Viktor Köves
@viktorkoves
Climate developer, photographer, creator of @chiwho.bike and @electrifychicago.net | 🌎 viktorkoves.com
The reason it's so important to emphasize used EVs is that people often say they can't afford to go electric - but that's only true if you buy new! If you buy used, you can literally buy a $100k luxury Lucid Air for the cost of a medium trim RAV4, or an ioniq 5 for less than a new base Prius
National average gas prices are up to $4.06, or $4.45 in Chicago, a percentage point increase from just yesterday. In unrelated news, used EVs like the very long-range ioniq 6 sedan (or the ioniq 5 SUV) are a screaming good deal
Bikes are freedom, like for the maybe twelve year old boy who pulled up next to me at the Jewel bike parking in full Cubs gear and told me not to steal his bike, because he didn't have a lock. He was probably grabbing some snacks or on a grocery run for the parents!
I don't know how many of y'all are gamers, but I finally picked up Sifu.... and man is it good. It's crunchy martial arts dripping with style
Another reminder that the Wild Mile is cool as hell, and you should check it out (pics from their annual block party last weekend)
I've got an Awair Element, which is pricey but I like it because it measures basically everything, looks good, and has a pretty solid app.
I'll throw in a few to start from our all electric building tour with Ald. Vasquez - it was a cold winter day and still kept the house perfectly comfortable!
The extra cool thing is the solar panel was making 350-400 W basically the whole time, so I actually gained charge on the battery, from 74% to 87% over those two hours, while making a dozen hot dogs!
Today's climate action - hosting an EV event where we made NA daiquiris off a Hyundai ioniq 5, and hot dogs off a huge solar panel and battery!
Don't let your anger just sit and fester - use it for good and to help push for change. A lot of angry people together can make a big difference!
I've been working with local groups to put on bike events, teach people about heat pumps and induction stoves, and I've personally convinced 3 people to switch to EVs instead of gas cars. Studies show people want to talk about climate change and action, they just think peers are more skeptical
The air is so thick in Chicago your vision is obscured just over the distance of a football field 😬
My hot take is that the Taste of Chicago is actually very good and it's very sweet to see people from all around the city come out and try out new food 🥺
Today in Chicago biking adventures - I see why gravel bikes are getting popular, enjoy the green river, and see that any bike can be a cargo bike
At the 40th Ward, the environmental board is putting on an event for Chicago Climate Week - an EV demo day! Next Sunday, July 19th at Ainslie Arts Plaza, we'll be making pina coladas and hot dogs off an ioniq 5 EV, answering questions on EVs, and more! RSVP at: www.eventbrite.com/e/electric-v...
Looks like 40 and 47, then 32 South of Addison-ish data.cityofchicago.org/Facilities-G...
Also I've been posting too much car content, so look at these two matching ebikes I saw a couple roll up with and I loved riding my bike down and back to Lakeview, A+ weather to work up a sexy sweat
Devastating that Broadway is open to people and has no parking, nobody was even there 🫠 Just kidding, every restaurant had a line and it's still busy at almost 10pm!
Having medium-distance road tripped with three different ioniq 5's in the last two months, I can tell you that you don't need automatic route planning - you have a phone! Use an app like A Better Route Planner, find the next charger, bada bing bada boom
One of my all time favorite art pieces is Solo Crash by Carlos Almarez, which I got to see in the MoMA and was such a striking rendition of traffic violence
And this is a VERY new phenomenon - just look at this graph (from the Wikipedia page above). In 2015, Australia had one TENTH the solar power it has today.
Hello, my name is Viktor, and I do stupid things so you don't have to. In case you were wondering if solar can work indoors, the answer is a definite no. I am tempted to get a lightweight flexible panel that I could suction cup to the outside of my window though 🤣
Mostly off grid cook outs and then the side benefit of some energy resilience! I go to a lot of events where I use it to demo an all electric home in miniature, basically
Final update, brought out the smaller 1 kWh Solix C1000 that can take 600W solar in, and it showed a peak of 435 W when I cooled the panel a bit with some water, real impressive! Since this battery is smaller, it's gaining a percentage of charge every two minutes
I will warn though that is still pretty huge folded, I think 3 feet by 3 feet and a few inches thick. But for that amount of power, I think one big panel beats multiple small ones
The panel has so much power that even if I fully cover one panel, it's still putting out 300 Watts! It is basically high noon, but still very impressive