Electric Car Towing a Generator - EnviroMENTAL Whacko Alert

August 23, 2003 | Eldoradude

[eldoradude]

On my way home from work today at about 5 P.M. I saw the dumbest example of environmentalism gone mad. Just east of Folsom Blvd. on Highway 50 I saw a Ford Focus Electric car. Here's the stupid part. It was TOWING A GAS POWERED GENERATOR to provide the electricity to make the car go.

It was a large wheeled generator, the type that uses over three gallons per hour to run. The Ford Focus was going about 50 mph, probably close to top speed. Assuming it needed 3 gallons of gasoline to run for one hour and it traveled 50 miles in that hour, this moron is effectively getting less than 17 miles per gallon!

Can you believe it?

[goldstategop]

A Prius is a hybrid not an electric car. The two are NOT the same.

[Grampa Dave]

This enviral idiot/moron/jacka$$ probably feels that he/she/it is doing a great job for enviralism.

Two years ago this coming Dec/Jan a kind hearted enviral nut who works in my wife's office had planned to buy an all electric car. This was during our roving blackouts.

My wife who usually is a quiet conservative and leaves the liberal bashing to me, told this woman that was one of the dumbest things she had ever heard of with the shortage of electricity we were having. Then she told the whacko, if she bought an electrical car, that she would not speak to her again.

The whacko got tears in her eyes and did not buy the electric car. A few months later she bought the Toyota hybrid, and everyone was happy. During this time in a silent protest against his wife, her husband bought a Toyota 4 wheel drive pickup equipped with the big Lexus V8 engine.

[Lady Heron]

I have never understood the new fad of having a camera on your cell phone. Now I understand. I would have loved to have seen a picture of the car. :-)

[.38sw]

A friend tells me of an eviro nut who actually believed that there would be no impact on the enviroment if everyone owned an electric car, completley ignoring the effect that 100 million cars plugged into the power grid would have.

I had a similar conversation with an acquaintance a few years ago. She thought the electric cars would be just the thing to reduce the impact on the environment and help keep the air clean. Well, I started talking about electrical generation - coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear. Gee, where does the power for the outlet you plug that car into come from? Power plant? Don't power plants have emissions? Yes? How about the exploration, extraction and transportation for the fuel for the power plant? Is that free of environmental impacts? And, oh, by the way, isn't California getting a little bit short on electricity these days? Aren't we constantly urged to conserve?

Well, she was smart enough to understand my point. She sure got to thinking about it. She's at least a rational person.

[blackie]

Typical wacko environazis logic!

Be Well ~ Be Armed ~ Be Safe ~ Molon Labe!

[novacation]

The hybrid cars, like Honda makes, are a good idea, if they weren't so damn small.With gas going up I'm waiting for a hybrid Suburban.

[.38sw]

From what I understand, hybrids are best in stop and go traffic, where the electric engine kicks in while stopped, then is recharged by the gasoline engine while driving. I've heard that if you do most of your driving on the freeway, you are using the gasline engine far more, and your gasoline savings are minimal. Yes? No?

[novacation]

Makes sense.But alot of cars spend time stuck in traffic, so I would have to say they are good idea, if they weren't so small.I'm waiting for the Hummer Hybrid.

[ElkGroveDan]

hehe thanks. Until the price of fissile materials go down or the price of gas goes way up, I'll probably have to stick with the IC reactor in my 98 ranger.

Besides, in terms of maintenance that perforated tungsten must be a pain to clean or replace when it gets clogged with bugs.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

So, If you burn gasoline to power a generator to create electricity, you are in the red, big time, in the energy efficiency pond.

While trivially true, the "best solution" may not be obvious, due the efficiencies involved. While the guy towing the generator is a crank of some sort, diesel electric locomotives have been the most efficient for the last 50 years. Diesel electric submarines are close to 100 year old. The problem is that internal combustion engines only operate efficiently over a narrow range of RPM. Hence the need for transmissions. Diesels also take a long time to change power output and hence offer poor acceleration. DC Electric motors are about as efficient at any speed, and can deliver high starting torque. And no transmission. Also relatively low maintenance costs. Running a diesel to charge a battery to run an electrical motor can make sense if your plant (think locomotive) is large enough to justify the investment.

[pipe]

Obligatory Simpsons reference: wave file

[luckystarmom]

We have a Prius, and it is great! Don't know until you've tried it. It's a lot different than other cars in the same price range.

[Kozak]

The best part is that as far as pollution controls go, the generator probably puts out 10 times the pollution per gallon!

[luckystarmom]

We have one. My husband drives 40 miles each way to work. About 30 miles is on the highway. He gets about 55-60 mpg for his Prius.

The battery recharges whenever you put on the break.

If you drive under 20 mph than you don't even need the gas engine. However, most people drive over 20 mph.

[NTW64]

You have to wonder how much resource was waisted towing the generator....

[BJungNan]

I was thinking someone could put a big windmill on the top of their car to charge the battery while they drive.

Of course, they would not be able to drive near Ted Kennedy's neighborhood (see current news stories on Ted's opposition to windmills near his house but endorsement in everyone else's).

[Kozak]

Nah, a Freeper would tow a small nuclear reactor.......know where I can get one?

Wait for the next Russian spy satellite to de orbit.

[brianl703]

The next big thing for internal combustion engines is going to be actuating the valves with electric solenoids. This is one of the things that the industry hopes 42 volt electrical systems will make possible.

Once the valves are actuated with electric solenoids, it will be possible to select optimum valve timing for any given RPM, making the engine efficient over a wider range of RPM. This is exactly what Honda's VTEC system does, but VTEC and all other current variable valve timing systems only allow two different valve timings.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Actually, gasoline engines are about 35-38% efficient. (I'm also an engineer, going for my PE this fall.) And yes, electric motors are very efficient, +90% and up to 95% for three phase induction motors. The problem lies in the conversion of chemical energy - burning coal to produce steam - to mechanical energy - which then turns a turbine - to convert to electical energy. Then transmit the electrical energy to you house, store it in in batteries and then from chemical energy back to elecrical and then mechanical energy.

And with every step you lose efficiency.

[fella]

Hey it's the land of the free. So far. Myself I'd like to have a hummer-I.