You do Science. I liek you.
You explained it very well. But as an aficionado of all things automotive, I can tell you that a larger alternator does not increase the drain on the engine much at all, only adding a second alternator or a larger alternator with a smaller pulley would decrease engine power significantly.
Instead of just an alternator, it would be an efficient idea to run a generator from a gearbox that would be in place of a conventional alternator. A generator will generate more electricity the faster it is run, whereas an alternator supplies the same amount of current no matter how high it goes as long as it is above a certain speed. if you run a generator geared to make more electricity while keeping the same pully size on the engine, and gearing it such that the smaller gear on the generator would be going faster because it is geared by the larger one, you would have lots more electricity with little more strain.
In this schematic:
- is the crankshaft, from which all engine accessories get thier power. When you add more belts and more accessories, it puts more strain on the engine which has to create more horsepower and torque. This is why your car will run weaker when your Air Conditioner is on, because when the AC is on, it engages a clutch that causes one more accessory to be added on to the load that must be taken on by the crankshaft.
- is the small gear that goes to the front of the generator.
- is the large gear that gears the smaller gear for the generator. As you all should know by now, when you run a small gear from a big gear, the small gear makes many more revolutions per minute than does the large one.
- are just all the other accessories like AC, power steering, and thermactor (wikipedia it if you don't know).
In a normal car there is no number 2 and number 3 is the pulley on the front of an alternator.
Anyway, this setup would make more electricity and with a voltage regularot installed it would not hurt your electrical performance either.
