Date: Thu, 29 Jun 95 10:39:49 EDT
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: cetin@kirk.bellcore.com (Cetin Seren)
Subject: gas + electric
[.........]
> What would be really spiffy would be to
> have the electric and gas motors in parallel.
> Good Luck
> Bill Duff
The diesel-electric engine they're thinking of for the VW concept
is in the same line. I wonder how much it would cost to do an electric
Vanagon with a gas turbine assist???? The gas turbine has the character
of being real light, but has terrible low-end torque... With this combination
you could run the gas turbine only when your batteries are low, and at its
most efficient rpm. A good electrical motor could provide gobs of low-end
torque...
Hmmmm.... this may be an idea for the '82 diesel for the next couple yrs...
I wonder if:
1) I can fit the electric motor + gas turbine in the engine space...
2) how heavy would the combination be? (turbine+gas tank + electric
motor + batteries) -- would they add up to more mass than the
loss off weight duie to the removal of the diesel engine...
3) how much a small turbine/generator assembly would cost. I do know that
they used gas-turbine driven generators for aircraft due to ligther
weight... Anyone out there know where I can look?
4) Solar Panels -- If I'm not mistaken (I always forget the conversion
factor between kilowatts and horsepower -- anyone remember what it is?)
a back-of-the-envelope calc. that I did (assuming that one horsepower
is .75 kilowatts or so -- was it the other way around ? ) one might
get about 5-10 miles a day for free.. (10-hr sun summer day) e...
( I used the numbers I got from Sami for the solar panels -- a little
optimistically, though --- about 5 amps of charging current at 12V).
5) I wonder if they ever make propane-fueled turbine engines?
6) how does one ever register and license such a vehicle?
7) if the gas turbine based generator is affordable, but the DOT people
do not permit them in cars, maybe it can be packaged in a manner that
allows snap on/off installation into the car...
8) I guess even the batteries could be grouped so one does not have to
carry all the bulk for a small-town daily drive, and add more banks
for the weekend trip...
Any ideas ?? I'd like to do a rough feasibility on this, and if it looks
promising, well, maybe I'll go for it... I do have the '82 diesel camper
to try it on, if I can afford it...
Cetin