I had another crazy idea on the way home from work yesterday. I am thinking that I want to experiment with a wind turbine on my car. The idea is the turbine could generate enough power to match or beat the electrical system demands all while adding less drag on the engine than the alternator currently does. The end goal would be to replace the alternator completely with a cheaper wind powered one and increase fuel efficiency of the motor.
There are a couple of unknowns that require experimentation.
1) Can I generate enough electricity using turbines to keep the battery charged? The system would need to be able to generate enough charge to handle the draw when the vehcile is stopped.
2) Do the fans required to generate the necessary electricity create more drag on the momentum of the car than the alternator does? If this is the case, the alternator is more efficient. I think if the fans are mounted on the front of the vehcile where there is already a 'wind wall' the engine is overcoming, there would be minimal additional drag added to the vehcile from the fans. The alternator currently adds alot of drag to the vehcile. It is directly siphoning torque from the engine as it is connected via belt.
3) The fan configuration and mounting is an unknown at this point. I bought a small 9" fan from wallmart last night for $10. I need to find a way to mount this to the front of my car safely. It will need to withstand the force of 100+mph winds blowing against it. I plan to test the fan as is on my car to see what the output of the fan is with the attached electric motor. If the output from it sucks, I will try building a new electric generator more suited to what Im doing.
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