I was waffling on driving my Geo Prizm to Woodburn. The 35 mile commute would drag my 120v pack of NiCads way down, and while I knew the Prizm could make the trip there, I was unsure of charging at the track to get home. Rich and Joe were going to have a couple of their PFC 50s there for the racers, but I didn't know if I'd get enough bulk charging time on the Big Guy in between the racers getting recharged. Rich said "Bring the Darn Car!!! I will personally find away to get you charged!!!" The trip to Woodburn was uneventful (I like uneventful EV trips). There wasn't much traffic on I-5 from Portland down to Woodburn, so I was able to cruise at 60-65 and not hinder anyone nor be blocked by the few slower vehicles. I arrived at the track with the odometer showing about 34 miles and the E-Meter reading -8.12kwh. After fussing around with cables we came up was a setup that bypassed the wimpy 10 ga charging circuit in my car with 6 ga wires connected straight to the shunt and positive contactor. Rich, of course, wanted to show how much power his charger could crank out and proceeded to turn the knob up (25 amps), and up (50 amps), and then all the way (80 amps). Too much for the wires we were using, but very impressive to see. Note that the pack was at about 130v when we were hitting it with 80 amps - just over 10kw! After a couple of 80 amp show-n-tells, we turned the knob back down to a more sedate rate of 50 amps and let the pack soak. After about an hour and a half, even with a couple of interruptions to recharge racers, my E-Meter was showing -1.1kwh and was claiming 80% full. That's 7kwh back into my pack in less than two hours, and the charger wasn't running full tilt, nor was it breathing hard! Rich grinned as he gave me that "Do I see an order for a PFC 50?" look... At this point, I gave up my PFC 50 spot, connected my PFC 20 to a 120v outlet, turned the knob up to 10 amps (17 would pop the breaker) and let the pack continue charging. My car was fully recharged and ready for the trip home with a two hours to spare. The trip home was also uneventful (did I mention that I like uneventful trips?), taking about 7.5kwh. After seeing the PFC 50 in action and the potential it brings for some very quick opportunity charges, I did start thinking about upgrading my charging system. The PFC 20 is OK for everyday commuting use, but when I need to recharge *fast* I don't have any options right now. If I was able to recharge *fast* I would be able to use my EV for more trips on the weekend. Heck, I could even drive my EV into town for lunch during the week and get a sufficient recharge at Portland's only public charging station. Ralph
