Archive for April, 2011

The house project continues! I got some baby chickens last Saturday. I got 10 of them — various kinds.

Baby chicken:

I’m working on running water to the old barn, which will become the chicken coop:

The new apricot tree (planted last year) got pummeled by the rain this year. The heaviest storm hit right after it blossomed. It has two apricots on it right now, and I’m not sure they’ll last till they are ripe as they tend to disappear.

Running water up to the deck:

Eka Boo

Erika

I’m ditching my IOTA DLS-55 DC-DC converter. The inrush limiter I use (which replaced the AC bridge rectifier) eventually dries out and cracks, and then stops working. I got ~1000 miles on my last modification (I’m at ~1700 miles right now).

So, I’m doing research on what is out there to hopefully make the right choice. I’m only listing ones that I could actually use (ie: rated > 25amps, ideally higher, and have an input voltage appropriate for my pack at 154v nominal).

Belktronix – $300
675W ( up to 55 amps) 120V-350V (based on application)
Great support from the owner/creator – Bryan.
http://www.belktronix.com/isodcdc.html
http://www.belktronix.com/pricing.html

Cloud Electric generic brand. $280
Probably the same as the Kelly, but has a bit higher output, which I like.
132-168V nominal input 13.6V / 35A out (sealed type)
http://www.cloudelectric.com/category_s/8344.htm
Which are these ones imported from China: http://www.hztiecheng.com/english/ specifically: http://www.hztiecheng.com/english/Product/T16/38.html

Others that might meet my needs, but have concerns:

Vicor: 150V Input Maxi Family DC-DC Converter – $280′ish
But, these are just the bricks and not a complete system! Vicor produces high quality parts, from what I hear
http://cdn.vicorpower.com/documents/datasheets/ds_150vin-maxi-family.pdf
http://vdac.vicorpower.com/vdac/predefined/00predef-mods.asp

Kelly HWZ Series DC/DC Converter 156V to 13.5V 25A – $150
I’ve heard from two sources that Kellys are bad. Another source (Travis) has had good success with them.
http://kellycontroller.com/hwz-series-dcdc-converter-156v-to-135v-25a-p-536.html

Zivan – $498 – $525
14vdc / 60 amps output. I’m not so sure about the Zivan, since they seem to be more of an AC-DC charger, than a purely designed DC-DC converter. It looks like they come with an AC plug, which I don’t want. I want something designed for a car.
http://store.kta-ev.com/zivandc-dcconv100-200vinp.aspx
http://www.evolveelectrics.com/DC-DC%20Converters.html#elcondcdc

Elcon – $250, 25amps out
These seem to be the same one as the generic Cloud Electric ones, just rebranded. The pictures and part numbers are identical.
http://www.evolveelectrics.com/DC-DC%20Converters.html

So, I’m opting for the Belktronix — it gives the most output (35 amps) with no fans, and higher output if you cool it (up to 55amps). Plus, Bryan is quick to answer emails and seems to really support his products. Unfortunately, it has a 3-4 week lead time, and right now I’m using my car with the temporary fix again (another inrush limiter) which could fail at anytime.

How much would it cost me to drive a gas car for 4 weeks, assuming I can charge at work for free? I drive 40 miles/day on normal, and 50 miles when I got to the gym (twice a week). 40*3 + 50*2 = 120 +100 = 220 miles / week for 4 weeks gives: 880 miles. Say I drive the old Ford Focus we have, ~30mpg: 880/30 = ~29.3 gallons of gas. Times $4/gallon (which it basically is here in CA): $117. It would be worth it that much for me to get the converter earlier to avoid using the gas car. (NOTE: Edited my math).

I never knew much about how I paid for electricity. I didn’t know if we had certain hours that were peak or not. So, I called PG&E last week and they explained to me I was on the E1 rate. I told them I had an EV, and they suggested I go to E9 A or E9 B. They are listed here: http://pge.com/tariffs/ERS.SHTML#ERS

Like any good programmer, I decided to do my homework before blindly switching. It turns out that after I did the math, a PG&E representative told me they have a comparison spread sheet on their Plug-In Electric Vehicles page (here’s a direct link to the excel spreadsheet). That page seems to lump a bunch of assumptions together about energy use, but I found that page to be quite accurate in its rough estimates.

First, I wanted to understand the E1 rate. I made a spreadsheet in numbers that included the rates for E1 and E9. They charge a certain amount for a baseline kWh used, and then different amounts based on how much you go over:

Currently on days that I charge, I’m using ~1000kWh/day. Yikes…that’s a lot. Our new hot tub also dramatically increased the energy we use.

Based on the E9 rates, I did a quick hack comparison if I was charged that rate for the energy used:

Obviously, E9 Peek would be more. But, the key thing is E9 partial peak is lower, and when averaged with E9 off peak my total cost will definitely be lower. Here’s my spreadsheet (using Numbers on the Mac), which includes kWh used over a month. Change the values in the green cells to see updated costs change.

I also downloaded some of my day-to-day energy uses for a weekday and weekend. They include an hour-by-hour of when you used how much energy. I simply dropped the base E9 cost (based on the hour) in to compare it to the base E1 cost they already had listed. I did this on some days when I know I charged at a certain hour; although, I also assume I would move charging to off peak hours to get the best rates. My test showed that I could easily save 15%, and potentially up to 30%. So, all this data tells me to switch.

For the E9 rate, you pay based on the time of use. I made a little chart in numbers to get an idea of what rates occur when (click to download that file):

That will be handy for knowing when I should do laundry and charge the car. I now need to get an 240v AC relay to turn the car on and off automatically during off peak hours.

Here were a few recommendations from the nice people on the EVDL email list:

http://www.smarthome.com/48781/Intermatic-T101P3-SPST-Pool-Spa-Time-Switch-in-Plastic-Enclosure/p.aspx

http://www.smarthome.com/48760/Intermatic-P1121-Portable-15-Amp-Outdoor-Timer-Heavy-Duty-Outdoor-Timer/p.aspx

http://discountsales.com/shop/module.php?module=show_product&id=1161208837

The loudest part of my car when I turned it on was two fans for the water cooling setup on the controller. Ideally, the controller should turn the fans on and off and that will be a nice feature once Netgain Controls adds it in. For now, I needed a solution. Wayne, a fellow bug EV’er in Gilroy, suggested the a little CanaKit thermostat. I bought it and assembled it, which was pretty fun since I haven’t ever built any electronic kits before.

I then made a little box to surround it out of Lexan. Sorry…no pictures, but basically I heated up the lexan with a torch and bent it with a little jig I made. It worked out okay. I then mounted it in the car and set it to control the fans. The temp sensor is mounted on wires, and I simply zip-tied and taped the sensor around one of the water tubes to sense the water temperature. The water pump still runs all the time, but that’s okay as it is rather quiet. I tweaked the temp pot so that it doesn’t turn on when the car is cold, but does turn on once it has warmed up.

Now, the car has a nice silent drive when I start out. Perfect! Just what I wanted….

A picture I took from the Dream Box show. Amazing! Tickets are still available for Friday (April 8th, 2011) and Sunday (April 10th – two shows, one early and another later).

I got something I had been dying to get. The bug now has DMV approval to use the carpool lane.

Fuzzy Protea

Obama hate-mail has been scouring the internet for years. People frequently resend emails that they simply don’t understand. My dad sent me one with the title “After two years of Obama—here’s your change!!!”. Here’s an image of it below:

The first and easiest thing to fact check is to see if this person can do math. The answer is no. Why? Well, look at the last line: If you are driving in the right lane doing 65MPH and a car goes past you at 27 times faster, then how fast is it going? The claim is 7,555 MPH. Man that is fast! But hold on, let’s make sure they are doing their math right. 65 MPH * 27 = 1755 MPH. People with common mathematical sense will quickly spot that claim as being *way* off, and it sure was! If they can’t multiply 27*65, then what the heck makes me want to believe any of the other numbers they gave?

Now, this chart is praying on people who are ignorant and easily forget things. Let’s see, when was the first time crude oil was over $100/gallon? And gas prices fluctuate heavily. If I was to generate a chart like the above, I would want to scam people into believing things are worse than they were before by taking the absolute maximum and minimum values. Let’s consider the first item, gas at $1.83 a gallon. Let’s fact check that. I visit: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/wrgp/mogas_home_page.html and see the chart below:

Yup, it was about $1.83/gallon in January 2009, but they conveniently picked the lowest part in the graph. Heck, 4 months prior it was > $3.70/gallon! Wait a minute, that means it is currently 19% lower than it was before!

Please don’t blindly believe anything circulating on the internet.