Hi all,
Cheers,
Tim
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I agree completely. I was nearly turned off of the concept of the EV
conversion when I read about the flooded cells and their maintenance. I
elected to go for 12 Optima 31 AGMs for that very reason. They are costly,
but so much less hassle.
As such, I don't have battery boxes in my installation at all -- either
under the hood or in the trunk. Is that a good idea or not? I don't know.
I would be interested in opinions from the group.
- Rob
I have individual battery chargers thus battery balancers are not necessary.
That might be a good approach to call out two different systems. People can
decide for themselves.
I used the full suite of equipment from Belktronix (www.belktronix.com) for
my EV. It was designed especially for AGM's and as such it has individual
battery monitors to protect against over-voltage during charge, and
undervoltage during discharge. I plug in the whole car, and the system
takes over. As each battery reaches it upper limit, the current is shunted
around it so that the others can continue charging until they reach their
upper limit. Then, the system switches into float mode to top them off.
As you are driving, if any cell drops below the lower limit of voltage, the
system dials back on how much current it draws so that a cell does not get
damaged.