Andrew I want to challenge this, but in a nice way, in order to get to a
better answer.
so correct my estimates where wrong:
my assumptions:
a light vehicle in the motorcycle class
a driving cycle that includes moderate hills, stop and go, some flat
sections of 40-50 mph, but no mountain passes or freeways
a goal for greeness that states 75 mpg is pretty darn good.
about an hour of range, say 30 miles
ability to limp home on the genset alone
try to cut battery pack roughly in half by using genset
so, the generator would start running when the pack is down to some
chargeable figure like 80%
say ithe vehicle uses 100 Whrs/mile at 72V, thats only 3 Kwh to do 30 miles
did I do this right?
I checked the evalbum and folks seem to have 30-60 amphours in the lead
packs- on the high side, say 30 usable AH at 72 V would be something
like 2.1 Kwh
so lets say 4Kwh to do the 30 mile loop.
if i did this calc right, a 3Kw generator ought to be able to nearly
double your range, and a 3kw generator would be able to use a 5 or 6 hp ICE.
commercial 3500 watt gensets use something like a half-gallon per hour I
believe ( check this) with pretty darn crude engines.
Now I know you can't fit a standard 3500 watt generator on your bike,
but stick with me. I have more space, and that generator is lazily
packaged. The Honda or Yamaha ones are not only far better, they are
much smaller ( but pricey I grant). So if I did the math right a 3Kw
genset would be practical.
whaddya think?
J
Andrew Wowk wrote:
The most practical application for this (120v AC generator to charger on
board) is as an emergency range extender in my opinion. ...
As a parallel hybrid (using the generator regularly), this doesn't really
make much sense. That's because, it'll require a very large and expensive
generator to help much.
