Alternator Elimination on 1998 Civic EX

[Frank Lee]

I don't think post #14 was particularly useful; ALL cars have charging systems that are regulated to only supply what is needed. Getting that power from the grid does free up some more fuel economy.

[Energy Miser]

You are close, I sold a house and 5.5 acres in Pennsylvania that I bought in 1999 for $268,000 for $470,000 in 2006. The Realtor that I was dealing with wanted me to list for $300,000 "for a quick sale". I fired him and held out a year and a half, finally settling for $470,000. I had to show the house 22 times, not bad profit.
I had a wood gasifier that could power an 11 horse engine, it was a terrible pain. I would do it in war or emergency, but not every day. I can't imagine driving down I-80 with a gasifier on my Civic. Someone would shoot me. It's bad enough trying to go 60 MPH on the highway without being blown off the road. I did burn some ear corn in my woodstove last winter when I ran out of firewood in the spring. That worked ok, not too much ash, but not an awful lot of heat either.

[RobertSmalls]

Sounds like a gasifier/electric series plug-in hybrid is in order. Or steam-engine/electric, running on wood. Steampunk = cool, but I seriously doubt it will make up for all the extra weight you'd have to haul around.

This thread is about to go horribly off track. Anyway, keep us posted on your deep cycling efforts.

[Energy Miser]

It's already way off the rails.

[frank316]

Okay well i'll try to do something constructive to help ya out then. Using the industy standard for reserve capacity of a battery (25A continous) An optima yellow top (deep cycle) has a 100 min reserve capacity and a 48Ah rating. If you run it completely dead you are looking at 50-70 miles depending on how you drive.

25A*100min=41.5Ah Using a 10A charger you are looking at a little over 4Hrs to charge that back up. 41.5A*12v=498 Whr/1000=.5 kWh per charge

You have a 50 mile commute let’s say your car gets 40 mpg now, that’s 1000 miles a month 1000miles/40mpg=25 gallons of gas

Lets say your modification gets you 45mpg. 1000miles/45mpg=22.22Gallons
You save 25 gallons-22.22 gallons=2.78 gallons*3=$8.34 a month

Current Electric pricing in my area at least is $.11 kWh
cost to charge the pack everyday .5 kWh *.11=$.055 a day

In one month you drive roughly 20 days back and forth to work you would use $1.10 worth of electricity, and save about $7.24 in fuel.

On the battery note if your using 4/3 cells you would need 11 of them to get the 13.2 volts that you needed, and to get the 50Ah you would need 11 sets of 11 or 121 cells to replace your starting battery. Good luck!

Ben

[Energy Miser]

I don't want to replace the storage battery, I want to maintain it at 13+ volts. If I use replace my starting battery with a deep cycle, it will be putting out less than 12 volts after just a few miles and I think fuel economy will suffer.

I currently pay $7 per gallon for gasoline. I charge myself a 100% VAT tax on every gallon of gasoline I purchase. I put that money aside in an account. I use that money to finance my energy projects. I have found $7 gas, self imposed or not, is an effective incentive to keep plugging away on efficiency measures.

[Frank Lee]

Originally Posted by watercat

seems like a lot of messing around to loose so much function. maybe it would be easier to move to where i went to school. it was up hill in both directions and it always snowed. you could put skis on it and just slide every where. 4, to 5 mpg seems pretty extreme. how about you just take off the alternator belt and drive it and see if its even worth it. I keep doing mods and most of them don't help so ?!

I want to know where you went to school...

[watercat]

Is there a advantage when i'm running a mpg test to do it on a full moon and if there is besides down what diretion should i head.

ran another test today and found that i was able to maintain highway speed and not start the cars engine as long as i had not reach the bottom of the mountain.

conclusion: best fuel economy is mountain driving so far. I never run the test going up the mountain i dont like the results as much. I am now considering adding a magnet to a tow bar like they use to pick up nails from parking lots. the idea is to pull in behind a semi truck in his blind spot and let it connect with his loading dock pumper. its standardized so it should work on all steel trailers. not only will it help the mpg but its a decent autopilot for taking a break to get of here and check your email. my gps will tell me when to tapp the breaks to release myself when i get to my off ramp. EV should be using this to have a drive wheel alternator charging the battery pack up.