| June,
July, August 2005
Sorry about the delay updating the
journal but I've been busy driving my electric car! |
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| 1. I'm driving the Electric Echo to work every
week day. Approx 32km (20 miles) round trip, charging at both
ends. Done about 2,000 km (1,200 miles) as at 31/08/2005.
PS The solar panels and satellite
dish in this photo are not part of my EV! I work for a
telecommunications company and they just happened to be in the
background.
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2.
Believe it or not, I have (as yet) no EV instrumentation in the
vehicle, after extensive testing I know I can drive the vehicle
20km (12 miles) in hilly Brisbane, in stop/start traffic on a warm day to
no more than 80% DOD. I have
big plans to have extensive logging done of many driving
parameters but this is still a couple of months away. |
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| 3.
I use an energy meter
on the mains supply to see how much energy I
really use, approx 5 kWh getting to work (sea level) and 6 kWh
coming home (150m). At 16 cents a kWh (green energy) this makes it
slightly cheaper than petrol (not including battery costs of
course). |
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September 2005
Currently
working on the following...
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| 1. Install a
retractable reel power lead from the filler cap (this will make
the e-e look like a very large domestic vacuum cleaner) |
3. Data logger (thanks
Mark),
logging - speed, current, individual battery voltage, vehicle
inclination etc. |
| 2. Break the very
large battery charger down into components so that I can hide it
away under the seats etc. |
4. I want slightly
more range and power. I have Optima D31's in my
sights but at
best price $350.00 each I'm very reluctant. |
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| January
2006
Where has the time gone?!
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|
Apologies if you've
been waiting for something but the vehicle has been going so well
(4,000km+) there's not much to tell.
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| We're still working on
the data logger but we have to keep catching up to the rest of the
world! We think we now have a project which will be fairly simple
to make and inexpensive but very useful.
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|
I was fortunate to
have an article posted about my EV last October on my companies
corporate web site. Potentially 45,000 readers (staff). The
response was fantastic most people were dumbfounded that an
electric car was even possible (they've never been available here
in Australia) let alone practical. |
| I've stumbled across
some batteries which I think might be worth a try. These Remco AGM
RM12-100
are the right price (approx AUD$220) and probably worth a gamble.
They have to be better than what I've got at the moment (cheap wet
cell lead acid) and I'm afraid the Optimas are a rip off here in
Australia.
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| February
2006
|
Just had an article done on the E-E in my
green energy supplier's magazine...here.
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| October
2006
|
The new Remco batteries are in and going
really well but this E-E Journal stuff is hard work! So now I have an E-E
blog instead, enjoy.
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