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Originally Posted by Crashy
5. Supercapacitors are a good addition
False. They have high self discharge and adding losses to a system cannot possibly improve efficiency
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Good stuff Crashy, but this statement is false. Supercaps have low self-discharge, but what little they do bleed is significant given the relatively low energy capacity. The highest self-discharge is near the voltage limits of the supercap, and minuscule as the voltage drops below max.
Quote:
6. Alternators don't waste much horsepower when unplugged
False. Bearing, belt and fan friction are still present and are significant. Self excitement of the rotor is still occurring unless you disconnect the main and rotor wires.
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Plenty of people have installed an alt-kill switch with great results. Sure, it's not as good as removing it completely, but the improvement in FE is still significant.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RedDevil
The real reason why alternator deletes are efficient is that the whole chain from gasoline through engine efficiency, belt efficiency and alternator efficiency means that just 21% of the potential energy gets converted to electricity - at best.
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The ICE is only 25% efficient itself, so the actual efficiency of converting gasoline energy into electrical must be much less than 21%. I'm assuming the 21% is the efficiency of converting the mechanical energy of the motor into electricity?