Lets take a look at the winner of the last Vetter Fuel Economy Contest:
Matsu Matsuzawa… what an inspiration he was! After six years of contests, we learned that it takes about 3.3 (round up to 3.5) horsepower to push a person down the road in real highway conditions at posted speeds. Remember, the national speed limit was 55 mph. In the contests, I allotted 3 hours to go the 136 miles route.
No other machine has gone so far so fast while consuming so little fuel.
Matsu Matsuzawa used about 1/3rd of a gallon of gas. Please take a moment to read about the winners:
http://www.craigvetter.com/pages/470MPG/1985%20FER-Open-class.html
Nobody in their right mind would actually drive something like this as real transportation because you have to make yourself real tiny. It is just too uncomfortable. But we did learn the essentials of fuel economy: At a minimum, it takes streamlining and 3½ horsepower. This is real world truth… not theory. Now we have some idea of the minimum we need.
Twenty-five years later, we imagine a time when there is no gas at the pumps and no power in the grid. Could we harvest this amount of energy from our homestead collectors?
In an hour, these panels will collect one horsepower of energy.
One horsepower is not enough. At the very minimum we need 3-½ hp to go 55 mph if we want to drive for three hours, like Matsu did in the Vetter contests. To collect the power equivalent to the gasoline used by Matsu (probably the world’s most fuel efficient vehicle) these panels would need to gather energy for 3 times 3 ½ hp. Therefore, these 4 panels would have to collect the power from the sun for 10 ½ hours.
Note:A solar day is considered to be 6 hours. It would take almost two days to collect this amount of energy from the sun. Hmmmm… The Bible says the truth will set us free. The truth can also make us mad.
Or, we could install more panels and collect the energy quicker
(13) panels @ about $600 each. Looks like a major investment, doesn’t it? Sure takes up a lot of room. Collecting the energy from the sun for 3 hours will give us the same amount of energy in the gasoline Matsu used:
20 ounces of gasoline produced 3 ½ hp for 3 hours and took streamlined Matsu 136 miles. Gasoline packs a lot of energy, doesn’t it? No wonder it has been our energy of choice for vehicles.
(13) 200 watt solar panels, on the homestead roof to the right, gathering energy from the sun for 3 hours would harvest the same amount of energy. This is good basic stuff to know.
Can we generate 3 ½ horsepower on our vehicle while it is traveling?
Matsu’s streamliner would have to drag this many panels around.
You would have to tow a trailer bigger than a semi truck, filled with tracking solar panels. And, they would somehow have to track the sun as you turned corners. I have no idea how much power it would take to pull this mess down the road at 55mph. But, this vehicle is no longer streamlined. And, it would take a lot more than 3 ½ hp to travel at 55 mph. Some people think this can work. I don’t think so.
What does this mean, Craig?
It means that technology in 2010 does not allow enough energy to be harvested from solar panels on the vehicle to collect the energy we need to drive sustainably.
Yep… the truth can make you mad.
The good news is: Our homestead-mounted solar panels will continue to generate power for the next 20 years. After 3 hours of driving, the gasoline will be gone forever.
Let this sink in. Tell me what you make of this.
We seek the truth.
There is hope.
Craig
Please correct me if you find errors.
