Nodge68 said:
You've got solar now? That's so cool.
I'm still waiting for a lottery win to afford mine. Unfortunately the more the energy prices rise, the harder it's becoming to save towards solar. :(
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Late last year I decided to put some of my redundancy money into something that would pay back some interest and please my green tendencies. It would have been around £5k but SWMBO wouldn't hear of them going on the house so they are on the garage roof. Although it is more South facing than the house it's also partially shaded by the house at certain times of the day so the fitters used optomisers. In a normal PV system all the panels run at the power of the least efficient panel but with optomisers they are all individual. This system cost me just over £6k but so far it has been working well, it uses any excess energy to heat the hot water tank with the immersion heater so I'm not burning oil over the summer which is a big saving at current oil prices. Once the hot tank is up to temperature any excess goes to the grid for 7.5p per kWh.
I think I was lucky to get mine installed when I did, I suspect it would be more now.
 
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I am sure you're right: supply and demand - and with energy prices the way they are, there's bound to be increased demand for PV and battery storage! Wish I had done this a few years ago, but I think an installation will still make sense now.

Battery boxes look great, and the inverter fits like a glove!!!

One question: I know you are foreseeing some issues in getting your car re-catergorised as an EV (your car is too young), but I wonder whether there is a similar path for cars converted to "hybrid"? My 1996 MGF is a car I'd like to keep mostly standard, but with front hubs from a Metro that are currently unused, it does make for a potentially "easy" conversion with a front EV powertrain with a short electric only range. Is this feasible, or do you have to go the whole hog to full electric only to get the DVLA to change the vehicle classification? (I ask because London is about to become full ULEZ sometime next year!!!)
 
rob_bell said:
I am sure you're right: supply and demand - and with energy prices the way they are, there's bound to be increased demand for PV and battery storage! Wish I had done this a few years ago, but I think an installation will still make sense now.

Battery boxes look great, and the inverter fits like a glove!!!

One question: I know you are foreseeing some issues in getting your car re-catergorised as an EV (your car is too young), but I wonder whether there is a similar path for cars converted to "hybrid"? My 1996 MGF is a car I'd like to keep mostly standard, but with front hubs from a Metro that are currently unused, it does make for a potentially "easy" conversion with a front EV powertrain with a short electric only range. Is this feasible, or do you have to go the whole hog to full electric only to get the DVLA to change the vehicle classification? (I ask because London is about to become full ULEZ sometime next year!!!)
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Phew! Good luck getting that through as a hybrid with the stupidity/ignorance/intransigence of our beloved DVA.
There is a guy converting his F to EV here. https://openinverter.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=181
Sadly it looks like he is loosing his front passenger seat.
 
Yes, I read that post with great interest. But part of that problem is that his car is post 2001 - like your Hippo. Pre-2001 vehicles seem to have a much easier ride from the perspective of electrification, as the pathway seems far better trodden.

An EV/ICE hybrid though? Mmmm. That'll probably cause a computer in Swansea to spit out a "Does not compute" error code - but I will look into it...
 
rob_bell said:
Yes, I read that post with great interest. But part of that problem is that his car is post 2001 - like your Hippo. Pre-2001 vehicles seem to have a much easier ride from the perspective of electrification, as the pathway seems far better trodden.

An EV/ICE hybrid though? Mmmm. That'll probably cause a computer in Swansea to spit out a "Does not compute" error code - but I will look into it...
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I think the main stumbling block would be how they could quantify the hybrid percentage.
If mine were Pre 2001 it will be 100% leccy so simple zero tax. (I'm still looking for a nice 2000 car BTW. ;))
But yours would still have an 1800cc petrol engine so I suspect they wouldn't budge on the tax.
 
Probably right - although it would run in pure EV mode in the ULEZ. But that subtilty is very likely to be completely lost on binary bureaucrats... :(
 
rob_bell said:
Probably right - although it would run in pure EV mode in the ULEZ. But that subtilty is very likely to be completely lost on binary bureaucrats... :(
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We had a sign outside our stores in work.
"There's no point in standing pointing at it. The computer says it isn't there."
Similar mentality. :p
 
rob_bell said:
Yes, I read that post with great interest. But part of that problem is that his car is post 2001 - like your Hippo. Pre-2001 vehicles seem to have a much easier ride from the perspective of electrification, as the pathway seems far better trodden.
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I think the MGF is quite basic electronically.
The main issue with electrification would be the space, weight, and weight distribution.
The F is very light, and very compact, so it would be difficult to fit enough batteries to make the range worth the conversion worthwhile, and the weight would make it less nimble.
 
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Nodge68 said:
I think the MGF is quite basic electronically.
The main issue with electrification would be the space, weight, and weight distribution.
The F is very light, and very compact, so it would be difficult to fit enough batteries to make the range worth the conversion worthwhile, and the weight would make it less nimble.
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If you removed the bulkhead between the engine bay and the fuel tank, Used the Nissan Leaf subframe complete with transmission and drive shafts it might work OK but much as I hate to say it a MX5 with a Lexus hybrid gearbox would be easier. The Lexus gearbox has two motors built into it so the entire engine bay could be used for batteries, charger, inverter and HV juncton box.
Of course if you didn't mind loosing the boot then there would be loads of space. ;)
 
There's not a lot of space in an F, and very little extra weight capacity. The maximum boot load is something like 25 kg, which is nothing, and being that the engine and gearbox combined weigh about 100kg, there's not a lot that can be removed.
Many years ago, I thought about installing a KV6 in my F, however once I'd looked into the changes necessary for such a modification, I decided against it.

Oh and on an F, the boot is behind the engine, not dissimilar to an EV frunk or froot.
The bonnet space is used up by the radiator and spare wheel, and not much else, but the weight carrying ability up the front is minimal.
 
Nodge68 said:
There's not a lot of space in an F, and very little extra weight capacity. The maximum boot load is something like 25 kg, which is nothing, and being that the engine and gearbox combined weigh about 100kg, there's not a lot that can be removed.
Many years ago, I thought about installing a KV6 in my F, however once I'd looked into the changes necessary for such a modification, I decided against it.

Oh and on an F, the boot is behind the engine, not dissimilar to an EV frunk or froot.
The bonnet space is used up by the radiator and spare wheel, and not much else, but the weight carrying ability up the front is minimal.
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It would take a lot of fabrication to make it work so the car would need to go through a more thorough test before getting on the road. Like I said earlier the guy on openverter.org has removed the passenger seat for batteries.
Not really ideal. :(
 
All problems that are resolvable - even if retaining the Hydragas system (eg fitting Rover 100 front spheres). MIRA fitted front mounted E-motor and drive train + batteries and ended up with a 50:50 weight distribution (standard is 40:60) - therefore, if you’re smart about it and don’t get too greedy with range and you somehow luck out with batteries of a suitable form factor, I reckon it’s doable…

But is it something I want to do? That’s the question…
 
rob_bell said:
All problems that are resolvable - even if retaining the Hydragas system (eg fitting Rover 100 front spheres). MIRA fitted front mounted E-motor and drive train + batteries and ended up with a 50:50 weight distribution (standard is 40:60) - therefore, if you’re smart about it and don’t get too greedy with range and you somehow luck out with batteries of a suitable form factor, I reckon it’s doable…

But is it something I want to do? That’s the question…
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Not if you value your sanity! :eek:
But then you're an MG and LR nut so that's not really an issue. :D
 
Nodge68 said:
I think the MGF is quite basic electronically.
The main issue with electrification would be the space, weight, and weight distribution.
The F is very light, and very compact, so it would be difficult to fit enough batteries to make the range worth the conversion worthwhile, and the weight would make it less nimble.
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Yup the F is a pain in the ass to convert. Wish I chose a bigger vehicle!
As said before I'm losing the passenger seat and fitting 100Kg of batteries for around 60 miles of range. So weight wise it's having a fat passenger on board all the time.
But theoretical max power of 182HP, will have to wait and see if the motor is capable of delivering this. Hopefully on the road next month.
 
Wonk said:
Yup the F is a pain in the ass to convert. Wish I chose a bigger vehicle!
As said before I'm losing the passenger seat and fitting 100Kg of batteries for around 60 miles of range. So weight wise it's having a fat passenger on board all the time.
But theoretical max power of 182HP, will have to wait and see if the motor is capable of delivering this. Hopefully on the road next month.
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I took my F to a track day and drove around the track with a 100kg passenger with no issues. To be honest I didn't notice any difference when he wasn't in the car but that may say more about my driving than the car. :p
Looking forward to seeing more progress in your build. ;)
 
The F will take the weight, but sad to loose the passenger seat. Here’s to looking forward to improved, smaller, lighter more energy-dense batteries!!
 
rob_bell said:
The F will take the weight, but sad to loose the passenger seat. Here’s to looking forward to improved, smaller, lighter more energy-dense batteries!!
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Good luck with that one. I'm struggling to fit 35kWh of 2020 VW batteries into my Freelander. :oops:
 
Alibro said:
Good luck with that one. I'm struggling to fit 35kWh of 2020 VW batteries into my Freelander. :oops:
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If you could choose any battery configuration you liked, it would be pretty easy to fit 35kW in a Freelander.
The you could for instance fill the space between the floor pan and bottom of the chassis rails with cells, which although limited in height, cover a considerable amount of area. Using Tesla modules for instance, you could get several under the floor, without compromising ground clearance much.
With a former ICE, it's more difficult to get in large batteries in, as you're stuck with whatever form factor battery the donor vehicle provided.

I'm sure you'll get them in, you just need to be creative. ;)
 
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