A couple of days ago, I decided not to wait for the separate charging line to be made for my EV, and just use the 25 ft 10-3 14-50 extension cable I already have.
Before my evening class, I went over to Otmar's to mooch Solar electrons for my test as he had both an AVCON power pak and a 14-50 50 amp outlet. I first connected to his 14-50 50 amp outlet and verified my clamp on AC meter movement accuracy with Otmar's digital clamp on AC meter. My pack was only 30% down, so readings would have to taken quickly as at these high charging currents, my pack voltage will rise and taper the PFC-50 's current. At the Stanford Rally on 204VAC at 30 amps AC input the PFC-50 's output was 36.6 amps at 150VDC. On Otmar's 220VAC at 30 amps AC input the PFC-50 's output was 40 amps DC into my 132V pack at 150VDC. I decided to turn the PFC-50 up and see how much power I would get. At 50 amps on a 25 ft 10-3 extension cable I dropped 10 VAC, so the reading was 210 VAC at the PFC-50. At 210 VAC at 50 amps the PFC-50 output was 72 amps at 105VDC. I ran the PFC-50 at this power level for 15 minutes. The 10-3 cable and connectors barely got warm. But the output current decreased as the pack voltage rose to 153VDC. At some point a ticking sound ocurred and progressively increased in frequency until the yellow limit led was visible. Otmar believed that was the PFC-50 current limiting circuit kicking in. I then tried the AVCON power pak with a 40 amp AC draw for 5 minutes. The AVCON power pack nor Otmar's breaker tripped. But sadly, the AVCON power pak is not the AVCON charging head used at public charging spots. The funky evi ics-200 is on the BAAQMD approved list (they don't use them, but they approved them. Sounds like a back room deal). I shutdown by turning the current knob to off while the PFC-50 breakers were still on. This allowed the PFC-50 to continue to cool off by letting its fans run. But the amount of heat coming out of the PFC-50 would not even defrost a window. My hands says it was under 300 watts. The outside air was 70 degrees F, so the PFC-50 does not waste much energy on heat. I turned off, disconnected, and left Otmar's with him discussing how inefficient air powered cars were with a neighbor. I wanted to get in one more test before class. I went a few miles down El Camino to plug in at the Mt. View Costco. I connected the PFC-50 to their AVCON ics-200 via my AVCON adpator I got from the EAA http://eaaev.org (merchandise page). I set the PFC-50 to draw 30 AC amps and got 37 amps into my pack as it was a 208VAC feed. With in a minute and a half the ics-200 turned off with a red led and the synth-o woman's voice said over current (slap-slap-slap). On a 40 amp circuit, you should be able to get 32 amps AC out of it by Electrical code. A previous POST by a evi representative said the ics-200 was spec'd at providing 32 amps. I figured if I set the PFC-50 to 30 amps AC, the ics-200 AVCON should not have a problem. So, I chose to test the PFC-50 at 30 amps AC off the evi AVCON ics-200. I tried several times, at lower, and lower AC current levels until I found the ics-200 held at a 14 amp AC current draw. I didn't stay to test further, as I had to leave for class. ... After class, I went back to Otmar's to re-check my readings. All was the same. Otmar thought it might be a bad ics-200. This is quite possible. While the evi rep thinks I unjustly poo-poo the ics-200, but he is not the one in the middle of nowhere being told by a synthetic woman's voice I can't have power. So it might be that the Mt. View Costco AVCON ics-200 is out of spec. I need to try other AVCON ics-200 units. I am thinking I need to build a 6kw resistive load I can connect to the AVCON ics-200 charging heads. Then I could verify a unit will handle a 30 amp AC load. I suppose I would need a water bath type of cooling unit to dissipate the power for a 5 minute test. :-zzz ===== ' ____ ~/__|o\__ '@----- @'---(= . http://geocities.com/brucedp . EV List Editor & RE newswires . (originator of the above EV ascci art) ===== __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos & More http://faith.yahoo.com
