Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Wind Power for Cars; the Disempowerment of Drivers with Blinding Lights

Image by Rick Geary

Hi Matt:
Recently I was gobsmacked by two ideas so obvious that they must be wrong...I mean, since nobody’s using them. First, I thought of wind turbines in electric cars. Propelling the car would run air through the turbine to charge the battery. My guess is that the problem is that the turbine would catch the wind and create resistance that would impede the vehicle. The other obvious idea that must be wrong is this: people sometimes pedal bicycles to power generators to run small appliances. Why is it that the wheels on electric cars can’t be used to feed power to charge the battery?
— Margaret

Sponsored
Sponsored

You’re right about the first problem in that it’s a zero-sum game. In order for one party to win, the other must lose. You could only generate as much power with a wind turbine as you spent pushing the car through the air to turn that turbine. You’d be robbing Peter to pay Paul, as the expression goes. Wind turbines are also fairly inefficient and convert only 40–60 percent of their kinetic energy into electricity, so you would be looking at an impressive net loss of energy. I found an interesting study from last year’s Renewable Energy Congress in Sweden where the authors proposed putting turbines inside the car to allow airflow through the vehicle. The hypothesis was that cancelling the effects of “form drag” (caused by air pressure inequality in front of and behind a moving object) would negate the effect of friction drag caused by the turbines grabbing air to generate power. Nice idea, but it only sort of worked out in testing and it needs a lot more exploration if it’s ever to become practical.

The wheels on electric cars are used to power the batteries, albeit in a slightly different way than what you’re thinking. The bicycle-powered generator takes force that you’re applying to the pedals and translates that into electrical energy. If you did the same thing with an electric car, you’d be taking the energy that the engine puts out, capturing it, and sending it back to the batteries; much like the problem of a turbine on top of a car. That would be a fun engineering problem but a bad way to power a Prius. I saw it written that “the secret sauce of an electric car is not in how it accelerates, but how it brakes.” What electric cars do is capture the force that the road exerts on the wheels during braking. The electrical motor basically turns into an alternator that generates electricity while it slows the car down, which is a genius idea and the thing that made hybrid cars possible in the first place.

Heymatt:
How bright is too bright for headlights? Sometimes, I feel blinded by the brightness of some people’s headlights on their vehicles, especially if it’s a tall truck sitting right behind me or a motorcycle with a huge light or two. I know they want to be seen — why not a big flashing neon sign that says, “Watch Out, Here I Am”? There must be some law against blinding others on the road in the name of safety. Can I turn those people in? Maybe I am one of them and don’t even know it?!
— Blinded, via email

Automotive regulations come from a whole host of sources that create quite the tangle of red tape. There are federal regulations as well as standards determined by the Society of Automotive Engineers (that’s the S.A.E. listed in motor oil viscosity grades like 10W-30), but it’s ultimately state regulations that impact you and me and everybody else on the day-to-day. California Vehicle Code chapter 12 has plenty of legalese on what constitutes acceptable headlights. Pretty dull stuff, but the codes unanimously agree that it’s not okay to shine directly into the eyes of oncoming drivers. They also limit the height at which lights can be mounted, done in order to prevent big trucks from searing your retinas by virtue of altitude. If people are “beaming” you, then it’s nothing more than a lack of courtesy that’s causing your blindness. I know a lot of motorcycle riders follow the conventional “wisdom” of leaving the high beams on at all times to increase their visibility on the roads.

The California Highway Patrol does pull people over for driving around with the high beams on or for having headlights that are blinding other drivers. Confusingly, new halogen technology produces massive candlepower, but any headlamps installed by automobile manufacturers are in keeping with all the regulations and industry standards I mentioned before, so they’re technically legal and not going to merit a citation. Aftermarket headlamps can be super bright, misaligned, or illegal colors (only white and yellow light is allowed to shine from the front of a vehicle), which can blind you for the sake of someone’s vanity or bling factor. In those instances, you could alert the CHP and they’d have an officer stop the offender and investigate the lights, provided someone was nearby. Don’t call 911, though. Use the CHP non-emergency number (800-835-5247), because, while annoying, shiny headlights aren’t an emergency in the conventional sense.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

East Village Tree Lighting & Holiday Market, Holiday Gondola Cruise

Events November 30-December 4, 2024
Next Article

Colorado governor Polis’ days in La Jolla canyons

Why Kamala might not run for Calif. governor
Image by Rick Geary

Hi Matt:
Recently I was gobsmacked by two ideas so obvious that they must be wrong...I mean, since nobody’s using them. First, I thought of wind turbines in electric cars. Propelling the car would run air through the turbine to charge the battery. My guess is that the problem is that the turbine would catch the wind and create resistance that would impede the vehicle. The other obvious idea that must be wrong is this: people sometimes pedal bicycles to power generators to run small appliances. Why is it that the wheels on electric cars can’t be used to feed power to charge the battery?
— Margaret

Sponsored
Sponsored

You’re right about the first problem in that it’s a zero-sum game. In order for one party to win, the other must lose. You could only generate as much power with a wind turbine as you spent pushing the car through the air to turn that turbine. You’d be robbing Peter to pay Paul, as the expression goes. Wind turbines are also fairly inefficient and convert only 40–60 percent of their kinetic energy into electricity, so you would be looking at an impressive net loss of energy. I found an interesting study from last year’s Renewable Energy Congress in Sweden where the authors proposed putting turbines inside the car to allow airflow through the vehicle. The hypothesis was that cancelling the effects of “form drag” (caused by air pressure inequality in front of and behind a moving object) would negate the effect of friction drag caused by the turbines grabbing air to generate power. Nice idea, but it only sort of worked out in testing and it needs a lot more exploration if it’s ever to become practical.

The wheels on electric cars are used to power the batteries, albeit in a slightly different way than what you’re thinking. The bicycle-powered generator takes force that you’re applying to the pedals and translates that into electrical energy. If you did the same thing with an electric car, you’d be taking the energy that the engine puts out, capturing it, and sending it back to the batteries; much like the problem of a turbine on top of a car. That would be a fun engineering problem but a bad way to power a Prius. I saw it written that “the secret sauce of an electric car is not in how it accelerates, but how it brakes.” What electric cars do is capture the force that the road exerts on the wheels during braking. The electrical motor basically turns into an alternator that generates electricity while it slows the car down, which is a genius idea and the thing that made hybrid cars possible in the first place.

Heymatt:
How bright is too bright for headlights? Sometimes, I feel blinded by the brightness of some people’s headlights on their vehicles, especially if it’s a tall truck sitting right behind me or a motorcycle with a huge light or two. I know they want to be seen — why not a big flashing neon sign that says, “Watch Out, Here I Am”? There must be some law against blinding others on the road in the name of safety. Can I turn those people in? Maybe I am one of them and don’t even know it?!
— Blinded, via email

Automotive regulations come from a whole host of sources that create quite the tangle of red tape. There are federal regulations as well as standards determined by the Society of Automotive Engineers (that’s the S.A.E. listed in motor oil viscosity grades like 10W-30), but it’s ultimately state regulations that impact you and me and everybody else on the day-to-day. California Vehicle Code chapter 12 has plenty of legalese on what constitutes acceptable headlights. Pretty dull stuff, but the codes unanimously agree that it’s not okay to shine directly into the eyes of oncoming drivers. They also limit the height at which lights can be mounted, done in order to prevent big trucks from searing your retinas by virtue of altitude. If people are “beaming” you, then it’s nothing more than a lack of courtesy that’s causing your blindness. I know a lot of motorcycle riders follow the conventional “wisdom” of leaving the high beams on at all times to increase their visibility on the roads.

The California Highway Patrol does pull people over for driving around with the high beams on or for having headlights that are blinding other drivers. Confusingly, new halogen technology produces massive candlepower, but any headlamps installed by automobile manufacturers are in keeping with all the regulations and industry standards I mentioned before, so they’re technically legal and not going to merit a citation. Aftermarket headlamps can be super bright, misaligned, or illegal colors (only white and yellow light is allowed to shine from the front of a vehicle), which can blind you for the sake of someone’s vanity or bling factor. In those instances, you could alert the CHP and they’d have an officer stop the offender and investigate the lights, provided someone was nearby. Don’t call 911, though. Use the CHP non-emergency number (800-835-5247), because, while annoying, shiny headlights aren’t an emergency in the conventional sense.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

City Lights: Journey Through Light & Sound, Hotel Holiday Tea Service

Events December 7-December 11, 2024
Next Article

Elevated ice crystals lead to solar halos, Cottonwoods still showing their tawny foliage

New moon brings high tides this weekend
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader