Solar EV charging , MECI, Rolls, Ni-cads, long

[jerry dycus <jerry5335@yahoo.com>]

      Hi All,
       
--- David Schwarze <sde@home.com> wrote:
> At 12:35 PM 3/30/2001, you wrote:
> >What about wind power?  I saw a Whisper 3000 for
> 5k.   20 Seimens panels
> >that would cost 13k had the same output.  Wouldn't
> wind power be a viable
> >source if your area is windy.  I think the only
> problem with the wind power
> >is the noise and the one I saw in Hopland, Ca was
> quiet.  Lawrence
> >Rhodes....
     Wind gens generally put out 5/ 10 times the power

per $ than solar cells because they can work 24 hr
rather than 8 hr. The Whisper is a good unit.
     Wind gens do make some noise but usually it's
covered by wind or traffic noise. A good blade design
helps here.
> 
> I checked out a wind generator once and it made
> almost zero power until 
> windspeed was above 10 mph.  If I lived in a place
> where 10+mph winds were 
> the norm, I would move!  I'll stick to solar,
> thanks.  :-)
     Not true, a good wind gen starts putting out at
about 7.5 mph and at 10 mph should be doing fairly
well. You usually need a 10 mph average wind to make
wind gens pay but they can work by using a larger unit
than needed at average speeds of 9 mph. Gen height is
very important. Power out goes up the cube of the wind
speed. I built wind/ water gens for liveaboard boats
for 15 years from scratch.
    I just bought some used panels for $200, 4-12 year
old solarex 56 watts doing very well, 2 Dura-volt
doing well but the cover plastic split on one but can
be repaired and 3-20 year old sovonics that are so far
gone to be useless.
> -David
> 
     While I love my MECI e-bike motor I didn't have a
good experence with them. I bought 2 truck wiring
harnesses from them that showed fuse boxes and said
pennies on the dollar. What I got was was a dash light
harness I could have bought the parts for under the $5
I paid for them. 
    I also bought some rare earth magnets to make a
low speed generator but they had the power of ceramic
magnets I could have got for 1/5 the price. Only good
for refridgerator magnets.
    I called to return them and got the runaround. I
wouldn't buy 6 year old batts from them or anything
unless someone else has used them. 
    I'm powering my 20" folding e-bike with 25 plus
year old 14 amp-hr SAFT ni-cad cells that still put
out 15 to 17 amp-hr each. 
    I just charge them to 1.65 v per cell at 1.5c
manually and have forgot to turn them off several
times and overcharged them 100%. This doesn't seem to
bother them other than needing water. Don't do this
with ones you paid for, I am trying to see how much
abuse they will take and they seem to take a lot. 
     I use the bike to go to the store 4 to 6 times
between charging over 4-7 days without damage from
letting them sit uncharged. They don't mind partial
charges either. I have about 700 miles on it. I love
ni-cads now.  
     A trailer was built for the E-bike from a wooden
dinghy and put 2 100 amp hr 12v AGM's to give long
range. A trip to town 8 miles away was taken to see
how it would work. The motor didn't get too hot. I was
planning to stop to let the motors cool but wasn't
needed. Temp was 70F, batts weigh 140 lbs, my butt 200
lbs and the trailer 65 lbs.  
   I got the 78 ni-cad cells free and it took a while
to sort the good cells from the low/ bad ones but now
have 3 24v packs.
     In doing this I spilled some electrolyte on my
light skin and left it their to see what would happen
but after 20 minutes nothing had so it's not as
dangerous as many think. I don't recommend this!
     The ni-cads came from a battery place that sells
to UPS systems people amoung others , Posey Battery,
Tampa, that sell takeout AGM batteries ,12v-100 amphr
batts for $30 each. For those who want cheap AGM's to
murder check out these kind of places. The one I got
have over 50% 0f their life left, probably 80% and put
out 1000 amps on test. They own a Citi-car too.   
      I'm not surprised that Rolls refunded the money
as they back up their batts 100%. Maybe try Trojan
27THM or scs225's or surplus AGM's from above. US batt
has some good ones too but don't know their numbers.
With AGM's you need regulators.
    Hope this helps,
                 jerry dycus



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