Home built EV

Love it, very mad max.

Things of note.
His estimate on range varies between articles this one he says 100km=1/3 and another says 100km=half. He's Eastern European, so
I'll have to make a guess on the battery bank based on range though I'd guess about 40kwh, so 1kwh=5km
1kw of solar panels improperly aligned if I'm generous are going to make 2-6kwh/day depending on cloud cover, time of year. So if he ran out in the middle of the day in winter he'd get about 5km more at sunset and in summer, 15km. There's a definite advantage to having cells on the roof
I did think this kind of thing would be the way to go for an offgrid/prepper vehicle.  We can also say that you'll get about 10km-30km/day from the sun [if I'm being generous]
The risk of fire is very real especially from over heating or damage. Runaway fires can reignite for hours, days or weeks later.  Prof. Paul Christensen says the trade in second hand vehicle battery market needs to be killed now.  The reason, the lack of engineered cooling system to go with it and the great risk of fire.  "Essentially electric vehicles [fires] can't be put out"

The rate of vehicle fires is far lower for EVs than for ICE vehicles (though certain media outlets may want to convince you otherwise), but for a DIY job you'd reeeeeallly need to know what you are doing here. Given that this guy has chosen a very low powered engine, he's probably fine though.

6 hours is a very long time for a tractor to run on a battery. Unless they mean just driving on a flat surface at 20kph with out dragging anything.

These 'beta' battery's use radioactive decay of nickle to excite electrons in a semiconductor matrix and produce electric, not much, (micro amps at 3 v), but incredibly energy dense being that they can work for over 50 years.
There probably isn't any more danger in them than a ionization type smoke detector, which uses radioactive Americium 241 as its source.
The other 'small' type of nuclear power source, uses the heat of the radioactive decay to warm one end of a thermocouple, which could be made of a semiconductor material, with the other end of the couple in a cooler area, creating voltage that way. This is how the Spacecraft thermoelectric generators work.
I wonder if the beta battery's will in fact survive the predicted 50 + years as the gamma radiation must damage the crystal structure of the semiconductor during use. Anyway, its an interesting development.
I haven't heard of many people pulling apart a smoke detector, so the beta battery may also be relatively 'safe'.
I have enough 'stuff' to convert a ride on mower to electric, if I had to. And all sorts of accessories are available to fit them now.





Once you can fake sincerity, you have it made.

The Ruski TEG's were fin cooled and in that environment with snow etc, would have been quite efficient. I watched a doco on u tube about them still lying around in the arctic circle, rusting away and causing some environmental issues, forget global warming, these things are bad for the environment if neglected, as they have been for many years. Stay tuned, when I crack fusion, then the days of limitless power with no nuke waste will be here. I also think things like pacemakers and computer memory backup will be the first applications of the technology.

I have a few discarded eutectic refrigerators, the ones that use a thermopile of some kind to generate either heat or cool, and will be experimenting with attaching the actual unit to a vessel that can be placed over a fire, creating a hot side, with the original fan and cool side in free air. The process is reversible, a temperature difference can create electricity, probably not very efficiently, but when I get some time I will be finding out as I have a couple of old ones picked from the tip.

As for energy density, assuming 100 micro-amps at 3 volts output, then over a 50 year period this is 0.01 X 60 X 60 X 24 X 365 X 50 = 15,768,000 amp hours of energy, or considering voltage, 47,304,000 watt hours or about 47 mega watt hours. See where E = M X C sq comes into it ? (Yes Ive ignored leap years !!).

Prepping the ground, fertilizing, planting and watering are all fairly easy tasks, but you are right, harvesting is the biggie.

Most people think all they need to do is throw a few seeds on the ground, rake then in, dump a bucket of water on them and come back in a weeks time to harvest a crop. They have no idea of the time involved, or whats required to grow something, even as a hobby, its not easy, much less when your life depends on it. Then there is the long term issue with gardens, the need to add some organic matter to the beds to keep up production, without access to dynamic lifter. W eve found that the duck water is great for the garden, and have it in a couple of kids paddling pools so we can use it easily.

"though long term without a means to grow and harvest some kind of staple food, you're doomed." Exactly, and that's why these billionaires and their $300 million bunkers are all as good as dead.

Like Ive posted before, whilst chooks and other domesticated farm animals may survive on just grass etc, you wont get many eggs etc without supplying high protein food, which will be unavailable.

The need for fuel doesn't really worry me, Ive been researching alternative liquid fuels and alcohol has some advantages.

It also appears that 1 ton of sugar cane, which grows like a weed up here, can produce around 60 liters alcohol, not for drinking, but for running an engine. It also seems like the bacteria in you gut and mouth can be quite a good fermentation starter, so commercial yeasts, that may not be available, are not needed.

Older diesel engines run on almost any oil, and Ive tried old, filtered cooking oil in the tractor and there was almost no difference in performance, apart from being slightly harder to start cold and the wisp of cooked chips in the exhaust ! I usually gravity start it anyway to save the battery as it has no glow plugs.

A wood gasifier is also another must have item after TSHTF, and can run most spark ignition 4 stroke engines.

Peter Pedals may have had the idea as well.

www.echo.net.au/2023/10/tribute-to-peter-pedals-founder-of-rainbow-power-company/

Sorry, not a vegetarian, so algae just isn't gonna do it for me, steak dinner please !

And as for those, especially in America, who think they can go bush and harvest their food like bear, with 300 million people all doing the same thing, its not gonna last long.

My greatest worry is not weather we can grow enough to survive, I know we can, no, its the invasion of the hungry hordes that were not prepared from the cities that's the big issue.






Only dead fish swim with the stream.