Has anyone ever thought about putting an electric motor in a series

Every fork lift truck I have seen powerful enough to drive a car needs a 3 phase charger.

Col

If you put tank tracks on it you only need power at one axle. If you put a skirt round it you don’t need an axle at all.

Muppets

Colthebrummie said:

Every fork lift truck I have seen powerful enough to drive a car needs a 3 phase charger.

Col

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You are quite right and that is a signficant issue. I'm sure there is a work around for the phases, but not for the current draw. The supply into our Victorian / Edwardian house (its 1901) is fused at 100amps and I doubt we use a fraction of that most of the time, but I'm not sure I want to plug 100A in for the first time in 118 years. Even if we survive I have my doubts about the local substation; its gone bang twice in the past 5 years. What I would like is to put solar panels on the roof - we have a 3 storey house with a flat roof over about 30%. That would charge the electric vehicle, would only work for low mileage but for most of the time that would do us.

rob1miles said:

You are quite right and that is a signficant issue. I'm sure there is a work around for the phases, but not for the current draw. The supply into our Victorian / Edwardian house (its 1901) is fused at 100amps and I doubt we use a fraction of that most of the time, but I'm not sure I want to plug 100A in for the first time in 118 years. Even if we survive I have my doubts about the local substation; its gone bang twice in the past 5 years. What I would like is to put solar panels on the roof - we have a 3 storey house with a flat roof over about 30%. That would charge the electric vehicle, would only work for low mileage but for most of the time that would do us.

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Panels on a flat roof is fairly easy to do, they should be south facing and angled at 45 degrees on stands, and get as much uninterrupted sun as possible. Shade from trees, etc, will cause considerable losses of generation.

Mounting the panels flat is also an option, they will generate pretty well at midsummer like that, but not much in midwinter.
You should mount the inverter/s as close to the panels as possible, to minimise line loss between the panels and inverters. Once you are up to 230v, the line loss between the inverters and the consumer unit and meter is less of a factor.

Most domestic solar installations aim for about 4.5Kw at peak. The panels and inverters are quite cheap now, and as FIT is now zero, it isn't worth using a MCS certified installer, any competent electrician can wire it up for you.

You need to talk to your electricity supplier, and find out of they are willing to buy surplus power for an export rate, and make any changes to their meters to do this. If they aren't, there are suppliers who will, Good Energy being about the best payers, as far as I know.

Also going to tag @Nodge68 , as he is knowledgeable on solar generation.

So all you need to do is buy a Series Land Rover, a forklift truck and a ****load of batteries, take em all apart, put em all back together again in a different way, fill yer roof with solar panels, rewire yer old house, and Robert's yer mother's brother?

Dear Santa...

wattfield said:

So all you need to do is buy a Series Land Rover, a forklift truck and a ****load of batteries, take em all apart, put em all back together again in a different way, fill yer roof with solar panels, rewire yer old house, and Robert's yer mother's brother?

Dear Santa...

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I think some of these threads are more an exploration of the possibilities than serious technical advice.
But they are nonetheless interesting, and many leaps forward have eventually been made starting from such out of the box thinking.

There are also different ways of getting to the same place. The Americans spent millions of dollars developing pens that would write in space.
The Russians used a graphite pencil. Both write equally well in space.

Turboman said:

I think some of these threads are more an exploration of the possibilities than serious technical advice.
But they are nonetheless interesting, and many leaps forward have eventually been made starting from such out of the box thinking.

There are also different ways of getting to the same place. The Americans spent millions of dollars developing pens that would write in space.
The Russians used a graphite pencil. Both write equally well in space.

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That's a myth - you can't use pencils in space because bits of broken lead float around and could get into delicate instruments.

wattfield said:

That's a myth - you can't use pencils in space because bits of broken lead float around and could get into delicate instruments.

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Russian spacecraft don't have any delicate instruments either.

wattfield said:

you can't use pencils in space

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Oh yes you can!.

Cheers

Turboman said:

Russian spacecraft don't have any delicate instruments either.

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Good point. I used ti have one of their cameras. It worked very well, but delicate it wasn't!

wattfield said:

Good point. I used ti have one of their cameras. It worked very well, but delicate it wasn't!

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Very simple, but rugged, most of the Soviet era stuff. I had a pair of Russian ex military binoculars for about 30 years. They survived being dropped, being dropped in water and retrieved with a magnet from the mud, and being left on the rear seat of a car in the full sun all day.
And still worked pretty well every time, after drying out and cleaning.

wattfield said:

So all you need to do is buy a Series Land Rover, a forklift truck and a ****load of batteries, take em all apart, put em all back together again in a different way, fill yer roof with solar panels, rewire yer old house, and Robert's yer mother's brother?

Dear Santa...

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That is exaclty the conclusion I came to after hours of research. Not that that makes it a bad idea, just that I'm not rushing...
I even bought a non-runner ride on mower to convert with a solar panel to charge it. Its now running very well on petrol and the panel is keeping the leisure battery topped up, it just wasn't worth all the cost and effort to save a pint of petrol a week (and only in summer)

rob1miles said:

That is exaclty the conclusion I came to after hours of research. Not that that makes it a bad idea, just that I'm not rushing...
I even bought a non-runner ride on mower to convert with a solar panel to charge it. Its now running very well on petrol and the panel is keeping the leisure battery topped up, it just wasn't worth all the cost and effort to save a pint of petrol a week (and only in summer)

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One of the best uses of solar charging is for battery top up and conditioning. That is the main use of the 540 Watts of panels on my boat, they keep the leisure batteries in peak condition, and defer the time I will have to spend 600 quid replacing them.

Pleased to say, I am nowhere near old and unfit enough to need a ride on mower, though!

Ha ha! No one has ever "needed" a ride on mower, but I had this idea of a solar powered garden tractor / mower charging itself off solar. This was to be a trail run for a Series converson. The point of the ride on was its greater load capacity for the batteries. I did a lot of reseach and at the start there were various compaines claiming to be about to offer a battery electic ride on. 2 years later and only one seemd to be on the market and that was a Chinese one that was very clearly 95% mobility scooter and 5% mower, but rather depresingly, unlike all the mower looking ones, it actually worked. I'd already bought a mobility scooter to break and convert and that went pear shaped when my (then) 92 year old mother tried it and I never got it back so there went my motor, controller and batteries. The more I did the sums the less possible it looked, the problem was the power needed to spin the blades so I cut my losses and made it work as a petrol mower and, I'm afraid to admit, I like it. Yes I look like a knob on it and our garden is not really big enough, but doing the whole 100ft by 40ft lawn on a single grass box is bliss.

rob1miles said:

Ha ha! No one has ever "needed" a ride on mower, but I had this idea of a solar powered garden tractor / mower charging itself off solar. This was to be a trail run for a Series converson. The point of the ride on was its greater load capacity for the batteries. I did a lot of reseach and at the start there were various compaines claiming to be about to offer a battery electic ride on. 2 years later and only one seemd to be on the market and that was a Chinese one that was very clearly 95% mobility scooter and 5% mower, but rather depresingly, unlike all the mower looking ones, it actually worked. I'd already bought a mobility scooter to break and convert and that went pear shaped when my (then) 92 year old mother tried it and I never got it back so there went my motor, controller and batteries. The more I did the sums the less possible it looked, the problem was the power needed to spin the blades so I cut my losses and made it work as a petrol mower and, I'm afraid to admit, I like it. Yes I look like a knob on it and our garden is not really big enough, but doing the whole 100ft by 40ft lawn on a single grass box is bliss.

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I have a simple approach to that as well. I don't use a grass box. The clippings rot down easily enough, or are incorporated by worms, in the growing seasons, and in the winter, I don't cut the grass much.

I used to mow in but it made the soil too rich and we got a lot of moss, we have free garden waste collection and its composted and sold back to offset council tax.

Turboman said:

Pleased to say, I am nowhere near old and unfit enough to need a ride on mower, though!

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I don't *need* one, but I've wanted a ride-on mover ever since I was a kid!

TheMegaMan said:

I don't *need* one, but I've wanted a ride-on mover ever since I was a kid!

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When I was working, I had a tractor, sometimes several tractors, and a topper, muckspreader, harrows, trailers, etc.
I never had a mower except the one for the lawn, as the contractor that I used for silaging had a better mower than I could ever afford.
Now I am semi retired, I have no wish to ever mow anything again, although I expect I will have to on occasions.

The only thing I wanted since I was a kid was a boat. I had several of those while I was working as well, and now have an even better one!

rob1miles said:

I used to mow in but it made the soil too rich and we got a lot of moss, we have free garden waste collection and its composted and sold back to offset council tax.

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Other way round. If you don't have enough nutrient, moss thrives, and overtakes the grass.
Rake it out, add some fert and grass seed, and the grass will overpower the moss.

OK, I'll give that a try.