AC Motors & first battery

As you recall, we are starting with converting a lawnmower to electric. This week while I was visiting my parents, I asked if they still had those old electric motors in the barn. Did, they? They gave me four AC motors and a nearly dead 12V battery.

Two of the motors are 3/4 HP (just what we need to convert a push mower) , one was 1/4 HP, and the third 1/3 HP (if we want to do a scooter or something).

The battery Dad slapped on his charger for 90 min. and wound up charging it up to 11.7 V. For those who don't know, roughly 13.8V is a fully charged battery and roughly 11.3 is dead. So not the greatest battery in the world, but it is free and something we can play around with.

I'll upload some pictures of this lot in a later posting.

While at Walmart, I bought a cheap $18 inverter that plugs into a car cigarette outlet. I still need to buy: a battery charger, battery terminal leads, a cigarette outlet splitter (to cannibalize), and an ammeter. Then I need to find an old push-mower to hook everything up on.

Electric Car links

The following is a list of handy websites. Most of them are for electric cars, however, some of them are for other energy saving ideas and products:

http://www.otherpower.com/otherpower_solar_used.html
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/
http://www.green-trust.org/products/
http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/
http://www.sunvee.com/
http://www.eaaev.org/index.html
http://www.solarhome.org/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=90
http://www.arttec.net/Solar_Mower/index.html
http://www.homepower.com/home/
http://www.electroauto.com/catalog/dcmotors.shtml
http://e-volks.com/index.html
http://www.sunnev.com/index.html