On the road!

My maiden voyage was a success and there was remarkably little that went wrong on the 46 mile round trip journey from Woodinville to Everett to the SEVA meeting in the newly electrified Saturn. We set off in the car for the 23 mile journey with myself driving, Dave riding co-pilot and the designer of the prototype E-Gauge, Bruce Sherry, driving behind us in case we had technical difficulties. We rolled out on to Woodinville-Duvall road with no problems, accelerating to speed, though I kept it at about 5 miles below the speed limit (according to Bruce) since the speedometer isn't working. There was little need to use the speedometer on the freeway since it was typical stop and go traffic on northbound 405. Using the E-gauge we measured a burn-rate of 2.1 Amp Hours per mile, or 49.7 total Amp hours. I don't have the stats on the T-875, but am guessing we have somewhere around 90 total amp hours available. Since we were well over 50% discharged we plugged in when we reached the SEVA meeting at Pacific Battery. The prospect of waiting 5 hours to get fully charged was thankfully short-lived when the truck that had dibs on the 220 outlet popped the breakers every time it was plugged in. We took over the 220 outlet and had the Saturn charged in about 2 hours. The SEVA meeting was great, we pulled the Saturn in the warehouse and opened the hood and I spent most of the 3 hour meeting explaining the various parts of the car. We then packed things up and headed home, doing around 60 mph all the way home. The only concern was as we headed up a pretty steep hill at about 20 miles in to the return trip and the car slowed down to probably 20 mph as we hit the top and the volts dropped to almost 100 volts. Things rebounded as the road leveled out and we made it back to Dave's house at a pretty good clip.

I'm still not sure whether I'll be able to make it the 30 miles to Federal Way and back, based on this experiment I know the car runs at between 2.1 and 2.6 amps/hour per mile. Based on the slower trip in rush hour to Everett and the theoretical capacity of 90 amp/hours for the battery pack I should have a range of 35 miles. Assuming a 2.6 amp/hour rate I'm looking at exactly 30 miles, so a lot depends on the the terrain, which has a lot of ups and downs between Tacoma and Federal Way. Things are getting close, a couple more tweaks to the engine mount, some cleanup of the wiring, and fixing the speedometer and the car should be ready to go! Things are getting very exciting!

Getting closer...

I just got off of the phone with Dave Cloud this evening and it looks like the car is pretty close to being finished up. He took her on the maiden voyage this afternoon and the overall test was successful. He has a couple of last minute tweaks to make (the amp meter is not working, some scraping on the axle, and there seems to be an overall lack of power). It sounds like the axle and amp meter may be fixable by tomorrow, which would be great since we'd like to drive it up to the SEVA meeting up in Everett tomorrow. The lack of power is expected since we are using a 400 amp curtis controller instead of the custom controller that is not yet finished but that should give us a lot more power once it is installed.

I'm hopeful that the Curtis controller will get us up to freeway speed and that we can successfully make it from Woodinville to Everett and back. If not, it's going to be a long walk home to Tacoma :)

Conversion Pictures and Update 1/20

I'm jumping out of order chronologically, but rather than describe how I and the car got to where they are today in detail, I'll just describe where things stand right now. The car that is being converted, a 2002 Saturn SL is in the process of being converted by a professional electric car converter, Dave Cloud. I'm not sure what makes one precisely a professional, versus a hobbyist, but I think converting 20+ cars safely puts you the professional ranks (as well as having people paying you to convert a car). Dave has not only converted that many cars, he's also built numerous electric race cars, electric hydroplanes, and even electric racing reclining chairs. In fact he built the worlds fastest electric hydroplane (reaching over 70 mph) that is currently in the Guinness Book of World Records.

I stopped by today to check on the progress of the car and he provided many insights in to the intricacies of building an electric car correctly. Here is a shot of the rear of the car, not much to notice other than there is no longer an tail pipe, that was removed a long with the gas tank.

Here is a shot of what is under the hood now. I've added some close-ups below so you can see the various components in detail. A couple of interesting components, the 8 inch electric motor is on he left coupled in to the transmission. On the left hand side you can see the smaller motor driving a pulley that pumps the power-steering hydraulics.

Below is a shot of the main contactor, this is where the ignition switch hooks in to the main battery pack. This switch has to be heavy duty since you've got the full 144 volts and 500+ amps running through this switch when the car starts moving. You can see the throttle cable above the contactor which is hooked in to a potentiometer. As the peddle is depressed the throttle cable is pulled and the pot-box resistance changes and the current flowing through the wire (going out the left hand side to the controller) changes.

Below is a close-up of the safety kill switch. This switch is like a fire extinguisher, you hope you never have to use it, but are glad you have it when you do. The controller in this car will be "experimental" since it is being built by a guy that Dave knows who has rebuilt many controllers before, but never built his own full-fledged EV controller before. You want the safety kill switch to be easily accessible since when a controller fails (i.e. blows up) it could short out fully open. This would be a bad thing if there was no way to cut the current manually. The kill switch allows you to do this easily and quickly.

Below is a close-up of the power-steering setup. Dave has rigged a small motor (it takes about 13 amps) to the pulley that powers the power steering pump. He is going to hook this up to a switch on the dash so I can turn it on when I'm travelling at slow speeds and need the extra assistance, but then turn it off when I'm running at faster speeds and don't need assistance turning, but would rather be conserving energy.

Below is a picture of the front battery box that Dave built. This may well be the highest tech part of the car since the sides of the box are made from fiberglass paneling that is surplus from Boeing plane construction. The paneling is super light and strong, with an reinforced inner support structure. The orange panel on the bottom is made from Kevlar, also courtesy of Boeing.

Below is a close-up of the Manzanita Micro battery charger (the big green box) and the vacuum pump for the brakes (blue pump with gauge on top). The battery charger can work off of either 220 or 110 voltage, I just have to dial in the amperage I want to draw. Directly in front of the pump is the Curtis Controller which is not the final one that the vehicle will use, but a temporary one till the experimental controller is finished.

Here is another under hood shot, this one with the charger, pump, and controller all placed in the vehicle, though not actually fastened down. Dave just wanted to show me what everything would look like when the vehicle was actually put together.

Below is a picture of Dave, and further below is a picture of the ripped apart console and the red emergency disconnect button, and then there is a picture of where the back seat used to be that Dave will be cutting out for a battery box. I'm really excited about the big red button, I've always wanted a big red button on my dash. I think it comes from seeing cars with ejection seats in the Bond movies, or maybe just to many Sci-Fi movies with Red Buttons to go in to warp speed, or sound the emergency sirens. Anyways, now I will have one. We are still trying to figure out where to put the gauges, there isn't enough room in the dash to put them in without covering up the tachometer, which we hope to still use when Dave puts a rev-limiter in to keep the motor from spinning itself to death.

Well, that is all for now. Dave is hoping that if all goes to plan it should be finished off in about three weeks time. I'd love it if it was, I can't believe it was over seven months ago already that this endeavor began! I'll fill in the gaps on how I got to this stage in a later post. But it was so exciting to see the car where it is today that I had to post the pictures and the progress.

How do I get an electric car?

This post is largely a braindump of all of the research I've been doing over the last several months (actually almost 6 months) trying to figure out for myself how I could get an electric car built. There are really 3 different ways to get in to an electric car:
1. Build your own electric car (either from the ground up or converting a gasoline powered car to electricity)
2. Buy an electric car already manufactured/converted
3. Pay someone else to convert a car to electric for you


The route that most people go, building their own electric car, really only works if you have all of the conditions below:

1. Plenty of free time on your hands
2. Good electrical skills, or the desire to learn the skills you don't have
3. Good mechanical skills, or the desire to learn the skills you don't have
4. Someone to teach you all of the tricks of doing a car conversion, or the ability to follow pretty extensive directions from one of several books on the subject, or websites for hours on end.
5. A suitable location and tools for the conversion (sidewalk in front of your condo won't work)

If you do meet all of these conditions then by all means go ahead and do your own conversion. There are many great resources for doing conversions including: Convert It by Michael Brown and Build Your Own Electric Car by Bob Brandt. Both are must have books if you are doing your own conversion, are just interested in how conversions are done, or have bought an already converted car or are having someone else convert a car for you. Build Your Own Electric Car was my favorite, having a lot of great electromotive theory and great graphs showing the relationships between battery capacity and temperature and type of battery. There are some good sites on do-it yourself conversions as well. Some simple Google searches should be all you need to find them.

Option #2: Buy an electric car is probably the fastest way to get your hands on a car. However, it is probably also the most expensive. All of the hype about the Tesla Car is warranted, it is a pretty amazing car, however, it is also a pretty pricey car at $100k. Other places to look for cars is on Ebay. They occasionally will auction off S10's or Ford Ranger OEM trucks that were built by subcontractors of Ford and GM back in the late 90's or early 2000. These vehicles run in the $15-$25k range and are based on NiMh or Lead Acid. They are AC systems so some more advanced electronics knowledge is needed to maintain and work on them, but they are more efficient and generally more reliable than do-it-yourself conversions.

On the subject of do-it-yourself conversions the best place to buy one of those is on the EV Tradin' Post where new cars are usually added every several days or so. The selection is limited, but you might just get lucky and find what you are looking for.

Option #3 Is the route I'm going for my electric car. I did a lot of research online, talked with some people in the local Electric Car Users Group here in Seattle (SEVA) and got some recommendations on who to talk to locally that might be interested in converting a car for me. This route is usually cheaper than buying a commercial conversion, but also more expensive than buying a conversion that someone else has already done.

My next post will be on how I went about selecting someone to do my conversion and the process of selecting the vehicle to convert, as well as an update on the progress of my conversion.

How it all began...

The purpose of this blog is to explain why I decided to convert a car to run on 100% electric power, and give anyone who is remotely interested in doing this themselves visibility into the process I've been going through over the past six months since I made the decision to "go electric." The first post will focus on how my interest in electric vehicles began, and what I am trying to accomplish with this conversion.

Prior to June 2006, I had put absolutely 0% of my brain power towards thinking about electric cars. I have never been especially interested in cars; I have never driven fast, or fancy cars, and in fact, generally try to avoid having anyone see the white 1996 Plymouth Grand Voyager mini-van that I drive as my primary commuter vehicle since it often seems to be the butt of jokes around more sophisticated autophiles. However, sometime in early June, my whole perspective changed.

On that fateful day, my wife Corrinne and I went to see 'An Inconvenient Truth' on the advice of some friends that had recently seen the movie. I don't remember what our expectations were going in to the movie. We consider ourselves pretty environmentally conscious: Corrinne is often reminding me to turn off lights in rooms that I have vacated, we recycle what we can, we've done some volunteer clean-up work, and we get mad when we hear about corporate pollution. But, that has really been the extent of our activism......until we saw the movie.

An 'Inconvenient Truth' is brilliant, scary, and leaves you realizing that we alone control the future of our climate and our earth. For those of you that haven't seen the film, or heard about it, I'll give you a brief synopsis. In the movie, former Vice President Al Gore attempts to convince the world that Global Warming is real and, if left unchecked, will have devastating consequences. He does this by giving a PowerPoint presentation on steroids. Gore shows a side of himself we never saw while he was in office, a side that is absolutely passionate about a cause, a side that puts his emotions and frustrations on his shirtsleeve.

He gives a presentation that is at once informational and absolutely mesmerizing. He does an incredible job debunking many of the anti-greenhouse arguments and leaving the audience realizing that there is no alternate ending to the story as long as the plot stays the same and humankind continues to throw CO2 in to the atmosphere at the current rate. He describes third world countries as even more destitute and first world countries stretched to the breaking point by massive flooding and economic disaster. I won't say more, other than I think every citizen should see it, whether or not they think Global Warming is something they should be worrying about. If you don't believe in Global Warming, still watch it, then do some of your own research, then make up your mind.

As the movie ended, I was struck with the inevitible question, "What can I do to raise awareness about Global Warming and our responsibility?" Walking out of the theatre, a couple of people that must have been similarly struck by the movie at an earlier time were handing out flyers that listed ways we could each help raise awareness and forestall Global Warming. I forget everything that was listed, but some items were simple conservations ideas like "turn off lights when you leave the house" and others called for political activism such as, "send mail to your congressman telling them to support the CAFE bills." I took the flyer home and went down the list; I decided I'd first start by mailing my congressman and senator about CAFE and Greenhouse gas emissions. I remember sending them mail, sitting back, and thinking "now what?" With a congress and president in power that are preoccupied with a war over oil I really didn't expect much to happen, so I started thinking more about what I could do. Looking at the other list of ideas, nothing really jumped out, until I looked at a line that suggested looking at alternative energy sources and linked to a calculator that would tell me how much greenhouse gas my activities caused in a year: http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/.

As I started adding up all of the sources of CO2 in my life I was shocked by how much CO2 was put out by my car. Assuming I drive only a modest 12,000 miles annually I will emit over 5 tons of CO2! I was startled by that number, and had to look back at my physics and chemistry days in college to realize that there was no error there, just good old laws of physics and molecular bonds at work. The short of it is, for every 1 gallon of gasoline burned in a car, roughly 19 pounds of CO2 are produced. This page has the some nice equations to explain the phenomena in more detail. This relationship between gasoline consumption and greenhouse gasses more than anything pushed me to think hard about what I could do to affect this reality.

Looking around I-5 on the way to work every morning, I was struck by how little diversity of automotive propulsion there was on the road around me. Thousands of cars streaming buy, day after day, all humming along, starting, stopping, burning gas. Oblivious to the homogeneity around us, we drive, not questioning why we are powering our cars by gasoline. Separate from the global warming issue, I also found myself pondering the futility of the current conflict in the middle east and how captive we are to ensuring the constant flow of oil from this volatile region. As much rhetoric as there has been about reducing our dependency on foreign oil, the fact remains that it can never be more than rhetoric, we simply do not have nearly enough domestic oil to sustain our current petroleum demands. We currently import 54% of our oil, and that # is expected to increase more than 10% in the next twenty years. Clearly, we need a change of course or we will continue to find ourselves forced to intervene in the middle east. I just found an interesting article here which pegs the cost of keeping a military force ready to intervene in the Middle East at $49 billion dollars per year. That would pay for a really nice fleet of electric cars!

All of these factors pushed me towards thinking of what I could do to encourage thinking "outside of the box" to the tens of thousands of fellow commuters that join me each day on the road. I settled on converting a car to run on electricity as a way to show that the status quo can be questioned, and that innovative forms of transportation like this can be more than just curiosities, but also a very practical and cost effective way to get around. I want to encourage everyone that sees my car driving along the road (it will be clearly labelled as electric) to think about the vehicles they have at home, and their chosen method of daily transportation and ask the same questions I have been asking myself. I guess I would be ripping off Apple if I said the motto of my quest is to encourage people to "Think Different" but that would really be the goal. Just like we have a choice between Apple or Windows, ATT or Cingular or Vonage, or DirecTV or local TV or cable TV we should be asking ourselves what kind of choice do we want to create for ourselves for our personal transportation.

In future posts I'll talk about the process I went through to get my car converted (it isn't yet done, so I'll talk about my experiences actually driving it when I get it on the road). I'll also discuss many of the trade-offs that you encounter with electric vehicles, many of the exciting cars being produced by companies like Tesla Motors and others in the next year. Till then, examine your transportation needs, and try to practice thinking different.