[ausev] Series hybrids

[Roy Holder]

At 04:29 PM 12/3/2007 -0600, you wrote:
>On Mon, 2007-12-03 at 15:31 -0600, Roy Holder wrote:
>> To keep the emissions low I was looking at DC marine diesel generators.
>> They typically have a longer run life and reliability, and in the case of
>> the Ossa, are lighter. 
>> The Ossa have capacities of 6, 13.5, 25, 50, 100, 150 and 200kW.
>> 13.5 and 25kw  were the 2 sizes I was interested in.
>> I called and talked to an engineer and talked about the 25kw system.  It's
>> less than 600 lbs and it consumed 1.3 gallons per hour at full load.  They
>> could tweak the output voltage to match need with very little loss of
>> efficiency.  It would run well on biodiesel and they had supposedly tested
>> with biodiesel a lot, and is was VERY low emissions.
>> The down side is they cost more. I think they said a generator was about
>> $10,000
>> 
>> http://www.ossapowerlite.com/index.htm
>> http://polarpowerinc.com/products/generators/index.htm
>
>It's been a long time since I'd looked at the Ossa stuff. I'd forgotten
>about them.
>
>Actually, from a certain perspective, this isn't so bad. Compared with
>the cost of another car for doing long distance trips, $10k and change
>for one of these on a trailer seems reasonable.  It's still probably a
>lot more accessible for most folks to rent a car for longer trips, but
>if you have a reason to need to drive a specific EV (such as bringing a
>certain eventually-to-be-completed race truck to the NEDRA Nationals in
>Portland...) this would be a lot nicer than a trailer and tow vehicle,
>as long as they've done their homework on emissions. The biodiesel or
>SVO/WVO capability of diesel engines definitely sweetens the deal.
>
>There is still a catch to the genset-on-a-trailer idea. Namely the motor
>size and duty rating problem, mentioned in a previous post.
>
>Another potential catch to think about is how to get the power to the
>car without damaging the batteries, which doesn't seem to be a problem
>with the Ossa products but is still worth knowing about for those who
>might consider this with different products. It's important to limit
>voltage to prevent damaging your batteries (which still need to be
>in-circuit for acceleration) during periods of net recharge such as
>going down long hills or driving more slowly. 
>
>One way is to use a battery charger between an AC generator and the car,
>plugging the car into the generator instead of the wall. The highest
>rated battery charger currently available off the shelf (to my
>knowledge) is the Manzanita PFC-50, which has a feature to allow it to
>support this purpose but only delivers 12kW. You couldn't use 2 in
>parallel to get more power, since they do not have isolated outputs (I
>think they've played with that idea in the past). For more than 12kW
>you'd need DC from the generator, and some way to voltage-limit the
>output the way a charger would. 
>
>Both of these vendors' products do generate DC (Polar's don't appear to
>generate enough), but they don't seem to mention details about voltage
>regulation unless I've missed it. I'm sure Ossa's support it though
>since they mention hybrid configurations, but I wonder if it's set at a
>particular voltage, or if it's user selectable to allow flexibility in
>future pack voltage decisions.
>
they said it was fixed.  they can vary the voltage by changing the
windings, so there may not be the ability to have user selectability,


>
>-- 
>Christopher Robison
>chris at ohmbre.org
>http://ohmbre.org          <-- 1999 Isuzu Hombre + Z2K + Warp13!
>
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