The reason Honda does not offer Day Time Running Lights

[amazonEX-L]

For the record - all honda vehicles (including the ridgeline) in Canada have daytime running lights.

[laserfan]

Originally Posted by Featser

...Basically, the more electrical demand, the more the voltage regulator draws power from the engine...

No!!! The VR doesn't draw ANYTHING from the engine! The alternator is outputting what the alternator outputs, which is determined by windings, wires, etc. and the speed at which the engine spins it. The voltage regulator keeps the alternator from overcharging the battery, that's all. Otherwise the alternator, which spins all the time, would boil the battery into lifelessness.

Look guys, I don't normally get involved in internet arguments (indeed i love u guys!), I honestly was mostly reacting to the notion that turning off your lights was somehow "good for the environment" like turning-off lights at your home or business. It's just not the same. Keeping your engine tuned and your alternator belt adjusted for minimum drag on your engine is good for MPG, reduces fuel consumption, and is good for the environment. But not to worry, that 5000watt stereo you installed is not going to add to environmental woes one darn bit!

I get really tired of the "stretching the truth" that goes on among environmentalists (back to that "howstuffworks" nonsense) to try to scare people.

[laserfan]

Originally Posted by vertrkr

Sorry, guess I wasn't clear. I'd be driving my car and all is normal, turn on my lights and the belt would slip and screech, turn off my lights and it would not slip. It was not slipping all the time, only when I'd turn on my head lights.

Man, I can not explain this, unless as I've wondered all along that some alternators may have acquired clutches like a/c compressors.

Another interesting example. My friends car had a totally dead battery, shot, goner, would not take a charge when we pulled it and put it on a trickle charger. However, the car was a stick and we were able to push start it and get it going. Something was supplying juice to the spark plugs, radio, door lights and so forth and it certainly was not the battery.

This one's easy though, when you pushed the car you at some point "popped the clutch" engaging the engine and in turn the alternator, which outputs enough juice to fire the spark plugs.

You can drive for a while with no alternator (until the battery becomes depleted) and you can drive indefinitely (well, actually until you turn off the car or the gas runs out) without a battery. But you need both.

Here's an idea: instead of an alternator to charge the battery, instead put a fan blade in front of the Ridge that spins as the truck zooms down the road, and re-charges the battery. This would actually work, provided there was implemented a total ban on all drive-thrus and other idling of vehicles. Well, there would still be those CA traffic jams, and you'd be dead-in-the-water.

Feeling a little like Don Herbert here. Anyone old enuf to know who him?

[Featser]

Originally Posted by laserfan

No!!! The VR doesn't draw ANYTHING from the engine! The alternator is outputting what the alternator outputs, which is determined by windings, wires, etc. and the speed at which the engine spins it. The voltage regulator keeps the alternator from overcharging the battery, that's all. Otherwise the alternator, which spins all the time, would boil the battery into lifelessness.

Respectfully disagree. The voltage regulator is a switch. We agree the regulator prevents over-charging of the battery, but where we differ is I think it does this by reducing the demand for electricity from the generator. Under your scenario, please explain where the energy from an alternator goes when there's no load and the battery is charged. Conservation of energy requires it go (be consumed) some where. Also, if there's no difference on the load placed on the engine if you have a 5000w sound system vs. no load, why don't we hook up the power grid to a car's alternator and we'd have free power.

Lastly, don't recall this being an environmental debate.

[csimo]

Wow, a lot of bad info in this thread.

An alternator does not product DC current! It produces AC current that is converted to DC via the output diodes and diode trio.

The field current on an alternator is fairly stable, but the control voltage varies. An alternator CAN NOT produce any more electric than is being used. There's no dummy load in an automobile.

If an alternator is running at say 3000 RPM it can be producing anywhere from nearly zero current to whatever the full rating is at that RPM. This is by varying the control voltage.

So yes, it takes much more power to turn an alternator when the battery is low, or high demand periods than it does with a fully charged battery and low demand.

Want to prove it? Just loosen your alternator belt. Make it so it just runs quiet when the headlights are off... then turn on the headlights. Even with a fully charged battery the belt will squeal. If the alternator was producing a constant output it wouldn't matter if you turned the headlights on or not... but it does.

Everything you use that draws electric reduces your gas mileage in some way. Maybe too insignificant to calculate, but it exists none the less.

[swampler]

Originally Posted by csimo

An alternator does not product DC current! It produces AC current that is converted to DC via the output diodes and diode trio.

The diodes are part of the alternator, therefore the alternator does prodcue DC current. But, I know what you mean!

[laserfan]

At times like these, I usually invoke the comforting words of two of my most favorite philosophers:

Max Black (from "The Principles of Really Sound Reasoning") - "Never argue with a man who is wrong!"

Laserfan - "For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert!"

[LadyRidge]

Pretty strong electrical current flowing through here now isn't there!!
( So shoot me...I'm non-confrontational and a conformist. )

[laserfan]

Originally Posted by ladyridge

Pretty strong electrical current flowing through here now isn't there!!
( So shoot me...I'm non-confrontational and a conformist. )

Hmmm, I *was* going to shoot you, but we don't have that particular smiley available to us on the forum! Probably a good thing, huh!

[Featser]

Originally Posted by laserfan

At times like these, I usually invoke the comforting words of two of my most favorite philosophers:

Max Black (from "The Principles of Really Sound Reasoning") - "Never argue with a man who is wrong!"

Laserfan - "For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert!"

I'm not escalating - I'd truely like for you to explain how your theory works. If you don't wanna, that's fine.

"I'd agree with you, if you were right" - Robin Williams

"We're all free to believe what we want, but that doesn't make it right." - Featser