Hungry Brits will use the same amount of power to cook their turkey this Christmas as needed to send an electric vehicle around the world more than 10,000 times.
ChargePoint Inc, the company behind the maths, has looked at the tasty lengths Brits go to for the perfect Christmas dinner and the out of this world journey that it relates to if they used an electric vehicle. And with 10 million turkeys cooked over Christmas 2018, Brits really could gobble their way around the earth – 10,313 times before running out of gravy.
The same amount of power could also be used to send an EV to the moon and back 583 times or make 4 round trips to Mars. In real terms, the simple act of cooking the turkey on Christmas Day uses as much energy as it would take to power 35,996 Leafs for an entire year, or power the journey from John o Groats to Lands End 293,821 times.
Chris Burghardt, Managing Director for Europe at ChargePoint said, “It’s a festive and fun time of the year where many families come together around the dinner table. However, what many people do not realise is the amount of energy people are using to cook their festive feast could actually power them on multiple trips around the world.
“Whilst this may all be a little unrealistic, it does highlight an important point. There has been recent concern regarding how prepared the British Electricity Grid is for the inevitable electrification of transport. As a society we have rituals and everyday activities that put huge demands on our power infrastructure. If everyone was to cook their turkey in an oven that cooks it instantly at the exact same time in the UK there would be issues, especially considering the estimated combined capacity of around 90 GW. The thing is, they don’t!
“The same is true with electric cars. Drivers will charge their cars as part of their personal routine – charging most of the time at work, home, and around town while running errands or holiday shopping. This will differ for each individual. Moreover, as electrical load drops overall, EVs help to balance out the load which is good for drivers and energy providers.”
“So, when gathered round the table this Christmas, surrounded by your loved ones, take a moment to think of the energy that went into that meal – all that electricity can get you much further in an EV than you think!”
ChargePoint is committed to making it easy for drivers and businesses to go electric and has the largest electric vehicle charging network and most complete set of charging solutions available today.
MATHS:
Last Christmas saw the UK consuming approximately ten million turkeys over the festive period Christmas. With the average turkey weighing in at 4.5 kg, and an advised cooking time of 45~ minutes per kilogram.
An average electric oven uses around 2.4 kw per hour on a medium to high heat. Multiply that by the (minimum) three hours it takes to cook a turkey, that’s 7.2 kWh of electricity.
So, if it takes 7.2kWh to cook a single turkey, cooking ten million turkeys would use 72,000,000kWh or 72GWh.
For this we will use the 2016 Nissan Leaf as it is one of the most ubiquitous EVs on Britain’s roads. It has a 30kWh battery, giving it a range of around 107 miles per one charge.
- 7.2kwh x 10,000,000 = 72,000,000kwh (72GWh – 72,000 MW) used to cook 10,000,000 turkeys in the UK
- 72,000,000kwh / 30kwh = 2,400,000 charges
- 2,400,000 charges x 107 miles = 256,800,000 miles
- 256,800,000 miles / 24,901 miles = 10,313 times around the world
- 256,800,000 miles / 477,710 miles = 538 times to the moon and back
- 256,800,000 miles / 33,900,000 miles = 7.575 times to mars ( ~4 times there and back)
- 256,800,000/ UK average miles 7,134 miles = 35,996 EVs yearly mileage
- 256,800,000/ John o Groats to Lands End 874 miles = 293,821.5
