Saw something unusual yesterday in a Preston supermarket car park!
A middle-aged couple sat in the sunshine at a well-loaded picnic table, whilst they were obviously enjoying their lunch, their car was also enjoying it's own, plugged into a portable genny they obviously carried in the boot! - I didn't think you could charge a car from a genny!!!
|
>> I didn't think you could charge a car from a genny!!!
>>
No reason why you couldn't if it can put out 240v and enough amps with a 3 pin socket it would be just like a house socket.
Can't see how it would be efficient or environmentally sensible though.
|
>> Can't see how it would be efficient or environmentally sensible though.
>>
Or safe, carrying the genny and its fuel in the boot.
OP - are you sure it wasn't being filmed? :) Particularly as there was a "well loaded" picnic table.
|
>> - are you sure it wasn't being filmed? :)
Only by CCTV ! - would have been funny actually if it had been, they had Aldi carrier bags under the table and it wasn't Aldi's car-park!
|
>> I didn't think you could charge a car from a genny!!!
Why not? It provides a source of mains electricity.
And Top Gear's attempt at an electric vehicle had a diesel generator in the back when Stig took it for a test drive.
|
No reason why you can't charge a car from a Genny, however a 1 or 2kw genny would probably get about 1% charge in it during their lunch hour. And loose 3% extra lugging the weight of the genny around in the boot!
Net loss.
|
Yep, to put it in perspective my PHEV charges at three rates - 6A, 10A or 16A. Obviously you can only use the three pin plug lead (aka granny cable) for the first two, whereas I can plug into my wall port for the latter two (or use appropriate public charge points, but I don't).
- At 6A mine is running at about 1.5kW and would take 11 hours to charge from flat
- At 10A it's 2.5kW and 6 hours
- At 16A it's 3.8kW and 4 hours
That only gives me somewhere around 40 miles of electric range in this weather.
More modern cars are probably more efficient but it doesn't seem a particularly clever thing to do.
However could be it's their emergency backup on an electric-only vehicle, and they were just putting in enough juice just to get them home.
Then again... it was Preston... :-)
Last edited by: smokie on Fri 24 May 19 at 12:37
|
A good 2kW generator will use 1 litre of unleaded per hour.
An average EV does 3-4 miles per kWh "from the wall"
So 4.5 litres of petrol = 9kWh charge = 30-35miles.
Fairly pointless.
The motors in Smokie's Ampera and the BMW i3 are a bit better and can return 40-45mpg (and charge at a much higher rate)
|
|
In a village i used to live in some in one of the nearby houses used to string out an extension reel across the pavement to their car every night. Not an electric car, I think they used to leave a dehumidifier in it every night, I'm surprised no one tripped over the cable.
|
|
I tried using an extension lead to recharge the A3 when we first got it, as we were waiting for the EV charging pint to be installed. It didn’t work...I assume the current drop was too large and the ‘granny’ charger wouldn’t operate.
|
Had the opposite experience using the granny charger on the Zoe. Used an extension cable (fully unrolled) many a time with nary an issue.
|
Canal boats are often left for months on end and flat batteries are a possibility. I used a portable mains genny to top ours up, the builder having installed a separate mains circuit for hitch-ups in marinas and some boatyards.
The Lister engine was too difficult to start on the handle, even by two hefty builders working in concert. It was only later that I discovered I could have had a built-on clockwork starter installed. It worked by using the starting handle (provided as a servicing aid) to wind up a powerful spring, then - holding the ganged valves open momentarily - releasing a trigger and the energy, while closing the valves. Has anyone come across a similar device for automobiles?
|
|
You sure it was a great big spring? Inertia starters are common place, (not in cars tho) which is just a Gert big flywheel you wind some energy into.
|
>> Has anyone come across a similar device?
Hired a narrow boat from Sam Weaver's in Cheshire in the '70s. I swear it had a concrete mixer, single cylinder, diesel in the side of the centre cockpit. That had a de-compressor that required you to wind up the flywheel and then drop the valve. Never failed to start, although someone had to stand and hold the kettle on the hob if you wanted a brew while the damn thing was running!
Got fed up with the yuppies asking if it was fast enough!
|
>> Has anyone come
>> across a similar device for automobiles?
>>
Not for automobiles but my new Titan hedge trimmer has a spring starter; no idea why. You pull the cord and the motor doesn't start turning until the cord is 2/3 the way out. No it's not a normal recoil starter; I know what they feel like.
Some early Briggs & Stratton mower engines had a spring starter.
|
Have twice charged my car at my dad's house using a 25m (fully unwound) extension lead rated at 3120W (13A) max.
Set the charger to run at ~1900W (8A) and was fine - the plug in the kitchen was slightly warm after an hour but stayed the same temperature over a 6 hour charge.
I doubt it would safely pull 13A for as long though.
|
|
I charge my Mitsubishi PHEV on an extension cable at the moment. Moved house and have not got around to fitting the proper charge point. Seems to work perfectly fine. Must get the proper one done though. Keep tripping over the cable after a couple of gins!
|
I now recall that when the Zoe went I sold the granny charger on, as I owned it. I'd paid £450 for it after a small haggle, then sold it two years later for £250, so not completely horrendous.
Anyway, the point is that when demonstrating it to the potential new owner the damn thing failed in all ways til Tuesday, which it had simply never done before. In the Zoe you get a lovely red light in the dash and a BCI error (battery charge impossible), which is as scary as you like until you realise it really means "turn it off and on again".
Very embarrassing, until I realised I had never before used the charger with the extension cable half wound. Unwound it completely and all worked fine.
So that Maxwell was onto something after all.
|
>> So that Maxwell was onto something after all.
>>
His Silver Hammer perhaps? Bang bang!!
|
EV charging - commerdriver
