User Profile

Peter Aubourg

Peter Aubourg is enjoying retirement in Coledale after spending most of his working life as an engineer, designing automated machines in the manufacturing industry. He is a volunteer with Electrify 2515. He is a firm believer that “electrify everything” will reduce living cost AND carbon emissions at the same time! He is also a keen cyclist and campervanner.

Energy Transition

kWhrs: Watt is that?

This month I am looking at the way we measure fuel efficiency in our car. I am old enough to remember “Miles per Gallon”. Then we went metric and someone turned it upside-down “Litres per 100km”. Now with EVs, we have kW and kW-hours. So how...

Peter Aubourg

April 2025

Motoring & Property

Diary of an EV Driver: Charging Away Simplified

Part 12 in Peter Aubourg’s column, Diary of an EV Driver It turns out that it is quite a social affair at the charging stations, with people sharing their experiences, and generally helping each other. On the subject of planning the trip, another...

Peter Aubourg

March 2025

News

Diary of an EV Driver: Charging Away

We have had our MG4 for over a year now, and never charged it away from home. After all, we did buy it as our run-around car, not for road trips. A few of our friends were staying at Thredbo over Christmas (they are from the UK and like it cold for...

Diary of an EV Driver: Watt about Horsepower

Like today, back in the 1780s there was a change in the way machines were being powered. Then it was from horse power to steam power, for driving pumps to take water out of mines. Young James Watt had trouble convincing industrialists that his steam...

Peter Aubourg

November 2024

Energy Transition

Range Anxiety – It’s Just Different

Part 9 in Peter Aubourg’s Diary of an EV Driver I am convinced that range anxiety is something you have before you buy an EV. Or at least before the first week of owning an EV. I had range anxiety on day one when I drove out of the showroom with...

Peter Aubourg

September 2024

Energy Transition

Are EVs better for the planet?

We’d only had our EV for a week or so when someone said to me that EVs are worse for the environment because of the embedded emissions of the battery. So, as an engineer, I was curious to find out the facts. The easiest way to judge this is to...

Peter Aubourg

August 2024

Energy Transition

See where your solar power goes

Part 7 in Peter Aubourg’s Diary of an EV Driver And now for my fellow solar nerds, some juicy graphs care of the Clipsal Cortex monitoring system that I installed to track production and consumption of the power in our home. The first chart I use...

Peter Aubourg

June 2024

Energy Transition

After 6 weeks of testing my new EV charger, the results are in!

I have been testing out my new EV charger for six weeks and the results look pretty good. The Evnex charger has a control system that diverts excess solar power directly to the car battery. This means that the majority of the power for the car comes...

Peter Aubourg

May 2024

Energy Transition

Free fuel – thank you, Sun

Part 5 in Peter Aubourg’s Diary of an EV Driver I finally bought a charger that will lap up my excess solar power. This power would otherwise be exported back to the grid for a paltry sum. My wife said that I am determined to get free fuel for the...

Peter Aubourg

March 2024

Energy Transition

Diary of an EV Driver: Charging On

There’s been great excitement in the local EV world lately. Public EV chargers have been installed in a few places around the district. I had to give one a go! Ever since I bought the MG4, I have only ever charged it at home from a power point...

Peter Aubourg

February 2024

Motoring & Property

Diary of an EV Driver: Accelerating out of the ICE age

I have really been getting into the things that are different about EVs. The big one is acceleration. Our MG4 has fantastic acceleration from the moment you push on the accelerator and there are no gear changes. It has maximum torque right from the...

Peter Aubourg

January 2024

Motoring & Property

Diary of an EV Driver: 1 month in

I have now had my EV for a month. I just slip into the driver’s seat with the ease of putting on a well-worn pair of shoes. I comfortably know where most of the controls live, which makes life easier. And the comfort extends to driving, with...

Peter Aubourg

December 2023