Red1966
Well-Known Member
Yeah, they did! I think "insane" also came up.
Are You In?
- Thread starter mysunnyboy
- Start date
canndo
Well-Known Member
the biggest problem with such an idea is that it is close brother to perpetual motion... and perpetual motion doesn't work no matter how many tinkerers build machines in their garages in the heart of Ill. somewhere. The windmill will create drag that will more than offset the amount of energy you create. that means that you will use more gasoline. there is no free lunch.
londonfog
Well-Known Member
you know I'm going to actually put this idea on paper to see if I can work something out as a start. I don't feel drag would be the issue.Hell your windshield creates drag..I would use open ducts on the roof..Air flows thru turning the sails or blades...My mine concern is energy storage. How long can wind power charge a battery and hold that charge..How big of a battery would one need to keep a car going at 70 miles an hour. Working similar to the battery of electric cars...but I would love to see a model to test how much drag would reduce the energy created.
canndo
Well-Known Member
Yes the car itself produced drag, but the result is say, 30 mile per gallon. Put that windmill on your car and you will get oh, say 28 miles per gallon. The physics of this is absolute. Compare the energy you managed to create or store with the extra energy you burned and you will get a net loss.
This isn't much different than putting generators on all 4 wheels of your car except that the windmill would be less efficient. If you put generators on all 4 wheels, and then directed the electricity to a battery and the battery to motors on those 4 wheels, you wouldn't go very long. Even if the entire system lost no heat you are running a net loss that cannot be recovered.
The only time this works is if you were to use those generators as brakes, in so doing you are harvesting the kinetic energy ordinarily lost to the heat of friction on the brake pads. The laws of preservation of energy are brutal. Now I am unsure, but energy from windmills is either derived from lift or drag but either way, the energy is extracted from the results of the resistance of the ground vs the wind. In this case, the resistance winds up being your car.
Another example is one where you have a sail boat and an electric fan blowing on the sail. I doesn't work as the resistance holding the fan is equal to the pressure being applied to the sail.
Red1966
Well-Known Member
It will require more energy to generate the power than you will harvest, when inefficiencies are figured in. Even assuming there were no friction, storage, or conversion losses, (not possible in any case) you would only harvest what you put in. You could make a wind powered car, it has been done. A rolling death trap with extremely limited use. Put wheels on an ice boat, basically.
mysunnyboy
Well-Known Member
why would you waste a vote clown, err i mean D3monic?
Geronimo420
Well-Known Member
It's the point of voting you get to pick your own clown
londonfog
Well-Known Member
I'm still thinking its doable..
I see I'm not alone..Damn Chinaman
http://news.sky.com/story/18649/chinese-farmer-fights-smog-with-fan-power
Antidisestablishmentarian
Well-Known Member
The mythbusters disagree
[video=youtube;uKXMTzMQWjo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKXMTzMQWjo&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/video].
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
A lovely demonstration of using a fifty-horsepower motor "wide open" to move a small boat more slowly than one guy with a paddle could. I detect efficiency issues. cn
budlover13
King Tut
Yeah but they were trying a different theory. Not generating electricity but rather powering their own sail.
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
Right. The per cent or two of "leaked" energy from all that thrashing powered their boat ... but i bet they had no mosquito problem!
To make the test conform to the premise stated earlier, that fan would have to be powered by a ~giggle~ windmill ... cn
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
You're in whose bro? 
cn
cn
budlover13
King Tut
Maybe they use the windmill to power a generator to charge the batteries to run an electric prop which creates the wind by moving the boat. THEN we get into inefficiencies.
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
But then you lose the directness of driving a car to power the windmill that generates the energy that ... drives the car ... cn
UncleBuck
Well-Known Member
You're in whose bro?
is it time to bring out angry UB...
budlover13
King Tut
Almost reminds me of the circular logic so prevalent around here sometimes.