Got some funny looks at Corley services at the weekend

[Barry]

Loving the whole electric car thing . Fantastic Beetle!

I commute 4.5 miles each way, twice a day (i.e. 4x 4.5 miles), and have offstreet parking and power at each end, so perfect electrofodder.

Just a matter of time, but I'm looking forward to it.

In the meantime, hypermiling my £170 106 1.5d achieves (in the Summer at least) 70mpg tank after tank. And that's the reality for now, that smelly old diesel is almost cheaper than walking.

Shame there are two very, very steep hills, which combined with narrow twisty roads and major traffic rule out cycling.

Funnily enough I've just bought a car from an engineer that works at River Simple (just down the road from you, Moggy). I hadn't heard of them before, so it was fastinating to see what they are achieving with a car designed from the start to be fuel cell based. Interesting use of super capacitors as well.

[moggy]

Barry - It's a small world. Who did you buy the car off? I'll probably see a couple of the Riversimple guys tomorrow. Their use of the Super-caps is certainly something I'm looking into incorporating into my cars down the line as the concept is a sound one - use the batteries for the main constant power delivery and the super-caps when you need the extra power for short bursts.

Bert - That's a good question. The battery system is double fused and are held within a 6mm ally enclosure which is securely fastened to the car. The batteries are then held in place within the box by metal rods. I had to laugh this weekend gone....I had a guy ask me if the batteries would blow up in a crash as he's heard that lithium batteries are dangerous - I asked him when was the last time he dropped his phone and the lithium battery in it blew his foot off

[911hillclimber]

Has anyone 'perfected' the way to store volts from solar panels taken during the day time and a 'converter' (if such is needed, excuse my ignorance) to dump the stored volts to an all electric over night?

8 hours of daylight/poor volts stored in a battery at home (or work), then discharge that into a waiting car cell; admittedly this will be inefficient but still a 'free'/ 'green' gain that would supplement a mains charge over night. If the car has little use/day like Barry's runs, then it might pay for the day's use?

[Barry]

Has anyone 'perfected' the way to store volts from solar panels taken during the day time and a 'converter' (if such is needed, excuse my ignorance) to dump the stored volts to an all electric over night?

8 hours of daylight/poor volts stored in a battery at home (or work), then discharge that into a waiting car cell; admittedly this will be inefficient but still a 'free'/ 'green' gain that would supplement a mains charge over night. If the car has little use/day like Barry's runs, then it might pay for the day's use?

I believe Sir requires a Tesla Powerwall

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Powerwall

[Barry]

Barry - It's a small world. Who did you buy the car off? I'll probably see a couple of the Riversimple guys tomorrow. Their use of the Super-caps is certainly something I'm looking into incorporating into my cars down the line as the concept is a sound one - use the batteries for the main constant power delivery and the super-caps when you need the extra power for short bursts.

Will Priestner, I went from Sussex to Wales to buy a doggy old Legacy* from him (it's the only time I've been on a request-stop train ). He did mention you, not by name but by project, but I didn't put then connect that it was you!

* Which is most excellent fun, and now looks the business for what I paid.

[bjmullan]

Cool car

[Darren65]

Brilliant

[Pandora]

I have to say, I'm massively impressed by this - a neat looking install and really interesting technology.

So once the beetle is sold, what's next? a camper? a 914? or will it be a non- air cooled classic? Mini or Midget seem logical small light cars

I look forward to watching the next on via facebook

Al

[camperco]

Good work Moggy

[smallspeed]

Has anyone 'perfected' the way to store volts from solar panels taken during the day time and a 'converter' (if such is needed, excuse my ignorance) to dump the stored volts to an all electric over night?

8 hours of daylight/poor volts stored in a battery at home (or work), then discharge that into a waiting car cell; admittedly this will be inefficient but still a 'free'/ 'green' gain that would supplement a mains charge over night. If the car has little use/day like Barry's runs, then it might pay for the day's use?

I believe Sir requires a Tesla Powerwall

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Powerwall

I think its overall more efficient to get a 2-way and multi-rate electricity meter.. sell your solar powerz to the network during the day, and then charge the car on economy 7 (or whatever its called these days) off the grid over night

electric cars are something that have intrigued me for a long time - i'd love an i3 to trundle to work (where we have free 3-ph charging) and back again, but the mrs HATES them with a passion! unfortunately I don't really have the cash for a tesla

[911hillclimber]

I like the electric car idea if the car has a 100/150 mile range BUT can be charged in a green-as-possible manner, hence the solar panel charge/discharge question.
To reap the charge (to some level) by the sun to supplement meaningfully to the overnight charge is ideal.

Electric cars are not green if simply refuelled by a charge point alone, but for the use of some panels, a 'black box' and you can charge in part the car then the green bit gets a lot greener!

If you could get by this means 30 miles of power from the sun/day then you could possibly avoid a 'mains' charge for ever if the car is a school run/shopper eurobox.

[smallspeed]

Yeah but I think the green credentials are worse - there's significant losses with storing charge during the day and then discharging from this store into the car later on.. Feeding into the grid during the day and using this to offset the cost of charging from the grid at night (when there's a surplus anyway) is probably more efficient / green..

[Barry]

It's all interesting stuff isn't it, and the technology is only heading the right way.

Good point about feeding in/out of the grid though. I gather the current real world costs of the Powerwall p/unit are horrific at the moment .

Still, give it five-ten years ....

[mrk]

...and I like that the batteries from current gen BMW i-cars are going to get a second life after they're done in the cars....

http://blog.caranddriver.com/bmw-i3-bat ... -home-use/

There might be a planet left for our kids at this rate!

[squirejo]

Just came across this. Excellent! I went from a Renault Zoe, as a first foray into EV commuting in London, to a 2nd hand i3 REX recently, which is plusher and nicer with added flexibility of its own on board power station. I cannot recommend EV highly enough, if range is not too much of a consideration. The benefits don't just lie in the obvious (quiet/ enviro/ accel etc) but also in things like terrific turning circle (no engine) and connected tech on your iPhone.

For anyone thinking about it, the purchase cost of a 2-3 yr old Zoe or Leaf is peanuts, largely as a result of the number that were leased on 3 yr deals flooding the (new) second hand EV market place, and the march of technology. Or, lease deals that are peanuts are still available.

Regarding the Q of storing solar elec. I have just invested in a UK company called Powervault http://www.powervault.co.uk/ which is currently the best (UK) version of these stores. It is possible to be energy self sufficient, today. Amazing really. As are these cars Moggy. I'll take a look at the website! How do you get it registered to be CC exempt?