F150 Lightening
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Forum Discussion
time2roll wrote:noteven wrote:Of course.
Before a new argument over generator fuel gets going…
Isn’t a watt a watt regardless of the energy source that was converted to generate it?
Unfortunately the calculated need for electricity is coming from converting the about of crude burned instead of the EV miles driven.
I question the main assumption of that calculation saying that the typical efficiency of an ICE drive train is 35%. I have tried to look it up for cars but have struck out, that is why I resorted to using the Honda EU 7000 as a base for my calculations.
Fuel Capacity 5.1 gallons
Run Time 6 hours @ rated load
AC Rated Output 120/240 5500W
1 btu per hour =0.29307107 watts
5.1 gallons/6 hours = .85 gallons/hr
.85 X 130,000btu/gal for gasoline = 110,500 btu/hr input
110,500 btu/hr X .293 watts/(btu/hr) = 32,376 watts input to the generator
However, the generator only puts out 5,500 watts.
So its efficiency is 5,500 watts out/32,376 watts in = 0.17 or 17%
Even only using 17% thermal efficiency of conversion it is still more efficient to pump that energy into an electric car than an ICE vehicle so I don't think that it is too low. Either the 35% efficiency estimate for an ICE engine is 100% too high or the electric car is much more efficient at using its power available. Either way, it looks we would only need about 7 power plants instead of the fifteen that was calculated by noteven.
Still a lot but cut down to size quite a bit.
