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Old 02-18-2012, 12:14 PM   #70 (permalink)
California98Civic
Cyborg ECU
 
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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)
Thanks: 2,373
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GeneralAnarchy View Post
Perhaps not if it charges while decelerating and coasting downhills faster than you'd like. A mercury switch controlling a relay should capture "free" energy to some extent. Or more conservatively, a brake pedal circuit. Better the drivetrain forces the engine to spin and alternator to charge as much as possible, than all the kinetic energy turns to brake dust.
This is part of how I do it. I live in a foothills area. I scale and descend 200-500 foot hills repeatedly in my 11 mile commute. One is 500 feet over the course of about a mile to 1.5 miles. Hills like that become a spot for me to throw some energy back into the battery by turning on the alt for DFCO. I do this even when my battery is still close to full charge from the previous night's grid charging. Eventually, I will also have some sort of solar assist. It is working really well right now. I really couldn't be more happy with it. My battery charge stayed at 12.2 or over (when running) all day yesterday, which means my deep clycle never went below half-spent. That will help me preserve the battery long term.
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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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