EFOY Ethanol Fuel Cell

Wouldn't see any difference than e85?

Honky

Supplier indicated to Only use the branded Methanol, ultra pure and certified. Given the small amount we go through I won't risk a cheaper
Alternative. Bit like buying LPG I guess, at least I know it's pure

So the EFOY has been working for 270 Hours. It is quiet and automatic. I would comment that it only used a small amount of Fuel whilst the documentation say for my 90Watt unit it uses 90ml per hour. However I would comment that it is only using this amount when the unit is in full operation. That is to say not using this amount at idle, not during startup but just when it is in full charge mode.
The unit itself comes with comprehensive instructions for operation of the unit and fitting the unit. I made up an adaptor plate from marine plywood and covered it in marine carpet. To this I bolted the steel mounting plate this mounting plate allows the Fuel Cell to be mounted in two directions you need to ensure where the "off Heat" will flow out. This is very little heat, but it needs managing in a confined space like a car or truck. I have mine surrounded with equipment but because I addressed the heat and h2O issue during fitment I haven't had any problems. The other observation I would make is that it can run at ANY time unlike a Generator that has to be turned on or Solar Panel that has to be deployed and set up, doesn't work at night.

So 90W of power may not seam a lot but 24/7 with low noise running continuiously is quite sufficient to run our Satellite gear, 65L Engel, lights, 4 40w UHF radio and all the other gear.

hi peter h2
interesting topic you haven't actually said but i assume by the equipment been used it generates 12v power ?
what is the expected life of this $11000 plus set-up cost outfit and
is it a sealed unit or is it repairable down the track or a throw-away unit ?
cheers

Yes 12V NOT 240V It also a 12v Battery for the unit to work.

The unit is sealed so I guess it has to be returned to the supplier. I would have to check my paperwork on the warranty but mine is for 2 years and 20,000Hours operation.

The unit comes with all the cabling and all the Plumbing hoses etc, So it should for the price. They have over 25,000 units in Non Commercial units in operation in the US and Europe. From what I can see you should be able to get the units re-furbished. Mine in my GU is operational for about 4 hours a month without an incident. We have had one incident of 3 days where we were fully reliant on the unit to provide the power. We were only able to use our 120w Solar array for on of thes days only.In this 3 day period we used 1000ml of Methanol. We are paying $38 for 10L of Methanol. We use both the 5L and the 10L fuel containers not the 25L We pick-up or fuel from the NSW distributor in Kirrawee NSW. You need to pick-up, or you will be hit for "Dangerous Goods" transport. Like fuel

Hi Peter,

As Mazcan has said - very interesting bit of gear. Pity about the price, but no doubt that will come down with time, production quantities and competition. Anyone interested will find a bit of detail here.

Cheers

John

thanks peter for the extra imfo much appreciated
barry

At the moment for 20 litre -205 litre we pay $2.00 per litre of methanol for our race car much cheaper per pellet of 4 x 205 drums but with that fuel consumption even a 20 litre is a good buy compared to gas or a petrol generator!

The Fuel from the supplier is ultra pure and certified, with the special fittings so you don't come into contact with the fuel. I would also suggest that It's sealed and ultra pure for a reason and you would invalidate the warranty. For the small amounts we use I'm happy to go with the certified product. If you we're running a really big system I guess the price and amount of fuel might be an issue.
As I mentioned before the unit is nearly silent, We have an ARB roof top tent on our GU, and even with the barn doors open at night it really hard to here the unit when it is on, even with the silence of the outback.
The unit also has a remote control/ display that comes with it and a container of "service fluid" You do not have to have the remote plugged in for the unit to work automatically. If however you build you unit in somewhere where you can't see the LED status lamps you can install the remote, it's simple CAP 5 LAN cable and then have the remotes display somewhere easy to read. It has LED status lights, and a liquid crystal backlit display that you can cycle through, status, indicating machine status, charge rate in AMPs, unit serial number and hours of operation. It also indicates when the fuel tank is empty. You can get a module that allows automatic changeover from an empty fuel tank to a new one, It can also SMS you to let you know for a remote backup site, that you need to go change the tank. You can also harness several fuel cels together for more Watts output, and have a single controller.

My GU has an uprated alternator from standard 100ah to 120ah, for my starting battery I use and Optima yellow top it's a D31. For the "house" battery having wrecked 4 of the same yellow tops, I now have a Lifeline VLRA battery, 100ah. Problem in the GU is the aux battery position is that is is right beside the Turbo and the battery gets Cooke. had I known this I would not have fitted it there at all and made space in the back. We did for a period have a third Yellow top Optima in the rear, this is where the EFOY fuel cell has been built in. It's like having a battery that never goes flat. We also have a CTEK 240v to 12v charger that chargers both battery's when mains is available. The EFOY is set up to charge both battery's. You can set the "start" charge threshold, and the cutoff threshold, in the setup.
So mine is an EFOY pro 2200 it produces 2160 Wh/day nominal power 90w 12v/24v, weighs 8.95 kg. on charging at 12.3 v off at 14.2v.
We had some concern about it operation during 4wd as the info states max 35 degrees around the roll axis temporary max 45 degrees and max 20 degrees around the lateral access.
We also had some concerns around the operating temperature, hence my design of forced cooling fan, as the specs states-20c to +45c.
None of these have been an issue so far, we will keep an eye out as the ambient temperature, rises for summer. That said, it is in the rear cabin of the GU, so whilst driving its air conditioned, and not operating

Downsides are (a) noise from car, same as noise from gennie issue, (b) alternator might provide 200A but your batteries are unlikely to charge at anywhere near that rate.
But probably still a good, cheaper, solution.

Do you have some information on the lithium Iron Phosphate battery's you have written about???

hi
idling a diesel engine for long periods to gharge batteries with 200amp alternator would oil up and also glaze the cylinders
might be a quick way of charging but not good for the motor
cheers

Peter, you can see these batteries at
http://www.evpower.com.au/
Keith

At thanks for the link