Greetings from mid Michigan

[BenBrown]

Me?  I'm a bit of a fanatic in wanting to reduce my carbon footprint.  I've placed an order for the Empulse AND am talking to photovoltaic installers about doing a 2 panel system so I can get some of the charging from renewable energy.

If anyone knows anything about the charger the Empulse will use it would be of great help to learn more.

I'm hoping that the Empulse will be my only transportation for 8 months out of the year.

BenBrown

[Brammofan]

 Hi Ben, and welcome to the Forum.  I don't know about the charger on the Empulse, but I'm wondering if it's the same one that's on the Enertia. 

What do you want to know about the charger?... ie, how much juice it pulls? etc. Might want to search under the "anything Brammo" subforum for posts with "charge" in them.

[Durgenbold]

Hi Ben,

I live in Ann Arbor, sorta close to Detroit but not too close 

I congratulate you for taking the initiative and ordering an Empulse, but I'm not too sure about the eight-month idea. Maybe it's warmer in the middle of the mitten, but around here we have snow almost eight months out of the year!

I made a discussion about it at http://brammoforum.com/index.php?topic=106.0, and everyone seems impressed with the Enertia's performance but with all motorcycles you have to be careful.

Sorry if you're more than aware of all of this. That topic has some awesome pictures anyway 

-Chris/Durgenbold

[Phantom]

Welcome to the forum. You are in a good company of fanatics who want to reduce their carbon footprint.

Solar panels are a great idea, and one that I will eventually copy.

I suspect the Empulse charger will draw more power than you can directly generate from two panels, but htey are still part of the total charging equation.

From BrammoBrian related to the Enertia's charger:

The Enertia's battery is 3,100 Wh (Watt-hours) or 3.1 kWh.

It [using solar panels to charge] is a very cool idea though - although you'd need a bank of batteries to store the energy to charge your Enertia and you'd have to have somebody look at the voltage and current being generated by these panels to match it to the requirements to charge. Probably need an inverter as well to get the DC power converted to AC (which is what the Enertia's charger is designed to plug into).

[BenBrown]

I need to know the amount of volts, amps and wattage the regular charger for the Empulse will require.  (Anyone know these figures for the Inertia?)

Dr. Andy Frank, with CalCars has shown it is possible to supply a highway capable 15 kw electric car from a 1 to 2 kw pv or wind system.  I'm hoping this can be done for the Empulse.

"One of the newer innovations Frank is investigating is a dramatically downsized charging system on-board the vehicle. He says he and his students are looking at a simple 110-volt charger that will take 10-12 hours to completely recharge the vehicle, basically from the time the vehicle gets parked in the family driveway or garage in the evening until its driven away to work the next morning. This will reduce the complexity, weight and cost of the system and eliminate the need for an extensive public charging infrastructure. All you need to recharge the batteries is a common 110-120 volt AC outlet, usually readily available in most garages."  -http://www.calcars.org/calcars-news/693.html

I suspect the Empulse charger will draw more power than you can directly generate from two panels, but htey are still part of the total charging equation.

From BrammoBrian related to the Enertia's charger:

The Enertia's battery is 3,100 Wh (Watt-hours) or 3.1 kWh.

It [using solar panels to charge] is a very cool idea though - although you'd need a bank of batteries to store the energy to charge your Enertia and you'd have to have somebody look at the voltage and current being generated by these panels to match it to the requirements to charge. Probably need an inverter as well to get the DC power converted to AC (which is what the Enertia's charger is designed to plug into).

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