View Single Post
Old 12-06-2018, 05:09 PM   #11 (permalink)
RedDevil
Master EcoWalker
 
RedDevil's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Nieuwegein, the Netherlands
Posts: 3,998

Red Devil - '11 Honda Insight Elegance
Team Honda
90 day: 49.01 mpg (US)
Thanks: 1,711
Thanked 2,245 Times in 1,454 Posts
I believe I read somewhere the air speed close to the radiator is 1/6th of the velocity of the vehicle. Which, if true, means that the energy that could be derived of that fan is 1/6^3 of what it could have been in full wind.
Which is as close to nothing as anything; it would be a real challenge to harvest more than a few milliWatt out of that.

One could stick a row of TEGs to the radiator with a copper strip on the back and harvest a few Watt from the Seebeck effect. That in comparison would be way less uneffective.

I've been thinking about a micro turbine on the air intake to harvest energy from the vacuum draw on partial load, only to find no suitable turbines and generators for such a tiny draw exist. There's a potential of several hundred Watt there, but even that proved to be elusive.

I wish I could have given off a happier signal.

__________________
2011 Honda Insight + HID, LEDs, tiny PV panel, extra brake pad return springs, neutral wheel alignment, 44/42 PSI (air), PHEV light (inop), tightened wheel nut.
lifetime FE over 0.2 Gmeter or 0.13 Mmile.


For confirmation go to people just like you.
For education go to people unlike yourself.
  Reply With Quote