jamius.com

Yep, already knew that. I heard that America's power system is based on an old DC system by Thomas Edison. There are a lot of interesting stories about the first grid. There even was a fight between Edison (DC) and Tesla (AC)! Can you see them trashtalking over power systems?

EDIT: apparently it was easy to find, it even has a Wikipedia page

During the initial years of electricity distribution, Edison's direct current was the standard for the United States[2] and Edison did not want to lose all his patent royalties. Direct current worked well with incandescent lamps that were the principal load of the day, and with motors. Direct-current systems could be directly used with storage batteries, providing valuable load-leveling and backup power during interruptions of generator operation. Direct-current generators could be easily paralleled, allowing economical operation by using smaller machines during periods of light load and improving reliability. At the introduction of Edison's system, no practical AC motor was available. Edison had invented a meter to allow customers to be billed for energy proportional to consumption, but this meter worked with only direct current. As of 1882 these were all significant technical advantages of direct current. By 1886, between 40 to 50 hydroelectric plants were operating in the United States and Canada, and by 1888, about 200 electric companies relied on hydropower for at least part of their DC generation.[3]

Juicy stuff, worth a read!

DC sucks for transmitting long distances. AC is much better. (Except underwater for some reason) That's all I know on the subject.

Yep, that's exactly why the world nowadays uses AC grids. I really like stories like that one on the Wikipedia page the very first electrical production and distribution, I wonder if they could imagine how the world wold look today.

To say that the wire can be smaller with AC versus DC is putting it mildly. I have seen photos showing how DC lines would be 10s of times as thick as AC lines. DC was doomed.

But back on topic: I've updated the first post, big time! Some information about the batteries I eventually want, and the charge controller I'm going to buy. There's also a text about bus to rv conversion and few interesting links. I also uploaded my very first sketch of plumbing plans, but very basic. Really, it's not even my sketch, I modified an existing one with Paint, in which I have no skills at all

I also have some questions. The batch of lead acid batteries I mentioned, could be mine in a month or two. They're 6 volts and they have different Ah ratings, between 195 ~ 225 Ah @20 hours. It isn't possible to buy all batteries with the same Ah-rating. But it doesn't matter right? I'll have to link them in groups of two, so they become a 12V battery and then link them parallel. Then I would have a 12 volt battery with 600 - 1000 Ah (depending on how much I buy and what Ah-rating they have) and also that @20 hours thing I've tried to figure out. Does it mean that the batteries give that amount of Amphours for 20 hours straight and then it begins to drop? Or does it mean they give an additive 20 hours, say I use them 2 times for 10 hours, and then the Ah-rating starts to drop? Or am I completely lost?

I'll also need more than 920 watts peak power..

I think batteries are rated so if they are 2450 mAh (double A rechargeable), they can deliver 2450 milliamps for one hour. (Or 1225 for 2 hours etc etc.) Now, a battery's voltage drops as it loses charge. So all of those amps aren't going to be at.. let's say 1.2V (for a AA battery).

I THINK that's how it is... not 100% sure though.

Also, I think you'd be fine hooking batteries up with different mAh as long as you do it in parallel. You'd have to have two of the same to hook up in series to get 12V, then you can hook them up with whatever mAh rating battery. Hooking up batteries in parallel will simply sum the mAh ratings. So if you have 4 batteries, two 1000 mAh and two 5000 mAh 6V batteries, you'd hook the pairs up in series, producing 1 1000 mAh 12V "battery" and 1 5000 mAh 12V battery. Then you'd hook THOSE in parallel and have 1 6000 mAh 12V battery.

Again, I don't THINK that would be a problem... But if it were me, I'd try to get a bunch of the same 6V battery.

Current doesn't sum up like voltage. You would put the two 5000 mAh in series because they can handle that much current flowing through them. Basically, voltage sums up in series, while current sums up in parallel.

folypers wrote:I've been thinking about buying one with a dead engine but since I know absolutely nothing about engines, I'm reluctant (or scared, if you want to call it that) to do it. But I'd really hate it if I'd get a bus with a bad 'fuel economy', knowing I'm wasting precious fossil fuel and moneys. Buying a bus with a dead engine and replacing it with a new, efficient engine would be supernice, but also superrisky..

Somehow all along I was thinking you were planning on trying to use electricity for the main drive motor also -- so were going to doing some sort of custom transmission and electric motor. I missed that you were still planning on keeping the diesel engine. Wow, driving that thing around is going to be VERY expensive. What does diesel fuel cost in your country?

I wouldn't recommend using it for commuting to work everyday, but if you drive rarely, gas prices aren't a big deal. I fill up once every month or two.

I really like the concept of threads like this and thinking through what you are going to do. On small projects, it probably isn't worth it, but on large scale projects, you may save yourself a lot of time by getting feedback and noodling on it for a while.

I don't think it's remotely possible that I can have an electric motor to drive tens of thousands of pounds around, not even speaking about mileage. As sjvsworldtour said, I'll only use it when I need to move 'my house' Diesel is cheapest of all fuels in my country, with taxes and stuff. Getting feedback and good ideas is the reason I made this thread, so thank you guys.