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sparr2015/08/08 Organizing, fridge test, solenoid resistance, swamp cooler
Little to report. Today I mostly built my swamp cooler. I'm waiting on a couple more parts. I also organized a lot of the storage better, and put some cuphooks on the wall to hold bags and such until I make some shelves. I finally wired in one of the power outlets, so I can stop using jumper cables to power my fan. I powered up the Coleman peltier-based powered cooler for a few hours. It got from 80 down to 50 inside pretty easily (I threw in a water bottle and a bunch of markers and books to add some thermal mass). I think that if I keep the thermal mass high and power it constantly, it will get down into the 30s at night and stay there for most of the day as long as we aren't opening it unnecessarily often. Last, but not least, I did a very tiny power audit. The master solenoids have 90R (that's ohms) coils, so they are turning 1.6W of my battery power into heat, which isn't awesome but isn't terrible. The smaller solenoids, on the other hand, have 15R coils, which is ridiculous. Each one of them that I have turned on is acting as a ~10W heater all the time. Once I've switched all the overhead lights to LEDs, the whole circuit will be drawing less than 10W, so a parasitic load of 10W will be entirely unacceptable. In that particular case I can just remove the solenoid from the equation, and put it back if I ever switch back to high-current lamps. In the case of the other solenoids (for the floodlights, etc), I am going to seriously consider replacing them with 90R or even 300R relays, which will be much more efficient and switch much more quietly. More to come on that front after I do more research.
2015/08/09 Fuel efficiency, test drive, nap
I put ~30 gallons of fuel into the tank today. I'm not sure how big the tank is, so I ran it down to about 1/8 on the gauge before filling up. The day I bought it, I drove 100 miles, and then put about 12 gallons into it, and estimated that the previous owner had topped off an extra half gallon while I watched them. Now that I've filled it up myself, I am less certain of that estimation, since the tank is very finicky about when it causes a pump to shut off. Based on that estimate, I thought the ambulance got 8MPG on the highway. This second data point puts it at 5MPG in the city. There's the obvious city/highway difference, which I can easily clear up on the first few tanks of the road trip. There's also the A/C, which I was running about half the time on the second tank, and not at all (it didn't work yet) on the first. Finally, the mechanic removed the belt powering my smog pump and combustion chamber, which he suggested would help, but it's definitely worth testing whether I need to re-power those devices, OR I need to cap their exhaust hoses. More data to come on this front, in a thousand miles or so.
My co-pilot for the first 8 weeks of the trip got to drive the ambulance for the first time today. She doesn't drive often, and has never driven anything big. It went better than I expected and she hoped, I think. We drove around the city for 20 minutes, then on the highway for a short distance. More practice should make both situations better. At this point I at least know she isn't going to panic or destroy the engine/brakes with mis-use.
I also finally got all the non-trip stuff unloaded into storage, leaving the interior as close to its final configuration as it can be before I make pads for my storage bins, shelves for the empty wall, etc. That allowed me to deploy the bed and lay down for a little while. If I sit on my butt or put weight on my elbows then I can feel the bin lids and the edge of the bench seat through the mattress, but that's all gone when I lay down. I think it's going to be a very comfortable sleeping situation, and that's very good news for the long term viability of this plan. In addition to my existing plans to add more padding and level the bed out, I'm thinking that I also need a better way to attach it to the wall when it's upright and out of the way. Right now I'm just putting straps over the top corners, but it sags and wants to fall down. I'll probably sew some webbing and D-rings to one edge of the mattress and attach those to clips on the ceiling so it's hanging instead of standing.
Today's Amazon and DealExtreme deliveries and a trip to American Science & Surplus improved the situation to the tune of a 7-gallon opaque water tank with a spigot and handle, the last of the parts for the swamp cooler (except one optional part), padding for the parts of the ambulance that I keep hitting my head on, a small air compressor for the tires, and an assortment of tools and electrical gizmos that aren't necessarily ambulance-specific but will definitely come in handy if/when I need them.
Little to report. Today I mostly built my swamp cooler. I'm waiting on a couple more parts. I also organized a lot of the storage better, and put some cuphooks on the wall to hold bags and such until I make some shelves. I finally wired in one of the power outlets, so I can stop using jumper cables to power my fan. I powered up the Coleman peltier-based powered cooler for a few hours. It got from 80 down to 50 inside pretty easily (I threw in a water bottle and a bunch of markers and books to add some thermal mass). I think that if I keep the thermal mass high and power it constantly, it will get down into the 30s at night and stay there for most of the day as long as we aren't opening it unnecessarily often. Last, but not least, I did a very tiny power audit. The master solenoids have 90R (that's ohms) coils, so they are turning 1.6W of my battery power into heat, which isn't awesome but isn't terrible. The smaller solenoids, on the other hand, have 15R coils, which is ridiculous. Each one of them that I have turned on is acting as a ~10W heater all the time. Once I've switched all the overhead lights to LEDs, the whole circuit will be drawing less than 10W, so a parasitic load of 10W will be entirely unacceptable. In that particular case I can just remove the solenoid from the equation, and put it back if I ever switch back to high-current lamps. In the case of the other solenoids (for the floodlights, etc), I am going to seriously consider replacing them with 90R or even 300R relays, which will be much more efficient and switch much more quietly. More to come on that front after I do more research.
2015/08/09 Fuel efficiency, test drive, nap
I put ~30 gallons of fuel into the tank today. I'm not sure how big the tank is, so I ran it down to about 1/8 on the gauge before filling up. The day I bought it, I drove 100 miles, and then put about 12 gallons into it, and estimated that the previous owner had topped off an extra half gallon while I watched them. Now that I've filled it up myself, I am less certain of that estimation, since the tank is very finicky about when it causes a pump to shut off. Based on that estimate, I thought the ambulance got 8MPG on the highway. This second data point puts it at 5MPG in the city. There's the obvious city/highway difference, which I can easily clear up on the first few tanks of the road trip. There's also the A/C, which I was running about half the time on the second tank, and not at all (it didn't work yet) on the first. Finally, the mechanic removed the belt powering my smog pump and combustion chamber, which he suggested would help, but it's definitely worth testing whether I need to re-power those devices, OR I need to cap their exhaust hoses. More data to come on this front, in a thousand miles or so.
My co-pilot for the first 8 weeks of the trip got to drive the ambulance for the first time today. She doesn't drive often, and has never driven anything big. It went better than I expected and she hoped, I think. We drove around the city for 20 minutes, then on the highway for a short distance. More practice should make both situations better. At this point I at least know she isn't going to panic or destroy the engine/brakes with mis-use.
I also finally got all the non-trip stuff unloaded into storage, leaving the interior as close to its final configuration as it can be before I make pads for my storage bins, shelves for the empty wall, etc. That allowed me to deploy the bed and lay down for a little while. If I sit on my butt or put weight on my elbows then I can feel the bin lids and the edge of the bench seat through the mattress, but that's all gone when I lay down. I think it's going to be a very comfortable sleeping situation, and that's very good news for the long term viability of this plan. In addition to my existing plans to add more padding and level the bed out, I'm thinking that I also need a better way to attach it to the wall when it's upright and out of the way. Right now I'm just putting straps over the top corners, but it sags and wants to fall down. I'll probably sew some webbing and D-rings to one edge of the mattress and attach those to clips on the ceiling so it's hanging instead of standing.
Today's Amazon and DealExtreme deliveries and a trip to American Science & Surplus improved the situation to the tune of a 7-gallon opaque water tank with a spigot and handle, the last of the parts for the swamp cooler (except one optional part), padding for the parts of the ambulance that I keep hitting my head on, a small air compressor for the tires, and an assortment of tools and electrical gizmos that aren't necessarily ambulance-specific but will definitely come in handy if/when I need them.