I'm bought a pair of the 48v 1000w hub kits you see on eBay. In hindsight I probably could have got away with a 36v or a 48v 500w, but it wasn't much more for the extra power in case we decided we needed it at some point. We will be riding flats mostly and likely 15 mph cruising speed and mostly using it for pedal assist (it has the cadence sensor). We won't be using it as power only, we want to still get some exercise but be able to go farther than we normally would and a little quicker. I would imagine on average we would be going 20 miles round trip like that (cruising at around 15mph and pedal assist). Obviously more range is better, but it comes at a higher price on the batteries. I would like to have the ability to get maybe 30 miles round trip if we could squeeze it out, but 20 would do. We have 7 speed cruisers and I weight the most at 170 lbs just for some reference. I read the rule of thumb is about 20 watts per mile so I figure 600 watts would be plenty since we will be pedaling most of the time.
I was originally going to go with 4 12v 12ah SLA's on each bike, at least at that start. Then I read that you only get about 50% capacitance for the range on them and that they wear out quick. That would only be around 300 watts, which we could live with but not ideal and still probably make our range with pedal assist. The price for LifePO4's is steep though, more than we had budgeted for on this for sure, but I'm thinking now that it will only be worse if we buy SLA's and in a few weeks have to buy Li anyways.
The only thing that's holding me back on the Li is the size I need for 1000w hub. I don't mean from the standpoint I want to get every last bit of power the motor is capable of making, but that I read with the lower discharge rate of LifePO4 I may need a 20ah battery to be able to power that motor or else it can't provide enough amps and can stress the battery. I don't know if this is true in theory or reality.
Does anyone else here have a 1000w 48v hub and can tell me their experience with batteries in general... SLA, Lipo, LifePO4, etc?
Would a 15ah LifePO4 be a decent for that hub and how we will be using it, or would a 20ah be the minimum?
Assuming a 15ah LifePO4 would work, would it be safe to say that it could have a 20 - 30 mile range cruising flats at around 15 mph (20 tops and probably not sustained) while doing some pedaling. I figure our pedaling would equal out to about 5 mph of output on a constant average, so I would guess the motor would be doing the equivalent of 10 mph of the equivalent work most of the time.
Thanks!
I was originally going to go with 4 12v 12ah SLA's on each bike, at least at that start. Then I read that you only get about 50% capacitance for the range on them and that they wear out quick. That would only be around 300 watts, which we could live with but not ideal and still probably make our range with pedal assist. The price for LifePO4's is steep though, more than we had budgeted for on this for sure, but I'm thinking now that it will only be worse if we buy SLA's and in a few weeks have to buy Li anyways.
The only thing that's holding me back on the Li is the size I need for 1000w hub. I don't mean from the standpoint I want to get every last bit of power the motor is capable of making, but that I read with the lower discharge rate of LifePO4 I may need a 20ah battery to be able to power that motor or else it can't provide enough amps and can stress the battery. I don't know if this is true in theory or reality.
Does anyone else here have a 1000w 48v hub and can tell me their experience with batteries in general... SLA, Lipo, LifePO4, etc?
Would a 15ah LifePO4 be a decent for that hub and how we will be using it, or would a 20ah be the minimum?
Assuming a 15ah LifePO4 would work, would it be safe to say that it could have a 20 - 30 mile range cruising flats at around 15 mph (20 tops and probably not sustained) while doing some pedaling. I figure our pedaling would equal out to about 5 mph of output on a constant average, so I would guess the motor would be doing the equivalent of 10 mph of the equivalent work most of the time.
Thanks!
