1y ago

Ziga's van runs on solar panels, three lawn mower motors and 8,000 laptop and power tool batteries

www.abc.net.au Ziga's van runs on solar panels, three lawn mower motors and 8,000 laptop and power tool batteries

He hasn't paid for fuel in 10 years, has never run out of charge, and was inspired by a famous race across the outback. Retired industrial engineer Ziga Dorkic wants to show you how it's done — for the Earth.

Thought of you fine folks when I came across this article on aussie.zone

Australia @aussie.zone

Ziga's van runs on solar panels, three lawn mower motors and 8,000 laptop and power tool batteries

www.abc.net.au /news/2024-02-17/ziga-dorkic-solar-powered-van/103472376

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29 comments

I was going to say this sounds like thermal runaway waiting to happen, but apparently it's been running for 10 years so clearly he knows what he's doing

I feel like the PV panels on the side are just gratuitous. Can't imagine they'd contribute much, right?
- "When it's not plugged into the home the van's batteries are being charged by a 1-kilowatt panel on its roof and small panels on the sides which charge the indicators and lights."
  
  Must've missed that part. Thanks!
- I could see them adding a significant charge in morning/late afternoon when the sun is low. Im dont actually know though lol
- You're correct. Only the roof is likely to give significant power. Been there and done that, on the opposite side of the planet though. :)
  The "something" on the picture I attach... was built in some squat in Eastern Europe. It had a flat roof of approximately 2 x 1.5 m, all of it solar panel. Solar panels weren't great back then. Typically it charged its 4 KWh battery in a few days of sunshine. Only during midsummer (18-hour days) was there any chance of a full charge in a single day.
  
  Unlike the van, the "something" required a smaller inventory of tools to build. Instead of lawnmower motors, a Chinese electric motorcycle motor was used. Sadly it's now retired due to metal fatigue. :( Lesson: never build a structure that flexes out of aluminum - aluminum has no fatigue limit, any flexing will lead to cracking.
  
  We generally have a fair bit more sun light than youse do.

Sadly laptops don't use these standard battery types anymore, but I guess powertool batteries still work as a source for recycling them.
- 18650 cells are plentiful outside of old laptop batteries.
- 18650's

thats a pretty sweet van lmao. I like the shot of his house tho thats also covered in solar panels. This guy knows what he's about.

8,000 batteries sounds kinda heavy, and that dude is one tough looking 75 year old
- If the approximate weight of an 18650 cell is 50 grams, 8000 of them would indeed be 400 kg. Probably more, since they must be packaged somehow. But the pack can be split into modules which a one person can haul around somehow.

three 10-horsepower electric motors from ride-on lawn mowers.
Oh I thought he had ICE lawmower motors for some kind of hybrid engine.
If you only have a small regular commute like 5-20 km for work or shopping you really only need a tiny electric car and battery.
I would have loved to have / build something like this but in my well regulated european country it's near impossible to get this street legal certification. A mobile home / caravan with 12m² of roof space and 6 kWh of solar panels.
Instead I want to build a solar powered boat. You don't need to move so fast and can have roof surface area and you can travel the world without moving. It's not exactly easier than converting a car though lol.
- I would have loved to have / build something like this but in my well regulated european country it’s near impossible to get this street legal certification.
  Yep. :( The certification manual here, in a moderately regulated European country, is about 250 pages long. Fortunately, not all chapters apply to moped-cars. If one really really wants, moped-cars are the way to break through the barrier.
  
  Something like "L7e"? There are some European classiciations that are theoretically pretty interesting. But you still have to get certified parts, like motor without electric noise and batteries and controller and (I think) still have to test them together in a certified expensive lab. Also windshields.
  I wish we had a constitution that costs arising from bureaucratic regulations always have to be paid by the state and never by the citizen. That would fix regulations real quick :D
- I just watched a video where a guy buld a little solar panel boat and i was kindo shocked how well it worked
  
  Well to go slow you only need very little power. But it goes up exponentially much more like with wheels. So you need to design a boat that is long, thin, light and with a large roof surface area. Basically a catamaran or a power trimaran. Then you want glass solar so it's affordable and lasts 20+ years but that is top heavy. But theoretically with the right design solar panels are cheaper than a sail and less complex and easier to maintain than sail+motor+house battery.
  But 4-5 knots (~mph) is quite easy. From my amateur calculations 6-7 knots is already hard. I mean those speeds that are sustainable for 24/7 cruising. If you have a large car battery you can go vrooom for a few hours and then slowly recharge over a few days. But my goal is really a slow but seaworthy condomaran.
- I’m confused as fuck as to how he got through the regulations to build it here in Australia as well, let alone drive it on the roads.
  
  I suspect that some people manage it because they know people / worked with them and they give them a bit of leeway. So you can get lucky. We have a saying "Where there is no plaintiff, there is no judge".

lawnmower engines??
- It seems like he used the engines of electric "raiders" (ride-on lawnmowers, that is - small tractors). I cannot fathom why and how he used 3, but the tools in his shed suggest he can build anything. That's one impressive shed.
  
  It sounds to me like he swapped out the original engine for those three lawnmower engines on a lark, perhaps to charge batteries that run an electric motor (kind of like diesel-electric locomotives do, although I don't believe those have batteries). Then the solar panels were added, negating the need for the lawnmower engines, which haven't been removed from the system.

ziga's a real goer

29 comments