alt.energy.homepower

"Arnold Walker" wrote in message
news:1188945488_13801@ ...
>
> "sno" wrote in message news: @ ...
>>
>>
>> Daniel Who Wants to Know wrote:
>>>
>>> The Difference is that the output of alternators depends on engine speed
>>> and
>>> that to provide full power continuously the car would have to at least
>>> be at
>>> high idle. Also most alternators on cars will overheat and burn out if
>>> asked to provide full rated amperage for very long. To get full output
>>> for
>>> hours instead of minutes would require a truck or ambulance alternator
>>> that
>>> was designed for a 100% duty cycle. Also to provide that output the
>>> engine
>>> would have to be on at all times just to spin it which would use lots of
>>> gas. The Prius OTOH doesn't have an alternator, it has a liquid cooled
>>> 100
>>> amp dc-dc converter which uses the HV bus to supply the 12v bus.
>>> Because of
>>> this not only will it provide the full output until the car runs out of
>>> gas
>>> but since the engine only cycles on a few times an hour to recharge the
>>> traction battery it would consume less gas for the same output which
>>> means
>>> more time between refills.
> All of which is done on high powered stereo custom installations.

The OP was posting an article about something that you could do easily to
power part of your house, not a custom SPL vehicle.

> Of course, you can come out cheaper and get a Harley with the water cooled
> option than a Prius.
> Run a PTO generatorhead unit.......

The Harley is a motorcycle not a car

>
> Or you can pickup a farm tractor and run the head on it .

Once again the point was using your mostly unmodified car to power your
home. If the point were about buying something just to power your house a
Honda inverter generator would be easier than a tractor.

> They also do that with frieght trains in disaster areas while the supplies
> are coming.
> A Dash 7 locomotive can kick out 2MW while plugged into a community
> supply.

Good to hear that they can kick out power when needed.

> It's just a shame Prius didn't do as good a job of copying the technology
> in thier little car.

The Prius is just a model name, the sentance should have been "It's just a
shame Toyota didn't do as good a job of copying the technology in thier
little car." Besides that they didn't want to copy it because trains are
expensive, heavy, and travel on rails and cars are cheap, light, and travel
on roads.

> All that BS, you mentioned on the electrics was prefected on rail
> locomotives 70years ago.
> The Prius has not matched technology of locomotives built 30years ago,
> yet.

Locomotives are serial hybrids with only an electrical link between the
engine and the wheels. The Prius is a serial/parallel hybrid in that when
starting out and at low speeds most of the engine power is routed through an
electrical link and at highway crusing speed most of the power goes through
the direct mechanical link which is more effecient. Toyota thought about
using a serial system but it would have resulted in poorer mileage on the
highway, they thought about a parallel system but Honda already did that
and they didn't want to copy them either, in the end the series/parallel
system they came up with using the power-split device and two
motor/generators (Honda's system only has 1) works very well under all
conditions.

> May when we start hearing fly-by -wire multi unit connections and braking
> with slip control.
> So you can get even better performance by stringing 10 prius together with
> lead driver in control
> of the entire integral towbar, hitch ,and multi control unit.
> Might even not need to start your engine because towunit would drag your
> ass down the tollway far enorgh that
> the regenerative charging would have your batteries fully charged when you
> exit the tollway.
>

People who drive cars don't want to have someone else in control the whole
point of having a car is to be independant. If we wanted someone else in
control we would all not have cars and would ride the bus instead. Also the
Prius is already by-wire in that the accelerator pedal is just a position
sensor, the shift lever is just a switch because the only thing that
"shifts" in the transaxle is the motor driven parking pawl, and the engine
throttle is motor actuated.

I think anyone who wants to bash the Prius should do some research before
assuming that it is a bad thing. For instance name one other item with a
NiMh battery that always keeps the SOC between 40 and 80% and charges it in
short high current pulses.