? Charging Electric Bike Battery

[Dr__Feelgood]

I'm short on Electrical know how and just got E bike with Samsung 36 volt ,14,25 Ah battery. Came with 110V AC charger. Normally takes 4-5 hrs to recharge per their info. When off grid I want to charge from inverter. Would a portable 400 Watt inverter plugged into Cig Lighter in truck be OK? I hope eventually to get solar with adequate inverter for TC.Does this affect charging time?
Any good discussions on line?
Thanks

[Sam_Spade]

Almot wrote:

Sort of defeats the idea of ebike.

Not necessarily.

YOUR idea and purpose for an E-bike is not necessarily exactly the same as everyone elses. GASP.

For instance, they can go on some paths that bikes with gas engines can't.....either because they are officially allowed to or because it's really hard to tell at a casual glance that they HAVE a motor.

[Almot]

Sam Spade wrote:
You would be MUCH better off to get a small generator.....which can be used for other things too.

Sort of defeats the idea of ebike. Gas-powered moped or scooter would be cheaper to buy then.

40AH is what 200W solar would harvest, under moderately cloudy skies.

[NinerBikes]

Sam Spade wrote:
You would be MUCH better off to get a small generator.....which can be used for other things too.

Maybe an Eu1000i or EX650 Honda.

[Sam_Spade]

You would be MUCH better off to get a small generator.....which can be used for other things too.

[hedge]

deleted.

[Almot]

Insufficient data. Check the INPUT watts or amps for your particular charger. They are all different proprietary chargers for each bike and each battery.

If you want us to guess...
Ebike batteries are easier to understand in watt-hours, because they are all of different voltage.
14.25 @36V = 513 WH, and it's not supposed to charge over 80-90% or to discharge below (don't remember, 20% or something). So, about 350WH will be be charged, 5 hours run makes it 70W power, i.e. 6A @12V. Make it 7A with inverter losses. Looks like within the limits of cig lighter socket, though I would rather connect inverter directly to coach battery.

7A @12V drawn for 5 hours will deplete your coach battery by 35 AH or more.

[Boon_Docker]

^ Good point.

If you run the bike battery down to 50 percent charge, it will deplete your truck battery by approx 25 Ah to bring the bike battery back up to full.

[mkirsch]

Well, you'll be pushing the limits of the cigarette lighter plug, and running your truck's battery down.

As your truck battery voltage drops, the Amps will increase to maintain power on the inverter side. It's a vicious cycle; more Amps makes the battery drain quicker, which makes the inverter draw more Amps, which makes the battery drain even quicker, and so on.

I'm personally not real big on inverters unless you've got a big battery bank and solar to recharge it.

[Boon_Docker]

The specs for that battery say max charging amps is 5 amp. A 400 watt inverter at 80 percent efficiency will give you about 9 amps @ 36v. So you will be OK. Some charger don't play nice with a MSW inverter, so get a pure sine wave inverter.

[2oldman]

he also posted in FTS. try again.

[realter]

Better responses over in tech forum.

[YC_1]

Look on the charger for specs. Need to know the amps.