http://vanagonwiki.net/index.php/Solar#Charging_Deep_Cycle_Batteries_with_th
e_Vanagon_Alternator
I am a BIG, a HUGE!!! proponent of silent solar. Generators make me
crazy. I normally camp ONLY in sunny conditions and deploy solar panels
to keep our house battery topped off. One thing you'd be wasting your
air on is lecturing me about the evils of generators and other noisy
machines in campgrounds. Preaching to the choir, I believe it is called.
But I have a photo essay I am doing that takes me to a campground in the
mountains near here, and I need to go once a month for a full year. This
weekend is predicted to be overcast and likely rainy. Perfect for my
needs but lousy for solar. This campground is almost completely empty
when the weather turns bad. If there is even one more person there I
will be surprised. The engine-charging scheme is just my backup. With a
130 Ah deep cycle battery, cold weather to limit how frequently the
Norcold refrigerator runs, efficient LED lights, etc., I probably won't
even drop my battery below 50% after two full nights. But in case I am
stuck for some reason, the engine can be used to keep it full, and much
more efficiently than using the alternator directly.
If one is going to run an internal combustion engine to do charging, I
personally find little Honda generators to be no less obnoxious than an
idling WBX engine.
My last run was without the idling. That's my base point. I have tweaked
the engine timing a bit, and have had the wheels aligned. I'm making the
same run in a couple days. I may not need to use the engine for
charging, but if I do, I will do so discreetly; and if I have to, I
don't want to return and not know what effect it will have had on the
mileage calculations.
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR
On 11/26/2007 12:01 PM Scott Daniel - Shazam wrote:
> Well, finally the whole story comes out.
> Shame to run a whole giant car engine just to charge a battery, especially
> for up to two hours. I hope that's not in a campground with neighboring
> campers, even if it is a quietly running stock waterboxer.
> And *now* that we know what's really going on, perhaps you need to
> consider rpm while charging. Does it charge significantly better at
1,500
> rpm than at 800 rpm idle ? Is it more efficient to charge at a higher rpm
> for a shorter period ? etc.
> How about this - you make your 'standard run' include exactly the same
> period of idle charging each trip ? then you're fuel mileage
calculations
> will include 'trip there and back plus X hours idling."
> Methinks a very quiet small Honda generator is really the right device
and
> method for your purposes. Though it is another device to lug along, take
up
> space and weight, and they're not cheap, so it's understandable you'd want
> to not have one of those if you could help it.
> I got it ! .....stationary bicycle driving a generator ! Then you pedal
> each day 45 minutes - no pollution, no noise, no burning fossil fuel
> inefficiently, plus you get exercise. And how many calories per hour does
a
> vanagonite burn charging a battery at 5 amps per hour burn ????
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Michael Elliott
> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 7:04 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Calculate fuel consumption when idling?
>
> Hi Phil,
>
> I want to find out what difference having the wheels on my van aligned
> makes to my van's mileage. I have a "standard" round trip I make, to a
> nearby mountain camping area. The last time I made that trip I got 16.2
> mpg. I will be making that trip again in a couple days.
>
> This time, though, I will not be using solar power to keep my aux battery
> full. I have a battery charger that runs off the alternator and I reckon I
> might need to run the engine a couple hours a day to top off the battery.
>
> If I don't have a clue about how much fuel the engine consumes when idling
> then I can't factor that in when calculating my mileage after I return in
> order to see what diff the alignment made. So that's why I asked if anyone
> knew fuel consumption when idling. It wasn't, ah, an /idle/ question.
>
> --
> Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
> 71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
> 74 Utility Trailer. Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
> KG6RCR
>
>
>
> On 11/26/2007 6:04 AM phil cain wrote:
>
>> Here we are trying to figure out what the idle
>> consumption is, when the best we can do on the miles
>> per gallon/ or idle consumption, is get a close
>> estimate, do we have a screw loose somewhere. We are
>> not flying a aircraft where the fuel is figured real
>> close, we can always pull over to the side of the road
>> and walk to the gas station. I have a average of 19-21
>> MPG on a 80 Westy that's good enough for me. Phil
>>
>>
>>
>
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