ORIGINAL: NikolayTT
You are too optimistic but you still need to supply some convincing specific numbers.
I wander where do you get from those 200-300 cycles batteries and how much they cost ?
LiPo at high currents seldom lasts more than 30-50 flights... Please post the type of the batteries,
their price and the currents you are draining from them, as well the www-page one can get them
from. Sure, LiPo last in my LapTop up to more that 1000 cycles but that is a very different story.
Meanhile lets calculate what the real (!) case is in the following size of engine i.e. to get our
talk to a real case, then we can see if we are talking about the same thing:
- If I suppose to replace my OS.91FX with electric, I would be in fact replacing 0.5 liter of fuel
per flight with electric charge/discharge. In favor of your suggestion I would think the cost of
the electricity is 0.0. Then for half liter Methanol with 20% Castor in it I am paying in total about
less than 0.45 USD, lets take it to be even 0.5 USD. Then for 300 flights it will cost me about
150 USD. Do you think electric can get even near that and also how much the Hardware will
cost compared to the 200 USD for .91FX, assuming that it should deliver prety similar power ?
Actually your laptop most likely has Li-Ion, not LiPo, and I doubt you get anywhere near 1000 cycles out of it.
A friend of mine flies large 120 size electric 3D planes, and he gets ~300 cycles out of his packs before the performance degrades. I believe he uses Thunder Power packs. Unfortunately, you get what you pay for with LiPo packs, the bargain-basement packs will probably die out after 30-50 flights, so your best sticking with the well-known name-brands.
Nitro fuel is anywhere from $12 to $20 a gallon here in the US (depending on if you can buy it in bulk or have to pay hobby shop prices), so half a litre of fuel costs $1.59 - $2.76, and 300 flights would cost $477 - $828.
I'd sure like to know how you get nitro fuel for $0.90 a litre, that's $3.40 a gallon! I find it hard to believe that it's that much cheaper in Finland!