Using a Fan to Charge a Battery

Are you suggesting installing a wind turbine on a car to generate electricity to charge a battery for the car? You could do it, but it's just not practical. For one thing, the drag increase will eat away at your fuel efficiency. For another thing, it's a safety hazard to bikers and pedestrians.

Here's a friendly word of advice: you're not the first person to bring this idea up. Everyone else who had soon found his/her thread become a place to post jokes, so you better brace yourself for some (actually a lot of) ribbing.

On the plus side though, some bikers and pedestrians might actually appreciate the free haircut......

In the 50's I worked at the local airport as a gas attendant and saw a lot of single engine two seaters with propeller driven generators. These planes were originally used without radios or lights and had no way of driving the generator with the engine.

The generators were attached to get engine prop wash or to wing struts and wired to a battery in the fuselage. Worked great for the intended purpose.

However, as mentioned, it is not free energy since the drag required the engine to work harder and burn more fuel.

Also, bicycles had generators driven by a friction on a tire to run lights as long as you were moving. A mechanical method was used to move the friction drive onto the tire.

Similarly, spray planes use propwash to drive the spray system's pump.

At a glance, it seems like topping off a battery wouldn't be much of a load. But a battery is just a storage tank. Obviously, there's no free lunch, but there's no cheap lunch either, when it comes to watts in vs. watts out. Efficiencies take their toll.

Know your load. Then, investigate props & blade pitch & size, and efficiencies.

Someone's beaten you to it. It's already been invented and marketed. Check this out:

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/travel/wind-turbine-chargers.htm

Read the whole article, not just the first page.

regards,

Vulcan

Also check out ( google) DURACELL crank light. Amazon advertise it for $49.95 but Costco sells a pair for $13.95 and I have seen them in dollar+ stores for $5.95.

Point being there are so many ways to charge portable devices via USB port already. Hardly worh the effort to re-invent the wheel so to speak.

I do get a kick out of the advertising that these work to recharge cell phones when you go into the wilderness. Hmm wilderness - cell phone with 5 mile range?

I guess if you are a New yorker and think High Park is wilderness, the advert might appeal. Maybe the ad writer must have been thinking of a true sat phone, not a cell phone.

Hello tu5lahmed,

My son made a project 8yrs back; Powered LED with discarded PC cooling fan.

Cell phone chargers powered by small fan available in Indian market over many a mobile store.

Take the cigarete lighter out and put a car mobile battery charger in it, that is easier.

Put the fan on the exhaust at least then you are using fumes that will not cause more drag to the car

Actually inhibiting the exhaust can affect your fuel efficiency see tidbit below:

Exhausts alter fuel efficiency

Most cars have special sizes for the exhaust. When cars are reasonably old the tailpipe has to be changed. The garage people always try to fit a size that they have in the garage it self. Which might not be the exact size recommended for the car. The wrong size a bigger or smaller tailpipe size effects on the MPG of the car and the HP of the car. It may be cheaper to put another size than your recommended size for your car but in the long run it will cost you in many ways, especially on fuel consumption. Always put the recommended size of the exhaust that is indicated in your car manual because the car company knows how to optimize the performance of your car.

Oh, things were simpler in the old days. Putting a larger exhaust pipe, and/or less resistant muffler on a car was an easy way to increse performance and, usually, to give it a throatier sound. I recall that replacing the tiny pipe on a Morris Minor was good for about 5 mph.

I good inventor takes that in considerartion off course

Stick a voltaic cell on your window and charge your mobile from that. I keep AA batteries on my vehicle plugged in to a set of small solar cells, this gives me a spare set ready to go any time.

Check out this website;

LINK

They have a little hand-held wind powered generator, as well as small, personal photovoltaic panels. The little wind generator has a built-in LiIon battery for power storage.

This would work good for your suggestion, but as others have indicated, you would get better efficiency just using a DC-DC converter plugged into the cigarette lighter socket.

The little wind generator still looks like a fun toy. For emergency power, I think I would go for solar, or maybe a hand-crank generator, before I would go for wind power.

Tom