Re: Charger selection (was: Down side...)

[Jim Coate <jcoate@massed.net>]

Bill Dube' wrote:
> The series charger with a Smoother (or something ike it) turns
> out to be the simplest, practical, solution.

To make the series version more "fail-safe" I'm wondering about a system
with a 240V/20A charger, a 120V/15A charger and a smoother/balancer (all
on-board). 240V charging at home, 120V for opportunity charging. 
Possible failures would then be:

- Smoother dies. As someone noted, you can do without for a few days and
keep on driving while FedEx ships a replacement.

- 240V charger dies.  Must use only 120V charger, so need to limit
driving to conditions such that longer charge times are acceptable.

- 120V charger dies.  Must use only 240V charger, so need to limit
driving to conditions where all charging done at home.

- any of 3 components fail in some weird way where they drain batteries.
Hopefully discover this before any major damage is done and disconnect
offending unit. But this would be no different than any other charging
set-up.

Of course could get pricey depending on quality of chargers.

PS Solectria was suggested as a source of good chargers, but they have
not responded to my request for info...

_________
Jim Coate, jcoate@massed.net
1992 S-10, http://www.channel1.com/users/jcoate/ev