Quote:
Originally Posted by drmiller100
barna, making the wire longer just wastes energy. it will still try to get to the desired voltage, but will waste a bunch of energy doing it.
i'm a little puzzled about the whole alternator kill idea. how much energy are we really saving?
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Google MetroMPG alternator optional test. You'll see his pretty thorough results. I have been switching back and forth by unplugging the alt since September. It seems to be worth about 5% to me (not MetroMPG's 10%). But I already P&G so much that the alt is often not "on" anyway. I will say though that I run a deep-cycle battery, I greatly reduced electric loads, and I plug it in at night: i.e., the grid is my alternator.
Hope that's useful. Part of the plan for me now is to be able to strategically switch the alt "on" to coast down the huge hills around here in gear in fuel cut-off mode, charging the battery while using little to no fuel and extending the life of brake pads with engine braking to boot.