Wind Power Car...Just an Idea?

Question

How do you like this idea?

A car that partly runs on wind power!

Like they could have the little wind turbines under the car or there could be that whole up front that allows air in and there the turbine could be.

I don't know how good it would work. But since the car is always in motion, you could get energy while driving. Plus with the hybrid, it would be the next best thing.

This could really save money on gas and cut down on pollution.

What do you guys think about this idea?

Answer 1

If you are really concern about the environment get the "World's Cleanest Car."  It runs on compressed air.

" After fourteen years of research and development, Guy Negre has developed an engine that could become one of the biggest technological advances of this century. Its application to Compressed Air Technology(CAT) vehicles gives them significant economical and environmental advantages. With the incorporation of bi-energy (compressed air + fuel) the CAT Vehicles have increased their driving range to close to 2000 km with zero pollution in cities and considerably reduced pollution outside urban areas.

   The application of the MDI engine in other areas, outside the automotive sector, opens a multitude of possibilities in nautical fields, co-generation, auxiliary engines, electric generators groups, etc. Compressed air is a new viable form of power that allows the accumulation and transport of energy. MDI is very close to initiating the production of a series of engines and vehicles. The company is financed by the sale of manufacturing licenses and patents all over the world."

Answer 2

Since you say "partly" on wind power, I would just mount a sail on the roof and be done with it.

Answer 3

won't work

Answer 4

It wouldn't work at all. The windmills would add aerodynamic drag to the car. It is really a conservation of energy question. All the energy captured from a car mounted windmill is really taking energy from the motion of the car. Using that energy to then propel the car would at best give you zero net power. Kind of like how you cannot move a sail boat on a calm day by setting up a fan in the boat to blow on the sail. All such ideas are forms of perpetual motion machines, all of which violate the well established law of conservation of energy.

Answer 5

That wind idea really blows.

Answer 6

Well, I'm no expert, but I recently "met" this group of people online.

http://www.saltflats.com/News%20Update.h...

Brent Singleton, a 17-year-old high school student from Washington Terrace, Weber County, plans to race his quadbrid on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Brent Singleton, 17, Washington Terrace, stands with his multiple-fuel vehicle at Bonneville Salt Flats, where he will race next year.

"Quadbrid"? What on the salt is that?

A vehicle that uses two types of fuel is a hybrid, which is what the Escort became after students at Weber State University modified it.

Brent's father, Kent Singleton, explained that in 1992, Ford donated 35 of the Escorts to learning institutions including Stanford and MIT so that students could compete on the problem of creating vehicles using more than one type of fuel. WSU's students installed electrical components so the Escort could run with either electrical or gas power, or both.

In the second year of the contest, Kent Singleton said of the Ogden university students, "They took first place. They beat all the big boys with all that money."

In 2001, Brent Singleton bought the vehicle from WSU. By then the car was partly dismantled and Brent restored it.

That year, the father-son team took it to time trials on the salt flats, where Kent Singleton ran it at 96 mph in hybrid mode. The Singletons claim the record for the first hybrid ever to race.

But having a hybrid wasn't enough for Brent. He added solar panels to recharge the batteries, making it what the father-son combo calls a "tribrid" car. Then he added wind generators: "quadbrid."

"The wind will turn the propeller. That's truly a generator, so it's producing electricity," Kent Singleton said.

A junior at Bonneville High School, Washington Terrace, Brent drives the car to school every day. "It just feels like a regular car, then when it's in hybrid mode it feels like a regular car with power," he said.

His dad added that with the wind-driven propellers, when the car sits in the school parking lot, the batteries are being recharged by wind. "It's the same thing with the solar panels, too," he added.

The two have searched the Internet and, while manufacturers are putting out hybrids, they have not found another tribrid, let alone a quad. Some all-electric cars have solar panels to recharge the batteries, but they doubt any other vehicle uses gas, electricity, solar and wind.

In 2001, when they first took the Escort to the salt flats, Brent could not not drive it because he wasn't old enough for a driver's license. So his dad drove the vehicle.

Now that he has a license, he plans to race next year during Speed Week against Honda and Toyota hybrids.

Bill Clapp, a WSU professor and chairman of the computer and electronics engineering technology department, headed the program when students were modifying the Escort.

Personally, Clapp doesn't have much hope for the future of the type of hybrid cars that use a great deal of electrical power. They must store energy in huge batteries, he said.

If one were to crash, "you'd have a lot of battery acid and a lot of current sparking and arcing," he said. But, he stressed, it's important to keep pushing to improve auto technology.

As far as racing on the salt flats is concerned, Kent Singleton said, "All of the safety updates are required to be able to race at Bonneville Salt Flats," including roll bars.

When Weber State had to sell the car, said Clapp, "I looked far and wide to find somebody who would put it to use."

He turned up the Singletons. "It was just wonderful to find a father and son," he said. "They were so interested in this car."

He enjoys the fact that they have kept the Escort in great shape. "We hope it does well this summer when it competes against Toyota and Honda."

Marcia

Answer 7

I have found evidence that you are not crazy. But I cannot find much

Title:Time names iPhone invention of the year.(Broadcast transcript).

Source:The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) (Nov 2, 2007)(226 words) From General OneFile.

Document Type:Transcript

Bookmark:Bookmark this Document

Library Links:

Full Text :COPYRIGHT 2007 Voxant, Inc.

Byline: CBC News

Time magazine has named Apple Inc.'s iPhone its invention of the year, beating out a solar- and wind-powered car and flexible display screens created by Sony Corp. and LG Electronics Inc.

The iPhone got a lot of things right, wrote Time's Lev Grossman, particularly in the area of design. The device is attractive and, although it didn't introduce touch-screen technology, is the first to make innovative use of it.

"All the cool features in the world won't do you any good unless you can figure out how to use said features, and feel smart and attractive while doing it," Grossman wrote. "In the world of technology, surface really is depth."

Apple has also shaken up the wireless industry with its device by demanding it be allowed to design a product according to its specifications, rather than working according to an operator's specifications. The iPhone is also the first truly mobile handheld computer, he wrote.

"One of the big trends of 2007 was the idea that computing doesn't belong just in cyberspace, it needs to happen here, in the real world, where actual stuff happens," Grossman wrote. "This is just the beginning."

Other 2007 inventions honoured by the magazine included a device used by police that launches a GPS tracker onto fleeing vehicles and a football helmet that monitors impacts against its wearer's head.

Source Citation:"Time names iPhone invention of the year.(Broadcast transcript)." The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) (Nov 2, 2007): NA. General OneFile. Gale. University of Phoenix - main account. 28 Jan. 2008

<http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?p...

Answer 8

They already exist and have for some time (over 100 years).  They have been used on large frozen lakes and look like a cross between a sailboat and a wagon (the frozen lake version uses skids).  They are called wind wagons and sail wagons.  They can move across the Kansas praries at about 15mph.

http://www.kshs.org/portraits/wind_wagon...

http://www.e-kidscenter.com/spring_2002/...

Answer 9

You are wasting your time trying to get something for nothing .

Answer 10

You could put sails on your car.

Answer 11

JT

YES, YES, NO... if done correctly.

First off to not repeat or disagree with the above answers a typical windmill would do almost nothing to generate electricity. (I've personally built about 50 typical wind gens)

To even come close to a typical wind gen that "could" work in 80+ winds the blades would have to be very thin and no more then 3, anything else you'd be creating more drag and actually slowing down your vehicle causing you to use more gas. Not to mention the internal breaking system you'd have to have to prevent over speeds (which would cause destruction of your gen), caused by the 80mph air + any gusts of natural wind traveling in the opposite direction of your car.

To make your car wind gen right you'd want a very small wind mill turning a smaller generator, like a CPU (computer tower) fan installed behind (if there's space) or in front of your radiator. They're very durable, small so not to attract attention, and if wired in parallel (or series depending on how many volts you want) are efficient and strong enough for your need. I've built (and currently run) about 10 of these as well as 2 larger 500amp models, on my home.

For a step by step guide to build one of these little guys check out http://www.agua-luna.com/wind_gene.html

To power all of your listed appliances you'll need a battery bank (I suggest Optima Yellow Tops for the price and efficiency) linked in series so that you have more reserve amps so you can have more electricity for a longer time. My home runs 100% off solar and wind with an 8 cell battery bank system. My family has all of the items you list plus 2 computers, internet, microwave, hot water heater, washing machine, etc.. We can typically last 9 days of cloudy, windless weather without sacrificing anything before we need to turn on the generator (hasn't happened yet.)

You could also just go with second alternator belted into your existing engine fan and wired into your campers battery bank (discussed above). I would suggest at least a 90amp unit.

Hope this helped,

Dan Martin

Retired Boeing Engineer now living 100% Off-the-Grid with my family, using Alternative Energy & loving every minute.

for more info visit www.agua-luna.com

Answer 12

Using small wind turbines sounds good exept for the fact that the turbines will create drag that is greater than the energy they will produce since generators are not 100% efficient and neither is the blades on the turbines.  Using a sail would work as long as the wind is blowing and you are at the right angle to the wind.  There are also vertical wings that are more like airplane wings than sails which catch the wind to propel a car and it was actually used around 1980s to propel a small car at over 100mph or close to it if I remember the speed correctly from an article in popular science.