2001 Insight

[Natalya]

So the battery seems to be working fine, but my problem is my driving never allows it to get charged, so I still gotta use clutch switch to keep it from assisting. It's just hanging out at 3 bars because when hypermiling I you know try to not accelerate more than I need to. I'm the slowest car on the road, hanging out in the right lane. FCD right now for current tank says 3.1 l/100km with 145km on the tank. That's like 90 miles at over 70mpg for the Americans in here. I don't ever DFCO + regen because I'll just use EFAS and EoC instead of letting the car regen. I guess for hypermiling not having a battery is better.

[ThermionicScott]

Why is the lightbulb inside of the chassis? Take a cue from old vacuum-tube gear and put sockets on the top, so that the heat can radiate up and away from everything else!

[Natalya]

Yeah I didn't expect it to throw off that much heat when I built it. Also keep in mind I have a fan in there to cool it, I figured with the fan it wouldn't be terrible. In any case, I'm replacing the 500W bulb with a 300W, which is still plenty. I also got some new switches in from Mouser that are rated for higher amperage, so I can replace the one that got fried by the bulb.

[ThermionicScott]

Even 300W is a lot to put inside a small box and expect to keep cool with a computer fan. It's just not good engineering practice to put a big heat source in an enclosure if you can avoid it, and I wonder how many other people are doing this.

If it weren't for the mental image of a house fire caused by trying to nurse a hybrid battery into better health, I wouldn't be nagging so much. But having said my piece, I'll stop and let you do what you wish. Good luck.

[Natalya]

Originally Posted by ThermionicScott

Even 300W is a lot to put inside a small box and expect to keep cool with a computer fan. It's just not good engineering practice to put a big heat source in an enclosure if you can avoid it, and I wonder how many other people are doing this.

Probably 0 other people have done it this way. Do you think a 200W would still be too much heat?

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by Natalya

What I don't know, because I'm not an electrician, is what happens if I use a lower wattage bulb. Let's say I replaced the 500W with a 300W, would the bulb just die from the voltage, or would everything be fine and it just not throw off as much heat?

All these bulbs are rated to run on 120v, regardless of their wattage. So your latter statement is true.

Interesting approach. Cheap and effective. I've stayed away from bulbs generally for various uses (like this) because they will eventually burn out, or blow if they're mishandled or whatever. They do have the bonus of giving visual feedback, mind you, of roughly what's happening -- without the use of any instrumentation.

Anyway, whatever works!

[ThermionicScott]

Originally Posted by Natalya

Probably 0 other people have done it this way. Do you think a 200W would still be too much heat?

It would still be above my comfort level. If you got one of these $2-3 light bulb bases and mounted it to the top, you wouldn't even need a fan anymore:



Oooh, ooh, and if the naked bulb gets annoying to look at, you could add a lamp shade.

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by ThermionicScott

It would still be above my comfort level. If you got one of these $2-3 light bulb bases and mounted it to the top, you wouldn't even need a fan anymore:



Oooh, ooh, and if the naked bulb gets annoying to look at, you could add a lamp shade.

Or plug a $5, 500w work light in to it. Comes complete with enclosure and everything. If you still want plenty of watts.

[Ecky]

That's how mine works, I have a standard 2 prong power outlet and I plug a lamp into it.

[Xist]

How much electricity does it take to maintain hybrid batteries?