Regenerative Braking

[rupy1950]

Hi. I have owned Gx3h for a couple of weeks now and overall I'm delighted with it. One minor problem, I live approx 1km up a very steep single track road in the Highlands of Scotland so fair bit of snow and ice in winter. As far as I understand it the regenerative braking will not work with a full battery. I'd like to be able to use it for descending the hill but as I charge overnight I wake up to a full battery so I need to be able to stop the charge at say 90% full. As the Gx3h has no timer for charging my options seem to be....

1 - get up during the night and turn charger off early (rather not!).
2 - have a timer fitted to the circuit my BG charger is on (is this possible?)
3 - start car early in the morning after a full charge to run battery down a bit prior to descent.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has any thoughts or ideas on this.

Thanks.

 

[anko]

Start the car? I think you would have to invoke the aircon to actually loose some charge (as you don't have a heater).

 

[Marksuk]

Do nothing, its really not worth the saving and/or inconvenience.

 

[jdsx]

Interesting one. I also live up a hill, and in the winter I can pre-heat in the morning to use some battery (GX4h). Before it got cold, I used to try to switch off before the battery was full - but I could monitor SOC thru the app so it was fairly easy. Do you always arrive home 'empty'? Do you really have to get up in the middle of the night? I reckon 3 hours charge would work if you're on a 16A charger... longer of course if you're charging at 10A off the 'brick'....

 

[Kim]

For saving the breakpads that's a good thing.
Don't think he's trying to save a few pennies on electricity.

A timer seems to be the only solution for you.
I guess the BG charging you mentioned is a fixed to the wall one? And it is wired to your houses or garage's fuse box?
You could have a timer installed in your fuse box for probably less than £100

If by any chance your car is parked outside, it'd make no sense, though. Because when your car's battery is very cold, regen will still be very very low, no matter what soc.

 

[rupy1950]

Interesting one. I also live up a hill, and in the winter I can pre-heat in the morning to use some battery (GX4h). Before it got cold, I used to try to switch off before the battery was full - but I could monitor SOC thru the app so it was fairly easy. Do you always arrive home 'empty'? Do you really have to get up in the middle of the night? I reckon 3 hours charge would work if you're on a 16A charger... longer of course if you're charging at 10A off the 'brick'....

Yeh 25mile commute then charge at work then 25miles home so out of battery on return. You're right 3hrs isn't long to wait to unplug.....just have to remember to do it !

 

[rupy1950]

For saving the breakpads that's a good thing.
Don't think he's trying to save a few pennies on electricity.

A timer seems to be the only solution for you.
I guess the BG charging you mentioned is a fixed to the wall one? And it is wired to your houses or garage's fuse box?
You could have a timer installed in your fuse box for probably less than £100

If by any chance your car is parked outside, it'd make no sense, though. Because when your car's battery is very cold, regen will still be very very low, no matter what soc.

Yeh fixed to wall and wired to fuse box in barn. No way to get car into barn so yes car parked outside. £100 for timer would be fine, but sounds as though the low temps (when I'd be looking to use the regen!) would mean I'd not get much effect anyway. Maybe on snowy days I'll just not go to work....

 

[MHS]

Are you hoping to use regenerative braking as a form of low ratio box for a snowy downhill decent?

If so, and you're partially charged it does this job very well.

 

[rupy1950]

Are you hoping to use regenerative braking as a form of low ratio box for a snowy downhill decent?

If so, and you're partially charged it does this job very well.

Thanks that's good to hear.Yes that's what I was trying to ask in my original post.....didn't make myself very clear. I guess in cold temps when regen isn't working at its best it's still better to have some than none so maybe a timer would be worth it.

 

[MHS]

Are you hoping to use regenerative braking as a form of low ratio box for a snowy downhill decent?

If so, and you're partially charged it does this job very well.

Thanks that's good to hear.Yes that's what I was trying to ask in my original post.....didn't make myself very clear. I guess in cold temps when regen isn't working at its best it's still better to have some than none so maybe a timer would be worth it.

We live in the Pennines, and traded in our 2nd (5 year old) Shogun for the phev. Did well on standard tyres in snow, and found using the paddles useful for downhill descents. Now have Dunlop Wintersport 4D tyres, so expecting to be as good as our Shogun in snow. (Allowing for reduced ground clearance maybe)

 

[jaapv]

For saving the breakpads that's a good thing.

Not really. Braking is regenerative as well. Only hard braking will activate the disc brakes.

 

[anko]

I think Kim is completely right. When you start a downhill run with a full battery, you totally depend on your break pads for slowing down, as there is no regen breaking.

So, taking off with a partly depleted battery is good for saving break pads.

 

[jaapv]

Ah - that is true. Point missed, I suppose.