RE: [Vo]:Achieving the Rare and Final Stage of Oil Grief

[Brian Prothro]

The life of flooded lead acid batteries can be extended quite a bit by the
latest charging technologies. Assuming you have an older EV.  This
technology has brought practically dead batteries back to life.  Here is one
charger I found. http://r-charge.com/index.html

I intend to get an EV in the next year.  If it is a used one I will be using
this charger myself. 

Brian Prothro -----Original Message-----
From: Stephen A. Lawrence [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2008 9:01 AM
To: vortex-l@eskimo.com
Subject: Re: [Vo]:Achieving the Rare and Final Stage of Oil Grief



Terry Blanton wrote:
> However, looking at my automobile:
> 
> A gallon of gas contains about 36.7 kWhr of energy.  Assuming a
> mechanical efficiency of about 70% and a thermal efficiency of about
> 30%, the car would be about 20% efficient providing about 7.3 kWhr.
> 
> If I get 30 mpg and drive for an hour I consume 2 gal/hr driving at 60
> mph or about eight bucks.  With an electric car, I need 14.6 kWhr plus
> the inefficiency of transport of the electric power, figure 80%, or
> 18.25 kWhr.
> 
> At 10 cents per kWhr the $8.00  of gasoline is displaced by $1.83 of
> go juice.  And guess what, the power plant pollutes someone else.
> 
> :-)

Yup, it's a slick deal.  And the boiler at the power plant is typically 
a lot cleaner than an ICE as well.  (There is an extra "hidden" cost, 
though, which is that you must replace the batteries every few years; 
that tends to even out the operating expenses a bit.  EVs still seem to 
be cheaper to operate, tho.)

Attachment (if it comes through) is the back end of my wife's "new" car. 
  Got it second hand a few months back; it's a conversion which was done 
for an old gentleman last year, using a 1990 Jetta for the base vehicle. 
  The owner moved into a nursing home, which is why his car went on the 
market; we found it through Google.

Only trouble is the range, which isn't so hot, as it runs on flooded 
lead acid batteries, like nearly all "converted" EV's.