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How long does a charge last on an electric bike? |
I am seriously considering purchasing an electric bike to commute to work. If I store it at work all day in my bicycle locker without it being charged, will I have enough juice to get home after an 8 hour day at work? depends on how big the battery is, and how much of the charge you used to get to work. the sales person can tell you whether or not the distance would be fine. the bike shouldn't lose a charge during the day, though. There are a lot of factors involved here. I'll try to give you a rough idea to work it out. The size of the motor is usually described in watts. Depending on where you live it could be from 200 to 1000 watts. The size of your battery will be in volts and amp hours. Example 24 volts 12 amp hrs. The battery above will supply 288 watts for about one hour (24x12). At 1000 watts it drops to about 17.5 minutes. So if you know how far it is to work and how fast you ride you can work out how long your battery will last. Assuming that you use you bicycle as a power assisted bicycle and not a pedal assisted motor scooter. You can significantly increase the range of your battery. Going easy on the throttle help also. The type of battery you use will have a significant effect on your average speed. Lead acid, Nickel cadmium, nickel metal hydride and lithium polymer are common battery choices (from cheapest and heaviest to lightest and most expensive.) Your motor selection will also have a large affect on your range. A cheap brushed motor will generally be about 70% efficient where as a special purpose axial flux motor can be as high as 98% efficient.(used in solar car racing). Of course if you don't switch the motor on, your battery will last for ages. Then you will be lugging around a heap of weight for nothing. The cheapest method is to just ride the bike without the kit. This also gives you the best exercise. If I really had to I would use this kit teamed with a lithium polymer battery. This gives a motor over 90 % efficient with the lightest possible battery. Should give you a kit set up for less than 10 kg (22lb). http://www.cyclone-usa.com/ Oh and I would fit it to a fully faired recumbent something like this. That should get me to work pretty quickly. (Still cheaper than a car.) http://www.m5-ligfietsen.nl/site/en/race... |
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