I'm thinking about getting an xb-600. There will be occasional times in the winter when it is cool and the batteries have less juice where I'll want a bit more range. If I added a battery to take it to 60V, but still drove it at, say 20mph, I am assuming that I would have better range then if I stuck with 48V...am I right? Am I wrong?
Second question comes from time spent in MN where people plug their cars in at night. They do this to keep the battery warm so they can start the damn things up in the morning. Has anyone tried to warm their batteries in the winter to get better range? Alternatively, has anyone tried to run a small 12V heater in the battery compartment (perhaps off a separate battery and with a temp controller) to keep their batteries toasty? I live in NC, so probably not an issue, but just thoughts.
--BCo
How about cutting a window in the top of the battery pack, painting the blue wrap black, and silicone-Seal an appropriately thick Poycarbonate panel there, so on clear cold days you'll get some solar heating.....at least when travelling East-West.
Or set it in the sun for 15 minutes before leaving.
I grew up in warm SoCal, but I once had a Ford Falcon forum friend in Alaska, also I read about some EV enthusiasts in cold regions.
The EV guy blogged that he was suprised the battery heater did not have a major drain on pack range. He used a surface mount temp sensor that actuated a resistance heating flat panel under the batteries.
The flat panel heater was similar to the wires embedded in the back window of a car to defrost it on cold mornings. It only drew from the pack when running.
At night in the garage, it was plugged into grid power. The sensor cycled it to just enough to keep the batteries from freezing, and a timer fully warmed them just before he needed to go to work.
There was a plug at the rear bumper (he backed into the garage), so if he forgot to unplug manually, it would just "pull off" with no damage.
The Alaska guy said you could buy electric battery blanket covers, flat heater pads for underneath, or both.
As a side note, he worked for a company that shut down for 6 months in the winter and worked 24/7 in the warm months. two 12-hour shifts with significant unemployment payments in the winter.
All vehicles from trucks to bulldozers were diesel. They were started in the spring and ran 24/7 for 6 months. If any died and attained 0-degrees F overnight, almost impossible to restart, the mechanic would erect a tent over it and run a blast heater for hours before even trying to fix it.
"My body got prison, but my hair got the electric chair" -Don King
One option for plug in heat overnight is reptile heater pad from the pet store. Or a heat pad from the drugstore. Both use power, and so would a timer. For lead acid, that gets warm charging, a lot of folks are able to just delay some of the charging so that the thing is used hot off the charger. For bikes and scooters, insulating against wind chill could be well worth it.
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