----- Original Message ----- From: "Walker, Lesley R" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2002 7:00 PM Subject: RE: Seeking advice on donor car
> Jon "Sheer" Pullen wrote: > > > > However, there comes the question of how to haul that much > > lead around - the debate goes on as to what the exact number > > is, but I've always used 650 lbs of lead = 1 gallon of > > gasoline. So if you've got a car that gets 22 mpg (typical > > of a pickup truck), you'd need 3 x 650 = 1950 lbs of lead, > > almost a ton! Plus balancing, battery heaters, racks, > > charger you're looking at 2500 lbs _before you add in the car_. > > That's getting pretty heavy. Thanks for the rule-of-thumb. > What do you mean by "balancing"? > > > You might want to look into the following alternate battery > > technologies (in > > no particular order) > > And thanks for the summary. > > > NiZn [my personal choice.. cheap, but short lived at 500 > > cycles, approx 3X > > the energy density of lead but can't deal with long > > high-current draws] > > www.evercel.com > > When you say "can't deal with long high-current draws", > how long is long? Are we talking seconds or minutes? Well, by the time you've got 50+ miles of range, you either have a high voltage pack or buddy pairs, so it's a non-issue. But 500A for 1 min, about. 250A indefinately, though. [Well, for 20 minutes anyway.. ;-)] I've actually been quite happy with mine thus far, but sadly, my friend who made a DC low-voltage (132V) car out of them has had a different, and rather painful, experience. He bought the ones with the modular chargers, and the modular chargers suck. He's had 4 fail. 4! And evercel has built better chargers since then, but they want to keep sending him the old, unreliable ones. (probably because they're cheaper). I'm trying to put pressure on them to give him reliable chargers instead or refund his money, but so far unsuccessfully. Moral: avoid evercel chargers. > > LiON [Always popular with the big-bucks crowd.. expect to pay > > $50k+ for your > > battery pack, but wow, will it be light. > > If I start saving now, I might be able to afford it in 20 years... > if I'm still alive.... In 20 years they'll have something far better, is my fervent hope. I seriously hope that by the time my Evercels go snap, crackle, pop, I'll be able to buy a Zebra for a few grand because all cars will be powered by them. Hey, I can dream! ;-) I don't seriously think LiON is a good choice for a hobbyist car. Too many issues.. thermal issues, toxic issues, etc. But I had to list it to have a complete list.
