Sticking a household fan in front of a car and waiting for the wind to blow is not going to provide any real boost to the batteries. In fact, the drag caused by the fan when the car is moving will probably cause it to be a net drain on the batteries.
Look at it this way. When used as a generator, the fan can only produce about as much power as it draws from the wall when used as a fan. How much power does the fan use when plugged into a wall? Not much. If you diverted the power to used run the fan to instead charging the batteries in the car then it would take days if not weeks to charge them up. Yet how often does the wind blow hard enough to move the fan blades as fast as when it is plugged into the wall?
This is a stunt, or at most a misguided effort by the farmer.
Tang Zhengping wanted to drive a wind-powered car. So he went ahead and built one.
It took three months to design, manufacture and build, but now the 55-year-old farmer from Beijing’s Tangzhou Wangji Yongle Town has a one-of-a-kind electric one seater, which he claims has a maximum range of nearly 90 miles.
His creation, roughly the size of a box-car, is powered by batteries and two sets of electric generators. A large fan installed in the front and a pair of solar panels in the back help supply power by charging either the battery or generator, depending on which isn’t being used at the time, he explains.
Altogether, the project cost Zhengping the Chinese equivalent of around 1,600 dollars.
With the automotive industry focusing on more practical, road-ready alternatives such as electric cars and hydrogen fuel cells, research into wind-powered vehicles rarely gets any press, which is kind of a shame. Previous concepts, such as the Greenbird, have shown promise by setting the world speed record with a top speed of 126.4 mph during run that was aided by 30 mph winds.
And what Zhengping’s invention demonstrates is that wind-power technology can, at the very least, be harnessed as a supplementary source of renewable power. For instance, it can potentially be integrated into future cars similar to how body solar panels or re-generative brakes are used to help recharge electric and hybrid cars.
But heck, who needs car companies when you can build it yourself — at least if you live out on a farm in rural China where the definition of street legal is probably a lot more laxed.
More game-changing car tech:
- Believe it! Car gets 3,000 miles per gallon
- Coffee-stimulated car smashes speed record
- Can odd-looking ‘diwheel’ be electric vehicle of the future?
- The world’s first 3-D printed car [video]
- Can air hybrid cars make it on the mean streets?
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