Got a project on my mind
Posted: April 5th, 2011, 8:15 pmHello everyone, I don't know in which sub-forum to post this, so I've decided to post it here.
I live in BrasÃlia - Brazil, and there's a local challenge that's asking to design an ecological car. What I've come up with, and I sure hope it's still a unique idea, is an electric car with wind turbines on the roof to recharge the battery while you drive it.
Basically, my idea is that you attach several wind turbines with blades of approximately 24cm (~10in), perhaps less, each connecting to an alternator (which transforms kinectic energy into electric) (or using normal, smaller eolic turbines, if more efficient/less expensive or if it's basically the same thing), all linked to the car battery, thus charging it. Put several lined up and the gain should be substantial.
My questions are:
- Would this be efficient? Because the gain from the turbines has to be bigger than the loss from the extra effort to move. How much would this (gain/effort) vary from the number of turbines, their size and positioning?
- What would be the ideal way of increasing/maximizing the kinect gain for the turbines with the wind? Creating some sort of cone-shaped tunnel (my old high school physics teacher told me to look for Bernoulli's Principle)?
- What would be the cost? I know the prices will be different here in Brazil, but knowing how much it'd cost wherever you are posting from, will already give me a good idea.
I live in BrasÃlia - Brazil, and there's a local challenge that's asking to design an ecological car. What I've come up with, and I sure hope it's still a unique idea, is an electric car with wind turbines on the roof to recharge the battery while you drive it.
Basically, my idea is that you attach several wind turbines with blades of approximately 24cm (~10in), perhaps less, each connecting to an alternator (which transforms kinectic energy into electric) (or using normal, smaller eolic turbines, if more efficient/less expensive or if it's basically the same thing), all linked to the car battery, thus charging it. Put several lined up and the gain should be substantial.
My questions are:
- Would this be efficient? Because the gain from the turbines has to be bigger than the loss from the extra effort to move. How much would this (gain/effort) vary from the number of turbines, their size and positioning?
- What would be the ideal way of increasing/maximizing the kinect gain for the turbines with the wind? Creating some sort of cone-shaped tunnel (my old high school physics teacher told me to look for Bernoulli's Principle)?
- What would be the cost? I know the prices will be different here in Brazil, but knowing how much it'd cost wherever you are posting from, will already give me a good idea.