This guy is living my future, now. According to this article, in the summer, he collects about nine times the solar power that he needs for his house using solar panels on his roof. The extra goes into batteries for nighttime, and… here’s the best part… conversion of water to hydrogen fuel using an electrolyzer. He stores it up in 10 propane tanks and uses it for all his additional energy needs.
Hurry up and get here, future! Scale this shit up, people! :>
I’ve been toying with the idea of taking an old VW beetle and making an electric car out of it. 2K for the old car, 3-5K for the motor kit and batteries. I live 5 miles from work, and the electric motor is more powerful than the stock 40hp beetle motor. If I slap some panels on the roof and have a panel charging station at home I could make my commute %100 green :-)
The other option I have been toying with is taking an old golf cart and using the parts to make something smaller, like a covered all-weather go-kart. I have a route I can take to work that is all 35 mph or lower so that would be street legal. Once again, %100 green.
Do it man! :P How much work do you think it would be? For the beetle, and for the cart?
There is a microbus for sale in town for 1k. I also found a 71 karmann ghia coupe for 2.5k. Either one would take the kit like a champ.
Margaret made the point that paying insurance on an extra car would wipe out any gas savings by undertaking the project. So now I am having second thoughts about the conversion. I would do them just to flip them, try to make a side business out of it, but from what I have researched nobody ever gets their money back out of it in the sale.
I’ve been looking at other options, like a covered powered electric bike, but MAN that kind of stuff is EXPENSIVE. Because of the rain I have to have something covered. I am amazed that there are so few options out there.
http://www.go-one.us/Pictures_of_go-one3.html
10k just for the bike, powered option to come later. WTF? You can convert an old car for less than that, OR buy a new electric golf-cart style thing like the GEM:
http://www.gemcar.com/
The only thing I have come up with that actually looks doable is this:
http://blueskydsn.com/kit_aero.html
2k for a manual power kit, then throw $500 for a small battery and motor and then build the thing myself. Could be cool, though. at $2,500 total bill it would pay for itself in about 18 months, versus driving to work every day.
Or just go for the real thing… Mike owes me one of these:
http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FirstDrives/articleId=124716