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Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

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Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#211

Post by WalterBright »

zevyoura wrote: post #209
WalterBright wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For some (BMW) it can even mean a trip to the dealership for a special new battery ritual. Really? That would kill any interest I'd have in a BMW. Heck, whenever I work on my car, the first thing I do is disconnect the battery.

Few owners of modern luxury cars do their own maintenance.

I find working on my car to be very relaxing after sitting in front of a computer all day. There's also something viscerally satisfying about it.

Of course, that's why I'm an engineer :-)

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#212

Post by conjecTech »

ars wrote: post #204
CamperBob2 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are always going to be anecdotes to the contrary, but the trend is pretty clearly in the opposite direction. Usually what happens in my case is I forget to turn the headlights from 'Auto' to 'Off.' But even with the lights and fans off I don't tend to see more than 20-30 minutes of operation at most. The car's version of HAL 9000 tries to be conservative and shut things down as soon as the battery voltage goes…

Headlight != radio. The headlights can be easily 150watt. I doubt the radio uses more than 15.

Those numbers are dead on. Just measured them the other day.

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#213

Post by OopsCriticality »

qq66 wrote: post #179
OopsCriticality wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that still leaves 24 million pounds of lead each year from car batteries that don't get recycled Is that actually a lot? Similar statements are made with respect to nuclear waste, but frankly, I've regarded these statements in units of mass as deliberately misleading due to nuclear waste (or lead in this case) to be uniquely dense relative to what we are accustomed to dealing with on a daily basis. Siri, via Wolfra…

All of the mined gold in the world is a cube about 70 ft on a side. Big cubes are hard to intuitively reason about.

In the more familiar unit of "swimming pools", it looks like it might be around 10.

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#214

Post by sakopov »

Perhaps I am in the minority here, but in the 15 years I've owned cars I don't remember a time when I planned changing the battery. It was happens in the worst time, most frequently when I'm trying to get to work or home. So getting a new battery is always an emergency to get my car rolling so I don't get it towed or start accumulating parking tickets. Getting an eco-friendly battery is the last of my worries. I wonder how many folks out there feel the same and how this could impact a novel product like this going forward.

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#215

Post by busterarm »

thrownaway2424 wrote: post #109
busterarm wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly what I was thinking... ...and more on that point, I drive an RX-7 and my engine puts out _extreme_ amounts of heat under the hood. a 50C top-end probably isn't enough for driving on hot days. I would go for one of these without a second thought because a) though my car is light, reducing more weight helps out loads with performance and b) these things are known to kill alternators and I'd love advance warning…

Battery relocation to the trunk is a standard mod for the gen3 rx-7, assuming you're speaking of that one.

FC, but yeah I have a lot to do. I haven't done it yet because it's a 10AE and basically clean.

Still would want a lighter battery though.

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#216

Post by notJim »

carbocation wrote: post #33
bluehawk wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Arizona, you're lucky if it lasts for 2 years. Batteries don't like being in 120 degree heat all day or something.

I've lived in both Cambridge, MA and Scottsdale, AZ, and my batteries routinely die in under 2 years. I think it's mostly a function of my (infrequent) driving habits.

I grew up in AZ, and I don't remember this being the case, so it's probably your driving habits.

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#217

Post by TylerE »

OopsCriticality wrote: post #213
qq66 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of the mined gold in the world is a cube about 70 ft on a side. Big cubes are hard to intuitively reason about.

In the more familiar unit of "swimming pools", it looks like it might be around 10.

Actually I get substantially less than that.

Olympic sized pool = 164ft x 82ft x 9ft 10 inches = 132, 300ft^3. Density of lead: 709 lbs per ft^3.

So a single Olympic-sized pool would weight almost 94,000,000 lbs if filled with lead.

(If you really want to blow your mind, that same pool would weight almost 200 million lbs if filled with Osmium, the most dense element. Of course, that's WAY WAY more than the amount of Osmium that exists...I can't find a world wide figure but US production is only about 250 lbs per year)

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#218

Post by CamperBob2 »

micaeked wrote: post #192
CamperBob2 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are always going to be anecdotes to the contrary, but the trend is pretty clearly in the opposite direction. Usually what happens in my case is I forget to turn the headlights from 'Auto' to 'Off.' But even with the lights and fans off I don't tend to see more than 20-30 minutes of operation at most. The car's version of HAL 9000 tries to be conservative and shut things down as soon as the battery voltage goes…

That's also anecdotal.

No, that's a repeatable observation. There's a difference.

Look, take it up with Volkswagen AG. They're the ones who designed the electrical system in the car in question. Don't shoot the messenger, but a long term business plan centered around aftermarket car batteries is going to be a challenging play, for these and other reasons.

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#219

Post by foobarian »

cmain wrote: post #52
Eiriksmal wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never figured out why some batteries last and others don't. My '05 6MT V6 sedan still had its OEM battery when the starter finally refused to turn over in 2013. My wife's '07 5AT I4 sedan just got its fourth battery this month. My car grew up in central Kentucky, hers spent its first 3 years in New England before also moving to ol' Kintuck.

Not that this was necessarily the case with your vehicles, but battery placement in a vehicle will directly affect its lifespan. If it's closer to a heat source (e.g. the engine), it will die much faster. This is why some manufacturers put them in the wheel well or the trunk.

Depth of discharge can be very important. When lead-acids discharge, the metal in the electrodes moves into the electrolyte, making the electrodes smaller and weaker. Couple that with electrodes made very "spongey" to increase surface area to maximize the cranking current, and they can start to flake off and fall apart if discharged enough.

Re: Ohm (YC S15) is a smarter, lighter car battery that works with your existing car

#220

Post by toomuchtodo »

ars wrote: post #204
CamperBob2 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are always going to be anecdotes to the contrary, but the trend is pretty clearly in the opposite direction. Usually what happens in my case is I forget to turn the headlights from 'Auto' to 'Off.' But even with the lights and fans off I don't tend to see more than 20-30 minutes of operation at most. The car's version of HAL 9000 tries to be conservative and shut things down as soon as the battery voltage goes…

Headlight != radio. The headlights can be easily 150watt. I doubt the radio uses more than 15.

Are led headlights a similar draw?
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