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Old 07-18-2011, 10:20 PM   #39 (permalink)
California98Civic
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Coastal Southern California
Posts: 6,299

Black and Green - '98 Honda Civic DX Coupe
Team Honda
90 day: 66.42 mpg (US)

Black and Red - '00 Nashbar Custom built eBike
90 day: 3671.43 mpg (US)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by oil pan 4 View Post
I searched around and found:
"Electricly unhooking" the alternator seemed to net about a 5% gain.
Deleting or unhooking the belt seemed to be the real money maker, +10%MPG.

Just running off battery power alone isn't that appealing since each large marine starting battery I have been eyeing will run nearly $180 each.

I had already been considering a small solar panel to keep the batteries topped off in winter, now I am thinking about scaling that up.
So possibly half the gain is from disconnecting the belt? That would put the lie to what I was told about the big gain being in preventing the alternator from generating power.

For a solar panel, you might consider this company: 100w Solar Panel battery charger f boat,car.waterproof | eBay
They are the folks I have considered. The panel is thin and flexible, and I can fit a panel large enough for 120w on my Civic roof.
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See my car's mod & maintenance thread and my electric bicycle's thread for ongoing projects. I will rebuild Black and Green over decades as parts die, until it becomes a different car of roughly the same shape and color. My minimum fuel economy goal is 55 mpg while averaging posted speed limits. I generally top 60 mpg. See also my Honda manual transmission specs thread.



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