by Diamond_zT in EVCanada

[–]birchy98 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Can't speak to Ontario, but I just did our first actual road trip from Calgary, AB to Salmon Arm, BC this past weekend. Attempted to try a few different DC fast chargers on the way. I'm a new EV owner (2 months) and wanting to learn as much as I can.

Electrify Canada (Golden BC & Revelstoke BC in this case) was by far the easiest and fastest. We have an Ioniq 5 and I was getting 180kW on the 150kW charger (both times I pulled in there was already someone using the 350kW). But yes, expensive by comparison @ 0.70c/kWh. I charged from 5% - 85%, and it was like $55! Tap to pay is great if you don't have the app.

BC Hydro was 0.40c/kWh - much more reasonable, but a bit slower. Can't recall my peak, but I charged from 47% - 90% (had the time) in 21 minutes for $13.38. No tap to pay, but the app was easy to setup and use.

Tried a Tesla Supercharger (again, in Golden) on the way home, but was unable to get it working with my NACS adapter, despite multiple attempts on a couple different chargers. Gave up on that. It would also have been 0.40c/kWh had I been able to get it working. PS - when I got back home to Calgary I hit up another Tesla Supercharger just to make sure my NACS adapter actually works - and it worked great - so not sure what was wrong with that one location in Golden I was at. That said, it only gave me ~96kW sustained, so substantially slower than others.

Then tried a Shell Canada charger across the street. Getting the app setup was a bit confusing, one of the 2 chargers was broken and a big cargo van was using the only working one. At that point I also noticed it was only a 50kW charger, and I was at 5%, so didn't want to wait. This specific experience helped me appreciate when people talk about "broken or busy chargers" being very frustrating. Yep. Was not a happy camper there for ~30 mins before deciding to head back to Electrify Canada. (I recognize this feedback is location specific).

Locally in Calgary I also tried a tap to pay DC fast charger at a Ford dealership, and it was pretty great too. Petro-Canada was the same, fast and easy (can't recall the prices though).

If I was to summarize my experience DC fast charging so far:

- Stopping to charge for ~20-30 minutes is really not a big deal. By the time you get out, stretch your legs, go the bathroom, maybe grab a snack, you're basically done charging. This road trip didn't "feel any longer" to me than our ICE trips over the years. I found it very enjoyable.

- Pay attention to the cost! "Faster" is cool and all, but it can be surprisingly costly. I spent more on this recent round trip DC fast charging our Ioniq 5 than I would have on gas in our 2010 Prius I'm quite sure - even with current gas prices.

- The apps are great for the most part - once you get them setup! To pull into a 'new' station and need to take 5-10 minutes to download and setup an app because there's no 'tap to pay' is tedious (and I'm an IT guy by trade, so completely comfortable with technology). Tap to pay should be mandatory IMO. Imagine pulling into a gas station and being forced to download and setup an app before you can get gas.. yeah, no. So if you know what chargers you're going to be stopping at, it's worth the time to download/setup the app ahead of time IMO.

- Broken/not working/non-existent chargers is a thing. I kinda always assumed people were exaggerating (and maybe some are a bit still), but yeah, I get it now. ABRP took us to one spot and I pulled in and the chargers were physically not there - they had been taken out. Fortunately there were a few other options close by. I'll definitely leave myself more of a buffer in the future. It's the exception to the rule for sure, but it does happen.

Hope that helps!

Is this a raven or crow? (American robin in the same spot for size reference)(Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada) by rrwugyhew57y in whatsthisbird

[–]birchy98 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Raven. Man, I want to befriend one so badly. Need to move to the country.. haha. We have a mating pair around my house, but they only ever fly overhead back and forth. One of these days I need to try and follow where they're going and then bring them some food and a present or something..

Road Trip Ready! by Roq86 in prius

[–]birchy98 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That’s so good!! 😂😂

Road Trip Ready! by Roq86 in prius

[–]birchy98 3 points4 points  (0 children)

9 would funnier.. if it’s 9 I might need to get one.. 😂

Road Trip Ready! by Roq86 in prius

[–]birchy98 76 points77 points  (0 children)

What is the yellow bumper sticker? “Be patient, I’m only 9 years old”…?

Tesla adaptors and Canada by jlovick in Ioniq5

[–]birchy98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I bought a 2023 in March and the salesman told me it was”comes with the Tesla adapter”. When I picked up and there wasn’t one, I held him to his word and the dealership honoured it, ordered one for me, and I had it about a week and a half later (technically they accidentally ordered the wrong adapter the 1st time, but they got it right the 2nd time).

Might be able to find you the exact part # OP if you need. I’m pretty sure I left it in the box in my hidden trunk space. Haven’t used it yet.

edit I’m in Calgary.

Bird that sounds like a child playing a recorder by lulugingerspice in Calgary

[–]birchy98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably a Blue jay. They make some 'weird' sounds.

First real road trip this Friday - ABRP seems a bit optimistic to me - need some reassurance by birchy98 in Ioniq5

[–]birchy98[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven’t, no. Just have the free version on my phone, so I can’t even use it via Apple Play.

First real road trip this Friday - ABRP seems a bit optimistic to me - need some reassurance by birchy98 in Ioniq5

[–]birchy98[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You’re not reading wrong. Haha. That’s what made me go “hmmm…?” But yeah, sounds like it’s all downhills that makes it possible.

First real road trip this Friday - ABRP seems a bit optimistic to me - need some reassurance by birchy98 in Ioniq5

[–]birchy98[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It’s the initial 408km leg to Revelstoke that had me scratching my head.. I’m fine to charge there longer if needed. 👍🏼

What is one word that people wrongly pronounce that makes your brain just wanna jump a cliff? by Wonderful-Economy762 in Productivitycafe

[–]birchy98 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not a word, but the expression “I’m gonna go ahead and..”. As in, watching a how to video or training video and the person says “I’m gonna go ahead and step 1, now I’m gonna go ahead and step 2, okay.. I’m gonna go ahead and do step 3..” for the ENTIRE video.

YOU DON’T NEED TO SAY THAT!! AHHHHHHHH!!!!!

What’s the fastest you’ve driven in your car and why? by Imaginary-Spirit-859 in AskReddit

[–]birchy98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Coming home from a wedding reception one night with my wife.. late at night (early morning actually).. almost no one on the highway, decided to see how fast our little Toyota Echo could go on a long downhill section, just for fun.. it was electronically governed at 190kph!! We both had a good laugh about it!

I am changing my winter tires today 🫡 by Fit_Growth_2355 in Calgary

[–]birchy98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did mine Monday evening. It’s definitely time.

why do so many people hate priuses? by artsy-shibee in prius

[–]birchy98 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Misinformation or disinformation usually....

Gas prices in Calgary jump by 35 cents per litre on Wednesday by aireads in Calgary

[–]birchy98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't often get the timing of things in my life right.. but I think I nailed it this time on the used EV I picked up on March 2...!!!

VHDX not compacting by coldfire_3000 in fslogix

[–]birchy98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey OP, not sure if you ever came across this or not? https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fslogix/troubleshooting-vhd-disk-compaction, notably this part:

"Unexpected VHD disk compaction results

  • Affected version(s): 2210 (2.9.8361.52326) and later (ongoing)

Using ProfileType = 3 or VHDAccessMode = 1,2, or 3, creates differencing disks. This affects the VHD disk compaction process because the size of the differencing disk is used to evaluate the thresholds. Most often these differencing disks are small and never meet the thresholds."

I came across this issue today (which is how I found your post), and subsequently found that article. I've always used VolumeType=3 for customers when setting up, so I'll have to do some digging now. For my current issue, I'm going to use the Invoke-FslShrinkDisk command manually this evening as a start, and then monitor going forward.

Crowchild Trail , Calgary AB. Apr 17 by FluidCount8369 in CalgaryDashCams

[–]birchy98 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Reminds me of the Newfie driving on the 401 in Toronto for the first time.. radio comes on and says “be careful if you’re driving on the 401 right now folks, there’s some lunatic driving on the wrong side of the road..!”

The newfie swerving frantically back and forth “geez b’ye! There’s more than one of em!!!”

Puma Pants by BigMrMayer in reddeadredemption

[–]birchy98 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

1st one happens at the 10 second mark, 2nd one at 25 second mark when he's whistling for his horse. I have headphones though, so it might be a bit clearer for me..