The Oil Drum

29 comments on Nested comments broken. UPDATE: Fixed

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

light299 on February 5, 2006 - 11:59am

As for the energy difference, let me put it this way: In the climate I live in it is very hot, and one's air conditioner is the largest power draw in the house. However, the AC takes about 5kw when on, and over the course of a summer day the whole house may use 80kwhr. My car uses over 120kw when accelerating. So, in one hour my car can use more power than my whole house does in a day. Now one begins to see the scale of the problem (anyone want to build nuke plants?).
Furthermore, I just want to point out that "plug in" hybrids shouldn't have to "plug in". I've already advocated using inductive charging several times before, I hope Toyota impliments it like GM did. (I know there's and eff. loss, but i doubt it's much, and it's worth it for the convience, though not if it adds another $3000 to the car).
-Stop the Iran war-

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

Engineer-Poet on February 5, 2006 - 3:25pm

How much time do you spend accelerating?

(BOTE: Not much. If you use 120 kW [160 HP] for an hour, burning fuel at 0.5 lbm/hp-hr, you'd burn 80 pounds of fuel. That's about 13 gallons. If you were averaging 60 MPH, you'd be getting less than 5 MPG.)

Comments can no longer be added to this story.

djd on February 7, 2006 - 10:56pm

Furthermore, I just want to point out that "plug in" hybrids shouldn't have to "plug in". I've already advocated using inductive charging several times before, I hope Toyota impliments it like GM did.

But you do have to plug in the EV1 - you take the charging paddle and plug it into a socket on the car. What I see as the real advantage to induction connectors is that there are no exposed metal contacts to keep clean. The EV1 design envisioned outdoor charging stations added to existing lots, so high weather resistance was very important.

You proposed the 'charging mat', right? (Which would be placed on garage floor and transfer energy to parked car with no user intervention.) AFAIK, large air gaps mean low efficiency or low power density, or both.

Not to say that the charging process shouldn't be made as simple as is feasible, but I think the EV1 connector was pretty good: very low maintenance, quick and easy to use correctly, hard to use incorrectly.

Personally I prefer metal contact connectors, but I think most people would rather pay more for the more convenient option. I make a WAG that induction charging would be at most $250 extra verus metal contact connectors.