DIY Volt Hybrid - Open ReVolt style - Page 6 - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

bennelson · 12-06-2010, 08:20 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxk1vVZTpjY

Nerys · 12-06-2010, 08:28 PM

wow HOW COLD IS it where you are? that killawatt screen is not happy about it :-)

bennelson · 12-06-2010, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nerys

wow HOW COLD IS it where you are? that killawatt screen is not happy about it :-)

Well, I am in Wisconsin.

Could be worse. I could be in Minnesota!

Nerys · 12-06-2010, 11:57 PM

so how much does the cold effect your EV range?

hmm not that cold 21' in Milwaukee. hmm guess the killawatt just does not like any cold at all :-) I thought it took lower temps than that to mess with the LCD.

bennelson · 12-07-2010, 10:59 AM

It's 11 degrees this morning.

Cold will easily cut the EV range in half, and reduce top speed as well.

My rear battery box is insulated, but the car has just been soaking in cold for about the last week.

Last night, I drove my car over to my Dad's house. It's ten miles away, and I had to baby it to get there.

My Dad has a workshop off the back of his garage. It's insulated, and has an insulated floor! That's right, I get to work on plywood instead of concrete.

He told me that in the winter, way back before he insulated the floor, he could throw the last of his coffee onto the concrete and it would freeze when it hit!

Also, I talked to my RV mechanic friend last night. He said that the standard BBQ tanks are not going to have the flow rate I need for the generator, due to OPD on them. Apparently, that really restricts the flow.
However, larger tanks with the right flow get heavy really quick! The forklift tank I have right now weighs about 100 lbs! With the generator itself weighing 100 lbs, there's no way I can put that much weight hanging off the back of a Metro!

My friend suggested that I use a small trailer to mount everything on. But a trailer is harder to manuver, takes up more storage space, etc.

Grrr... (frustration marks)

I wonder about a one-wheel trailer? Ever see those? It would keep the whole thing more compact.

He recently got a propane space heater for the shop as well. It's also larger and better lit than my freezing garage space!

Nerys · 12-07-2010, 11:33 AM

BEN - use TWO TANKS. that should easily have the needed flow rate. then you can use normal 20 pounds BBQ tanks.

Dr. Jerryrigger · 12-07-2010, 12:02 PM

The reg should keep working until it gets down to about -40deg (C or F?... oh right) as that is the boiling point of propane.
A trailer could make for an interesting project. A little motorcycle trailer made into a boat tail... But that's a major project.
I think it's time for some math to see how much propane it would be worth toting around. The car uses more juice in normal driving that the gen can put out, right? If so you could figure out about how much range you could have with the gen, and then how much fuel that would take. It would be good to have slightly more than that, or maybe even 4 times that, but not 50 times that. There are a lot of tanks on the market, so it's not going to be hard to find the right one (or two).

bennelson · 12-07-2010, 12:21 PM

Right now, it's not a matter of tank size in terms of fuel capacity.

The issue is not being able to get the small tank to run the generator at all. Rough calculations seem to indicate that the small BBQ tank could run the generator for a couple of hours IF I could get the proper flow out of it.

A trailer opens up all sorts of possibilities in terms of additional cargo space - but also additional cost, complexity, etc.

I'm still trying to keep this all as simple and practical as I can.

I think the next big step is to figure out what I NEED for a tank to power the system.