Electric/hybrid cars
8 years ago
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Converting your car to a water hybrid
Comments (8)I think this is a different product than you're thinking of john. I installed water injection in my '67 chevelle back in the late 70's. Can't remember now, it had 10.25 or 10.5 to 1 compression. By the late 70's 8 was more the norm, and octane followed. I installed the water injection to control spark knock, but it also knocked the performance in the head so I quit using it after a while. Addressed the problem with carb and timing adjustments. Looks like the product the poster is talking about is supposed to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen, then burn the hydrogen through the engine. Actually, there may not even be a product, just instructions how to do it yourself. No way it can be practical at this point in time. I used to keep tabs on a company that was developing a gas to hydrogen conversion kit. They used a hydrogen generator (that you would have to keep at your house) to extract the hydrogen from water through electrolysis. This hydrogen generator used solar power to supply the required energy. Then they'd fill a number of small tanks with the hydrogen from that generator. The tanks contained some trick material that would absorb the hydrogen until it was needed. The tanks would be heated to release the hydrogen to the car fuel system. They installed this system on a number of experimental cars and tore them down from time to time to see how they held up. They encountered several major problems. One being it took a long time to generate enough hydrogen. Second, it took a lot of fuel tanks to get any kind of range out of the test vehicles. Third and most important, the engines self destructed after a relatively short period of time running on hydrogen...something like 40k or 50k miles. It appeared that burning hydrogen was hard on the pistons and other aluminum components somehow. Hydrogen may be the answer some day, but not with the material used in engines today. I'll post the link if I can find it. Been a few years since the test failed, and the company developing the idea didn't seem to know where they could go with it after that....See MoreCar insurance for Hybrid vehicles
Comments (2)The insurance companies are just going to base their rates on the accident rate, cost of repairs, injury/death rate, and number of claims filed, the same as they would any other vehicle. Your agent can give you a quote on any make and model of vehicle, including the hybrids. However, since hybrids are probably generally bought by practical, responsible, mature drivers, rather than those looking for high performance, thrills, or sex appeal, I would expect the insurance cost for hybrids to be reasonable, and similar to other vehicles in the same price range and appealing to the same types of buyers....See MoreQuestions about hybrid electric water heaters + electric tankless
Comments (1)Electric tankless will require an upgrade as well ... on the electric circuit. A typical electric tank takes a 25 to 30 amp circuit. Electric tankless can be high as 120 amps depending on the needed capacity. Capacity in tankless terms means the heating power required to raise the desired rate of water flow (gallons per minute) from the starting point (lowest tap-water temp experienced during the winter season) to the desired output temperature (typically at least 120ðF for a kitchen with a dishwasher). If your house has a large-enough existing electric drop from the pole, then you'd only have to run a larger circuit from the breaker box. Otherwise you'd also have to upgrade the service drop from the pole....See MoreAre Electric Cars An Environmental Win?
Comments (13)I have not completed efficiency comparison between a fuel power auto versus an all electric auto, but it seems that the battery fed electric vehicle is not as efficient. The comparison is difficult because there is no simple direct comparison. My approach is to calculate and amount of BTUs required to push an average car a mile. A calculation for an assumed average gasoline powered car can be readily made. If the car gets 27 miles per gal, and the fuel is 10% alcohol plus 90% gasoline, the number of BTUs is known and the calculation can be made. The problem is calculating the amount of BTUs for an electric car. BTUs are burned in the power plant to make electricity to charge the batteries. The problem is finding all the efficiencies needed to make the calculation. The overall efficiency for a fossil fueled power plant might be 50%. This is to convert fuel BTUs to electric power as delivered to the transformer yard. The power is transformed to high voltage for transmission (up to 500,000 volts). The power is run through another set of transformers to a lower voltage for the main distribution line (near 27,000 volts). This might be a line that powers and entire village. It is transformed down again to about 2400 volts for the local street lines to households. Another transformer drops the voltage to 120 V for household use. This is done through a center tapped transformer. There are two 120v lines running the house (one from each end of the transformer winding. The center of the winding is the common return.) Next, there is the charger and battery efficiency. Transformers are not 100% efficient and there are transmission losses along the lines. The power has been run through at least 3 transformers and line losses should be accounted for. The charger efficiency may vary from 80 to 95 % efficiency; the battery's charging efficiency is a big unknown. The charging efficiency for a lead-acid battery is about 75%; About 25% of the charging energy is lost. Another loss occurs when power comes out of the battery. Finally, there is the efficiency of the electric motor and its controls. The overall system efficiency is all these efficiencies multiplied together. The anticipated loss between burning the fuel in the station to the output of the car's motor is expected to be considerable. I have my doubts that it will compete with the gasoline engine. In other words, I expect that it will require more BTUs per mile for an electric car than for the gasoline engine. (To be fair, the amount of BTUs required to deliver the fuel to the car should be added to the gasoline engine requirement.)...See More- 8 years ago
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