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Nick1234
09-03-2009, 12:41 PM
Would it be possible to replace the battery with a larger one? It would be placed at the back of the car. The space of the battery would be used for a larger generator.

The battery would also be recharged with a battery charger when I'm at home.

Would there be a problem with the alternator or the electric system of the car or what?

cabrera
09-03-2009, 01:13 PM
Running your battery down w/o an alternator will cause issues. especially if it rains, at night, with the stereo on in summer when you need a/c. Your battery will die fast.

Better yet...
you could run a positive cable to to back and add a ground strap in the new battery location so that your car's original configuration remains. My BMW E30has the battery in the trunk. And as far as bigger, I would use a marine deep cycle battey. They are designed to be drained & recharged.

OR...

You could place your larger generator in the trunk & run the wires & hose to the bubbler up front. Just make sure you use check valves & flame arrestors. You don't want a flashback in the trunk!

Nick1234
09-03-2009, 03:16 PM
Your first option sounds interesting.

My idea is to partially recharge the battery externally when I am at home and with the alternator when I'm driving, and at the same time use the space at the front for a bigger HHO generator.

If I use a big marine deep cycle battery, what kind of specs should I be looking for compared to my normal battery? How much more HHO would I produce in your opinion?

And do you think it would be safe for the electrical system of my car and for the alternator?

And where is it possible to purchase marine deep cycle batteries?

Thank you.

cabrera
09-03-2009, 05:49 PM
Here's a link that will help you regarding DCBs
http://www.windsun.com/Batteries/Battery_FAQ.htm#Battery%20Size%20Codes

Insofar as HHO production that would also depend on your cell & it's construction. With a DCB you can compensate for any drain & recharge issues that would beat a regular auto battery. I have 2 Seavolt group 31 in my boat ($200 each) and I tax the hell out of them with radar, loran, fish finders, chart recorders and a slew of other electronics when fishing. The engines are usually off so they do drain. Yes I do have an aux bank just in case which I can have on a switch, but the primary DCBs usually crank the twin 454s up.

Also you want to make sure of the output of the alt. Running it peaked will kill it prematurely. Watch your amps & watch your heat. Install a PWM to regulate the power to the cell. The battery would be safe for your car, my concern is how many amps are you planning to pull? I would not push past 30 amps without some updates to wiring relays & fuses etc.

DCB's can be bought online, also Sears, Optima also makes some.

Nick1234
09-03-2009, 10:03 PM
Thanks for the link.

After reading that page, I am not so sure about the startup after all. I live in Canada and it seems that marine deep cycle battery are not as good for cold starts. Also I imagine that the battery would become discharged while driving.

In your opinion, wouldn't it be a better idea to have 2 seperate batteries, an SLI and a seperate one (NI-MH or Li-Ion ) that would be recharged by the grid? The 2 could be used to generate HHO.

cabrera
09-04-2009, 09:06 AM
Yes but my only concerns would be
how long would the HHO battery bank run while supplying power to the cell.
You have some experimenting to do to get some baselines on power consumption.
Then you can have a series of switches to cutover & isolate individual battery banks. Similar to that on marine applications.

Being in Canada, even at it's most southern end, you still have severe enough winters. Cold & batteries don't mix well <lol>

Buster
09-06-2009, 03:03 PM
This is an idea which we have been planning to test for a while.
We planned to have 2 or more DCB in the boot, whilst leaving the existing battery arrangement in place. The DCB would not be connected to the car's electrics, being charged with battery chargers at home, possibly having an extra pair always on charge to swap over. A large custom built drycell or multiple drycells would be ran solely off the DCB array. I seem to remember that 100 or 200Ah batteries were being considered, so two giving around 2-400Ah. With 2hr journey being considered then a maximum of 200A per hour could be used to produce HHO. This would probably be in the region of an extra 12 litres per minute on top of the 2lpm from the normally installed kit.
Not sure how this would work out in practice, and it would present some difficulties to implement, but I would be very interested to find out at some stage.
A bit expensive to set up initially as well.
I'd also be very interested to know if anyone has done such an installation in a normal sized car.
-Buster