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Ok, here is something that has been rattling around in my brain. Would it be practical to harness wind power while you are driving? Obviously, you can’t drive along with a windmill sticking up, but I think there is a way to make it work.
Now, I’m no engineer, but I think it would be possible to design a low power output system that would trickle charge your battery bank while you are driving down the highway.
My sticks/bricks house has an inline booster fan in the furnace duct work (6 inch round duct) on one particularly long run from the furnace. It uses a 120 Volt universal motor to power the fan. I’m thinking that if one was to replace the universal motor with a DC permanent magnet motor, one could mount the assembly horizontally on the roof of the RV. As one drove, the apparent wind would turn the fan and the DC motor would act as a small generator. A simple governor system would move a flap of plastic to close off the intake when needed to prevent an over speed condition.
Hence, you could harness some “wind” energy as you drove down the highway. What I’m not sure about is how much extra wind resistance it would give the rig, but since the generator assembly would be relatively small and mounted to the front of the roof it might be worth experimenting with.
It wouldn’t be a substitute for other power generation sources, but with two or three of these mounted, you might be able to top up your battery bank a bit when you are on the road most of the day.
Maybe there is a product like this already out there, but I haven’t seen one. I figured I might experiment with the idea this summer. Thoughts anyone?
William, sure the energy produced by turning a wind generator while driving down the road could be used for another purpose such as say charge a battery. HOWEVER, there’s no free lunch, you cant create or destroy energy ONLY change its form (Laws of Physics). It takes energy in the form of wind resistance and drag, friction and heat, to turn the wind generator and its NOT 100% efficient IE there are heat and friction losses involved. In short its energy output is NOT free, due to wind resistance and drag etc. it requires the engines HP in order to make the turbine turn. NOW if you’re just parked and the wind turns the generator that’s one thing, its sort of free as far as you’re concerned, but you must use energy to drive the RV to turn the wind generator as its NOT sitting there turning (absent ambient wind forces) UNLESS you use energy to propel the RV down the road to turn the generator.
No problem in using one and trying it, it may or may not be as efficient as using the engine driven alternator to help charge coach batteries while driving. The measurements and formulas for force and wind and drag and resistance and engine HP calculations required to see how efficient it is overall (say versus using the alternator) would take a rocket scientist to compute lol
Remember you cant create or destroy energy,,, Heat lost = Heat gained and NO mechanical device is 100% efficient due to heat and friction and other losses.
Still it would be fun to experiment and sure the energy produced by a wind generator requires energy INPUT by the RV engine and one wouldn’t be able to ever calculate if its more efficient then just letting the alternator charge house batteries while driving, BUT ITS STILL FUN EVEN IF PHYSICS TELLS US YOURE NOT GONNA CREATE OR DESTORY ENERGY. When parked if you have solar panels or a wind turbine mother earth supplies the energy NOT the RV engine, see the difference???
John T Retired Electrical Enginer
Yes John. I do see the difference. My thoughts were along the lines of using the device as a supplement to the alternator when there would be a drive of several hours or more. I.e. you’re already going to be using the fuel and engine. I too wondered about the additional drag (I’ll just call it that to simplify things) that the device would cause. I wondered if it would create a noticeable increase in fuel consumption during the trip and would the output be large enough to make the exercise worthwhile.
I think it would be a cool experiment, but I won’t be investigating it further till next year if ever. It was a fun idea to share and discuss, I thought but it’ll probably remain just an idea as I have plenty of bigger fish to fry-LOL. I do appreciate your insights on the matter.
William, I may have over exaggerated a bit above lol, I was just talking the concepts of energy conservation etc. in general. That being said, the “additional drag” caused by a small wind generator while driving would be extremely small so to supplement the engines alternator, sure it can help IF its worth the expense of purchase and installation?? But, when setting there parked if the wind is blowing IM ALL FOR IT.
John T
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