RE: [now non-roc]Re: Radiator Fan Question

["Ewan Hopkins" <ewanhopkins@hotmail.com>]

I don't think he's actually suggesting anything quite as radical as you say. 
I don't know for sure, but I guess his idea is that, when the car is moving, 
a drag resistance force is generated anyway. By adding the fan generator 
into the equation, power consumed by the drag increase is less than the 
power output from the generator, therefore you are reclaiming some of that 
power previously lost to drag.  The effective range of the car is increased 
simply by supplying a proportion of the power needed to drive the car's 
motor from the generator, instead of entirely from the battery.  Obviously 
this concept has limited (if any) benefits.  It doesn't quite correlate to 
your 'generator on a wheel' scenario as, in that case, you are simply adding 
extra resistance, and the best you can hope for is to break even, assuming 
you have 100% efficient conversion back into electricity, which you won't 
have.  With the fan, you are replacing a certain amount of resistance 
(normal drag of frontal area of car) with a new higher resistance ( drag of 
front of car, with fan/generator installed ) - power output of generator.
The prototype that this guy built does apparently work, according to the 
report.  It did mention that it didn't give any useful output unless you 
were travelling > 30mph.



Ewan Hopkins...

'85 Storm 2.0
'86 GT 1.8


>From: "Aaron Ness" <aaron@makuta.com>
>Reply-To: <aaron@makuta.com>
>To: "'Ewan Hopkins'" <ewanhopkins@hotmail.com>
>CC: <scirocco-l@scirocco.org>
>Subject: RE: [now non-roc]Re: Radiator Fan Question
>Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2000 08:31:17 -0500
>
>Yeah, that's going to fly...if perpetual motion was actually possible,
>wouldn't electricity be free?  This guy has a few loose screws, or at least
>no background in the fundamentals of physics.  If a fan could produce 
>enough
>power to extend the battery range (which means the fan by itself can power
>the car, because in order to add power to the system faster than you're
>using it, the fan has to be producing more power than you use), we'd all be
>driving air-powered cars today, and you wouldn't hear talk of all the
>expensive technologies like hybrids and fuel cells.
>
>I built and raced solar-powered cars in college, so I can say from
>experience this guy is a nut.  We used to get people coming up to us all 
>the
>time asking why we don't just use a tire to drive a generator and drag it
>behind the car.  It's the same concept.
>
>Aaron
>'84 Scirocco - Woo-hoo!
>'70 Bug - hibernating
>'87 Nissan truck - Soon to be for sale

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