If you wanted to reduce your carbon footprint, a golf cart is the last place to start since it is likely to be the smallest part of your energy footprint.
Let's look at some of my numbers based on 4000 miles per year for a gas golf cart, 6000 miles per year for a fairly fuel efficient car, and annual electric power usage of 9421 kWhs for my all electric home (considering 62% of FL power from natural gas, 21% from coal and the rest from sources that don't directly generate CO2 such as nuclear at 12%).
Golf Cart: 1516 lbs of CO2
Car: 4055 lbs of CO2
House: 11,505 lbs of CO2
If I switched to an electric golf cart (assuming 200 W/mile), the annual CO2 emissions would drop from 1516 lbs of CO2 to 1040 lbs of CO2.
Therefore the totals are as follows:
with gas cart: 17,067 lbs of CO2
with elec cart: 16,600 lbs of CO2
or less than 3% lower annual emissions with an electric golf cart. Indirect effects are not included such as the amount of CO2 used in recycling, manufacturing, and transporting batteries for an electric cart and the amount of CO2 used in recycling, manufacturing, and transporting engine oil, drive belts, and filters for the gas cart.
If you drive a golf cart less than we do, and/or drive a car more than we do, and/or consume more electricity in your house than we do, the percentage decrease would be less.
If you desire to reduce your carbon footprint the first thing you would go after is home power usage by installing photovoltaic panels on your roof. The next thing would be to buy an all electric car such as a Nisson Leaf. I am not suggesting that either of these are cost effective. Gas vs. electric golf cart CO2 emission differences are in the noise range for most people.
Regarding solar panels on the roof of a golf cart, this is certainly admirable but probably not cost effective. Assuming you drive the cart 4000 miles per year and the solar panels on the roof of the golf cart can supply half of your total power (an optimistic assumption based on the area of the roof, the power density of current solar panels, and having the golf cart outside in the sun all day), the most you can save is about $50/year. At a net cost of over $1000 for the panels and controller, the payback would be out at 20 years assuming the future value of the $1000+ invested elsewhere equaled the increase in power cost. If you drive less than 4000 miles per year, the payback would be even further out. Even if the solar panels could provide all of your power for the golf cart, the payback is still going to be far out. For example, suppose you drove 2000 miles per year and the solar panels provided 100% of your power, you would save about $50/year. I am not saying there isn't a certain entertainment value in having solar panels on the roof of a golf cart but the engineering numbers would show that it is probably not cost effective. I suppose you may realize some increased battery life if deep battery discharges were typical. Regarding range extension, I believe the current generation panels provide approximately 1 mile of range extension per hour of overhead sun exposure (assuming 200-400 W nominal panels).
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimbo2012
Don't worry about range or charging, go solar.
Works like a dream 70+ miles
As far as batteries, yes they should last 4-5 years if maintained correctly
And you're reducing your carbon foot print
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