Friday, May 1, 2009

Cheap to run but slow to charge!

Well, I drove the electricfly to work today (April 30th, 2009), but my trusty trip meter I use for tracking runs was reset a few times to zero by kids doing the standard 'fingerpokenpeepenlooker' routine while at the show on Saturday! Plus - it had been towed there and back, partially discharged from giving a fellow EVer a quick ride in it one night after my last EVS meeting, and I had driven it to the Bank yesterday, so I decided to charge it up, reset the trip meter again, and stick a notebook back in tha car!

In any case - after charging it up today - I checked the UPM EM100 energy meter I am using to note the numbers - 1.95 kWh, $0.253 at $0.13 per kWh, but it was 8 hours 1 minute and 40 seconds since I plugged it in after work, and I have no easy way to be informed that the pack is full after I leave the car! (Call to the Cell phone or home number when charging is complete would be nice, but I haven't heard of it on the market nor of anyone trying to make such a charger - cell phone interface!

Now the real question would be - how far did I drive on that 1.95 kWh? Good Question - was it 3 km? 5km? More? Less? Well - at first guess - the drive with my buddy was only maybe about 2-3 kms, and the drive in to the show on Saturday was maybe another 1.5 kms, and out about .3 after the show. a drive to the bank is about 1.8 - 2.5 kms, and a drive to work and back is about 1.8 kms - so add it all up and we get an approximate figure of up to 9.1 kms. So - if true - that would be about 214 1/4 watt hours per km! Not so bad, but not my best figure! In any case - that is why I charged it up again tonight - so as to be able to again check the figures with a fresh start!

Plus - using the PakTraker Display with the Data logger with an SD Card, I can compare monitored energy used (watt seconds added all up inside a spreadsheet or two, get my kWh figures and compare that with the power used on the next charge. Today might have been charged up in only 2-3 hours - but I was busy and it was raining outside (still is) do did not check it out a lot over the course of the evening!

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