Ejerrycan experience.
25Kg for the 16x40ah calb cells and associated hardware. 15kg for the PIP4048 and associated hardware.40kg total additional weight.
Arrived in landsborough carrying the three of us and the Ejerrycan with 41.5% SOC.
On average I typically arrive in landsborugh with 48-50% SOC. Weather, weight, traffic dependent. I go on to arrive at the hinterland house with 19 - 21% SOC.
As you can see my margin to keep within the 20% SOC rule on this trip is slim (even when the car was new) Things usually got tight mid winter each year. Particularly on a clear night drive in cold 10C-12C (i would guess it was that temp as it got down to 7C that night). My thinking was as the car aged and each new winter arrived. I would asses if the drive was still practical / achievable (More than likely this trip wont be necessary often soon. as we will move to the sunshine cost permanently soon. (Perhaps by the end of this year)
So back to the Ejerrycan. As mentioned we arrived in landsborough with around 6.5% SOC less than normal. I think part of the 6.5% was just the extra weight of the Ejerrycan it's self (Im going to make up some numbers now) lets say 2% of that was because it was just a bad run. We got every single red light (so had to get the weight back up to speed lots of times) and it was very cold about 10 or 12C so 2.5% for that. The cars several years old now so I guess perhaps 1.5% loss of capacity wouldn't be out of the question. All small % that I'm dealing with but when your cutting things so fine and have driven the same trip several hundred times with a lot of attention to consistency. I notice every single % change.
So with the battery at 41.5% SOC. I pulled into the capark across the road from the shops. Popped the hatch up. Plugged in the 10A EVSE and switched the PIP on. closing the hatch 90% of the way down with the pips fans facing the small gap. My wife and daughter went across the road to get some take away. I stayed in the car with Canion running on my tablet. The SOS started to come up and the PIP running in the back took the edge off the 12C temps (not that it runs hot at just 2200w) By the time my wife and daughter got back with the take away Canion was showing 48% SOC. By the time they got in and put there seat belts on and told me what they had purchased for tea. We were at 50% SOC . I had the PIP's LVD set at 48V (under load) When the Imiev hit 51.5% SOC It was very close to hitting the LVD on the PIP but I just switched it off so we could get going. We arrived at the house with 21% SOC
The Ejerrycan adds 10% SOC to the Imiev.
Lugging the extra 40kg up the range most likely took a little off the end result but I'm happy it didn't really inconvenience us at all as we only wanted that little boost to overcome the 6.5% we were missing and the little EJerrycan gave us that in a short period of time and we can stick to our 20% min SOC rule.
Disregard all the foam It was just thrown in the back to stop anything from rubbing or damaging the interior. We did get some funny looks and pointing from some kids who where trying to work out what this car was doing charging its self
I pluged 3 spare 200w solar panels I had laying around into the pip and lent them on the side of the shed facing roughly north on Saturday morning and they filled the small pack up again. (Just to avoid the multiple efficiency losses of charging batterys though multiple component conversions) I like how the PIP being a all in one unit with AC charger, solar charger and inverter is very versatile.
This got me thinking. If you had enough time on your hands and a stack of light weight flexible solar panels (about 15 x 180W flex panels) that could easily go on the roof rack in a small stack. You could drive around Australia.
The small battery just has to act as a buffer when clouds come over.
Next time we have a EV display I might bring say 6 x 200W traditional panels on the roof racks and fabricate a camping style tilt prop for each panel that uses tent pegs and light aluminum prop legs. Combined with the Open EVSE set at a modest charge rate (600 - 800w). I could recharge my EV over the event day from the sun. Just to drive home the message that it can be done and demonstrate the concept to people.
Kurt
