Lucasdv123

I have a 15 year old 4k champion that saved our bacon here in Texas last year during the 4 day freeze. We lost power and it took me 2 hours to figure out how to connect the central ac and heater blower to the generator. It was 54 degrees and in 30 minutes we were up to 74 degrees. We have natural gas for our heat,stove,and water heater.we lost over 200 people who froze to death no thanks to money hungry politicians in office here in Texas. We now have a new 4k champion generator that only weighs 84 lbs and has64 dbs of noise at full throttle. It is also an inverter and it's a hybrid. If a hurricane strikes we can seal half the house place a 5000 btu window unit in one bedroom (500 watts) a 6000 btu ac in another bedroom (750 watts) fridge( 1500 watts) freezer(700watts)a few lights tv and internet if it's up and running. This new champion will not run at full throttle unless a lot of power is needed.at 3500 running watts I think it will handle everything I need.

chikid68 Loc: Tennesse USA

Siphon pump doesn't need power

Dean Sturgis

There is no such thing as a battery powered generator.
If you want a battery back up system fine, if you want to add solar panels to them that is good.

nervous2 Loc: Provo, Utah

Hi Jerry. I have one of the 4Patriots solar powered generators. So far I've only recharged it using household current but I am hopeful if the day comes, I can charge it with the included solar panels. It's a cute little puppy.

alawry Loc: Timaru New Zealand

quote=nervous2]Hi Jerry. I have one of the 4Patriots solar powered generators. So far I've only recharged it using household current but I am hopeful if the day comes, I can charge it with the included solar panels. It's a cute little puppy. [/quote]



That's fascinating I looked up the advertisement. Have you used it at all? Power a stove for an hour? Or microwave for an hour? Freezer 16 hours? On a 40ah battery?

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

MPG/e is the stupidest rating for electric vehicles I've ever seen. KWh/mile or miles/KWh makes far more sense...

BebuLamar

Yup that rating is very stupid.

rlv567 Loc: Baguio City, Philippines

Yes; what is the "e" in "MPG/e"? Or is it Miles per Gallon of electricity???

Loren - in Beautiful Baguio City

BebuLamar

e stands for equivalent but then I still don't understand the thing clearly. They say it's the number of miles that the electric car can go with the electric energy equivalent to a gallon of gasoline. I am not sure they use the potential energy of the gallon of gas or what because car engine don't even have 50% effciency that is more than 50% of the energy is wasted as heat. The electric car can have efficiency near the 90%.

anotherview Loc: California

One measure of performance of the e-car states the miles it travels on a full battery charge. News reports say this measure comes to about 200 miles. The makers of the e-car could easily reduce this measure to a dashboard gauge.

BebuLamar

All electric cars have a gauge telling how many miles left on the battery. Some reach more than 300 miles range depending on speed. The higher the speed the less range. The number of miles one can travel on a tank of gas does depend on the speed but not as much as electric car. The MPG/e is something totally difference and it really makes no sense.

anotherview Loc: California

Thanks for informative reply.

petrochemist Loc: UK

From what I've heard temperatures make a huge difference to electric cars. Last month an electric car was used for the safety car at a race in the UK, The driver told me within a couple of laps the power had dropped by 10%. For more mundane use, if you use the heaters in winter your available range plumits.
I suspect the idea of MPG/e is to give a number that looks good for selling the car. It doesn't have to be useful if it impresses potential customers!

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

As long-time Prius owners (we currently have three and a Lexus ES300h among the four of us), we know the effects of Winter & Summer HVAC, roof racks with car top carriers, garaging the car overnight, and more.

In a hybrid, ALL energy comes from the gas engine. It's just that the kinetic energy of coasting, braking, etc. is stored in the battery for recycling during acceleration, and to charge the 12-Volt auxiliary battery that drives the lights and computers and such. So we might get 4-8 MPG better mileage in Spring and Fall.

I kept careful records of my first Gen 2 Prius Touring Edition. (It got 2-3 MPG less than a standard Prius due to the wider 17" tires)

Spring and Fall average 44.4 MPG
Winter average 40.1 MPG
Summer average 41.0 MPG
Driving to Florida from NC with a Sears X-Cargo on a pair of Thule roof rack rails 36.2 MPG

Just parking for 30 minutes with the AC on in summer will decrease mileage by 1-2 MPG, depending on outside temperature and set cabin temperature.

All that said, YES, mileage varies. But if we could just get a measure that made more sense for fully electric cars than 'MPGe', I think people would live with it. If it is measured under the same exact conditions as gas powered vehicles are tested, it would be useful. How about:

Miles or km per 60% of potential charge (i.e.; where the goal is to keep the state of charge between 20% and 80% for optimum battery life)
Miles or km per xxx kWh (where xxx = 60% of potential charge)

I predict that electric car adoption will pick up rapidly when rapid charging becomes a reality. If I can get charged to 90% in ten minutes or less, and go another 300 miles, it's probably time for another bio break, anyway.

Another factor in electric car adoption will be repairability. If you have to take a car to the brand dealer where you bought it, that's a show stopper for many. We need right to repair laws with TEETH in this country. Tesla hides behind "proprietary computer secrets" and other intellectual property law gibberish, so consumers pay an arm and a leg for repairs (or have to buy new cars if certain components fail!). Independent shops should have access to parts and tools and manuals.

alawry Loc: Timaru New Zealand

We appreciate your insightful comments. In colder weather we have the heater on, EV has to run extra equipment to make the heat which increases energy consumption. IC vehicles produce heat as a by product so while there is minimal extra consumption it is a fact that the motor produces the heat all the time, as an inefficiency of extracting power from the fuel. "Use it or lose it" at it's finest.
Regarding consumption, how come we are obsessed with range? your proposed measurement of 'range per charge" mostly just shows the size of the battery, in a fossil fuel car I could fit a larger tank to adjust the equivalent figure. The bulk of consumers have little knowledge of mpg or l/100k whatever, they work on $ per week or $ to X city, in a naive fashion. Same with their home power account, no one thinks how many kwh they used last month just that the bill was $86. with little concept as to how the figure was reached. Commenters here are the exceptions, mostly consisting of people who think more deeply into stuff. You're able to quote your consumption in different circumstances, so you must be keeping records. I keep a notebook on every car I've owned with fuel, mileage, (oops, distance) etc because I'm pedantic. Well in the minority, like you. I was interested to read Hydrogen cars generally give 100km (60 miles) per 1Kg of hydrogen. I would propose that EV talk about electricity in KWh, because thats how you buy it, so you will have numbers like 20 m/p/kwh and the size of the battery has nothing to do with the number. Except you will know how many KWh your battery holds.

comments appreciated.
Andrew.