Ok, so I am a thirteen year old environmentalist and i have my goal set in life. To create a vehicle for everyone that runs on electricity. I love electric cars and i have drove one before. There quiet and slick. I have plans for one already and I am an eighth grader whiz. I am very interested in this field but i need some information. I would like to start actually building a car either in the summer, or a year or two from now. But before i get into that i am going to ask about school.
School:
should i take Earth Science or Biology? What subject would prepare me better for all of this.
i am in algebra one and take geometry next year
i have wood chop next marking period and we build an air car (tiny compressed air though)
Should i go to a new jersey vocational school in the future?
what should i Base my classes and electives around?
any good colleges after high school (thinking ahead)
I also would like some incite on your experiences with electric cars, any thing is good.
The actual cars now.
first, am i to young to start this journey?
is this a good thing to do and am i going to enjoy it?
now about this car again…
material: titanium body and plastic roof
titanium is stronger than steal but lighter than aluminum
plastic roof will be explained faster
(is titanium too expensive? an alternatives?)
Speed: 40mph
(just for now but eventually i would progress)
windows :Plexiglas
(light and durable, super strong kind)
range: 20-30miles
(more is great but its a start)
mirrors, windshield wipers, up and down windows, fits at least two people, doors, small front that doesn’t extend out like i.c.e. cars, just simple for now but it will progress as i get older and more intelligent. and we need a radio
parts being used:
building a motor and system is a lot of work, time, and money. So i figured that i could buy a commercial one.
wheels, not too heavy but not too ugly
solar cells on top of the car that feed electricity to the batteries, evergreen
batteries? any idea what is readily available and cheap?
budget? what should my budget be?
motor and axel? and ideas?
this needs a lot more work as you can see, but i am determined to create a street legal electric car. I was looking around for solar ev’s and came across this one. should i buy this kit and transform it into what i could see? this comes with most of what i need.
http://www.sunnev.com/
please share your incite, i do have a few more plans for this car, but they are very complex. email me if you would like to talk or shed some light on the situation.
WOULD THIS WORK?
would my idea work or would it way the car down too much adn make it slow and heavy?
the car creates its own energy like the Chevy volt but does not give off pollution.
Using the Faraday effect, i would turn the axle into a generator. The axel would be magnetic or made with magnets and a large spoil of wire would be placed around it. as you drive and the axle spins that spins the magnets, this could potentially charge the batteries.
^^^^^would this work? too heavy? to small? not enough energy?
Thank you for your time and thanks for reading this!
i am serious and any good programs or books to use? and any educational things that i can use.
Asked by:Interactively Eco-Friendly
That is a very long question that has a lot of little questions inside of it. Some may not read it all while others will miss some of the details. You might be advised to break it up into smaller parts that can receive specific attention.
First, you are never “too young” to have an interest in any subject. But the level of your interest may vary with age as will the amount of detail and backround you will be able to contain. But I believe that a good backround knowledge and general skill level is helpful in approaching any subject. You can think of almost any field of study, economics, legal, engineering, fuels, politics… and apply it to electric vehicles. Also what you initially study may not be directly related to your eventual occupation. So at your level I would maintain your core academic subjects while you pursue your interests on the side in every way you can.
Soon you may be inclined toward a more technical perspective vs an academic one. If that were so vocational training may be in your future. If you were more academicly inclined you may find yourself pursuing electrical or mechanical engineering and still be fairly close to the nuts and bolts aspects. But even an accountant may find themselves working for an electrical vehicle operation of one size or another…
With respect to your surplus energy system, a little more physics would allow you to know that this is not currently considered possible. What you are suggesting is a system that would have an efficiency (amount put out over the amount of energy put in) of greater than one. This is also known as over unity or perpetual motion. The concept conflicts with the law of conservation of energy. Instead of adding energy it would take energy from the system and slow the vehicle. A similar idea is commonly known as regenerative braking.
Many of the materials of any vehicle have to be able to withstand a crash test. Some of yours might pose hazzards and therefore problems. Others may not be economical
It is possible that you will come up with something that no one else has thought of or a new way at looking at something that everyone else has ignored but it is unlikely that this will come without a great deal of work to understand what has already been done before. This is your challenge: to keep your enthausism, interest, and fresh perspective while learning from those who have considered such things before. I wish you the very best with it and hope that you will return to give us your insights along the way.
There’s no better way to learn about building EVs then to build one.
The best home built car in my opinion would have a polyurethane foam and fiberglass composite sandwich for body, and carbon fiber frame, with titanium where the moving components are joined. But that is little too ambitious for your first project.
For your first car you just want to get it built, don’t worry about making it perfect, you can modify it later on or move on to new projects.
Solar panels are also expensive. Here’s a good deal on an 80 watt panel.
80 watts is a little more then 1/10 horsepower.
when you pedal your bicycle you’re probably averaging about 75 watts of power, and you average 15-20 mph. For short bursts you can get up to 300 or maybe 400 watts, but only for a very short period of time. Lance Armstrong can’t even produce much more then that, but his superior conditioning allows him to produce that power for long periods of time.
So if you make the vehicle light enough, that solar panel could move the car at an average speed of 10 mph. If you want to go any faster then that, the solar panel will just be there to extend the range. But I say scrap the solar panel, it’s too expensive and it complicates things and doesn’t really give you that much benefit.
Your axle generator idea is good thinking. Of course you should know it would take more power away from the wheels then it would put back. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use the idea. It’s called regenerative breaking. Any electric motor can also be an electric generator. For regenerative breaking, you need a controller that can reroute the power back into the batteries from the motor thus slowing down the car.
I would recommend starting with a rolling chassis and building your electrical components into it. Get yourself a used 4 wheeler, which you can pick up cheap because you don’t care if the engine runs, as long as the chassis, suspension and breaks are good. Then pick up the rest of what you need here:
I recommend the sevcon millipak controller because of it’s regenerative breaking capabilities, coupled whatever motor you like the best, I think the pmac is the best value at 48V. Then get a throttle and 4 12v batteries. It will all cost about $2000, and be a pretty kick *** electric vehicle.
But before you even do that, you can get a fully functional EV, out of the box, for $300 here:
For education, it sounds like you’re in to engineering. Don’t worry about vocational stuff unless it sounds like fun to you. Take your math and science classes and apply to whatever college you want.
In some cases biologist identify a problem and engineers solve it (and perhaps cause it) consider the study of physics and electronics which could lead you to perhaps new energy discoveries.
Some electric car designers have gotten distracted creating a space age chassis. Some smaller companies go the 3 wheel route to avoid the millions in federal safety compliance costs, a 3 wheeler is considered a motorcycle.
Consider doing a simple electric car conversion as a first step, you may be able to find some corporate donations to fund the project. Telephone or security companies may have used power backup batteries that would be a step above using lead acid batteries. You could send out a professional press release to free distribution services describing your project plans, this might be picked up by the local press.
Have you seen the electric skate boards and bikes around? that might be a place to start. Radio control hobby motir, battery and controller components are state of the art, you can find brushless motors up to 2700W size, a typical commercial commercial skateboard uses a 500w motor.
You can get a realistic idea of what backyard engineers are able to achieve at evalbum.com
There are more related links here hubpages.com/hub/Electric-Car-Conversions-A-Real-World-Report