E-Bike Conversion Kits in Canada
 

Hi,

I recently acquired a conversion kit for my old Schwinn Messa mountain bike. The bike has 26" x 2" wide semi-slick tires with knobs on the side for gripping loose patches

The rider is a 50 year old professional riding to and from work (hopefuly year round however I dread those cold winter mornings in February of -20°C). I am also a fairly healthy Clydesdale (6'8" and 260#).

The motor is a Crystalite 407 hub, 36 volt x 8 amp NiCad battery, 36 volt controller, twist throttle and on-board computer (cycle analysist).

The thing is a blast! It pushes me along at a fairly good clip ~28 km/hr on the flats and when I pedal the computer indicates that I am using 4 watts per km. Now there is a formula somewhere and I tired it but this can't be right. According to the forumla I am getting 8,395 km per U.S. Gallon?? Is this right?

Can someone please check this for me?

Thanks,

Caledondav

Hi CaledonDave -

If you're using 4 watt hours per km, it works out to 5213 mpg (US) equivalent with the formula I use for my EV - pretty darn close to your figure in km.

With pedalling, I don't find that hard to believe at all. Bikes are incredibly efficient machines to begin with, and electric assist is also really good.

Have you seen this thread? http://forum.ecomodder.com/showthrea...604.html?t=604

It was that thread which made me say Wow and wonder how much the bike is going to save me!

Now for the actual cost (depreciation) on the e-bike.....
Now according to www.batteryuniversity.com the average number of charge cycles for a NiCad battery is between 1000 and 2000. Let's average it at 1500 charge cycles. The battery pack costs $250.00 and should give me say 72 km per charge cycle.

Thus: 1500 charge cycles x 72 km/charge cycle = 108,000 km.

$250.00 per battery / 108,000 km per battery = $0.002 per km.

What gets me really cranked up is knowing I could charge this baby from a Deep Cycle lead acid battery which itself is charged by three solar cells...but I haven't gone that far yet...

I am wondering what the acutal power cost is. My power bill is $0.05 per kilowatt hour ($0.27 per kilowatt hour delivered, etc.) Any one willing to help out?

If it's $.27 per kilowatt hour, I imagine it would be $0.00027 per watt hour. (Just converting kilowatts into watts) So, when you're pedalling along at 4 watt hours per km then it would work out to $0.00108 per km, if my math is correct. Basically you can multiply your watt hours per km by your cost per watt hour to get whatever. (IE You can also figure out how much it is with pure assist and no pedalling if you really want to)