How much electrical energy (kwh) is used by an average car to drive the spark plugs, lights, radio, etc?

To save gas, I want to disconnect my car's alternator and then connect the car's battery to a battery charger in the evening. I know I won't be able to go long distances, but I should be able to go at least 30 km (21 miles)? I know because the alternator belt broke one time and I was able to drive for quite awhile without it.How much electrical energy (kwh) is used by an average car to drive the spark plugs, lights, radio, etc?If you are judicious with your loads, you should be able to get by with less than a 30 Amp draw on your battery. If your drive takes 45 minutes, then you will have used:



12V x 30A x (45/60) = 270W-hrs. (0.27kW-hrs).



This may save you a bit, by being able to charge your battery at home, BUT BEWARE.



Your car battery is not designed for the multiple deep cycling that this service will force upon it.



In your economic analysis, plan to replace your battery about 2 years sooner than normal.How much electrical energy (kwh) is used by an average car to drive the spark plugs, lights, radio, etc?If you have your lights, heater, and wipers running, plan on a roundtrip of 3 miles or less.How much electrical energy (kwh) is used by an average car to drive the spark plugs, lights, radio, etc?* Your acid/sealed-acid battery is not designed to be drained daily. That's a trick Li-Ion / Ni-Cd batteries used in mobile phones and laptops are capable of. But then they're incapable of operating in your engine compartment and will also be very expensive if they're offered in a 70Ah-or-something fashion with a cold-start ability of 300A-or-something.



* An alternator becomes stiffer when electrical load on it becomes bigger. In normal conditions it can be rotated as easy as a kitchen fan.



* I ain't a mathematician, nor a physicist (I am a systems analyst, for the record), but considering Craigory's upscale (30A is not drawn even by Enzo's engine electrics @ 8000 RPM) calculations, 0.27 kWh is nearly nothing comparing to what a typical 100 HP (= 75 kW) engine wastes in other ways in an hour.



* Honestly, the amount of fuel you're gonna save removing the alternator is far less than if you do not carry the spare tire with you, but to get real, it's better if you:



1. Install a fuel magnetizer, a real original one with neodymium magnets, brands like %26quot;Super Fuel Saver%26quot;, etc., great results (up to 27%) for something that stupid-looking and cheap, just like what http://www.fuelsaverpro.co.uk/ or http://www.wholly-water.com/magnetizer/s offer.



2. Keep your injectors / carb clean. Even replace them completely on multi-yearly intervals. No spray- / additive-cleaned one works like a new one, even if you're using top brands like STP.



3. Keep your ECU / carb tuned. Diag your ECU every now and then. Do not over-rev your car even for a few secs, most ECUs become untuned when raced.



4. Oxygen sensors and catalytic converters are green, for nature's sake, indeed, not for your pocket's. You can't blow in a catalyst removed from a car with 20000 km on the dash without giving yourself a hernia, how could your engine do? Replacing my catalyst on my Pug after 20k gave me 1.5 secs faster 0-60 and 4.2 secs faster 1-100 on the same (upward) slope the same day.



5. Take good care of your spark plugs, keep them in shape, adjust the gap from time to time, and replace them when they're no longer teen, just like a gal.



6. Even if your car has adjustable hydraulic values and/or variable valve timing, it's good for the shims to be adjusted when you sense it's needed. Nothing, even the perfect machine, the human being, is automatically adjustable as claimed. This is felt more required when the car is driven through different weathers.



7. Air filter is the lung of the engine, keep them new, and replace them faster if your place is air-polluted. You're engine will run like a smoking guy running if the air filter is polluted.



8. Do not hit on gas for acceleration, instead tap on it and push more along with the rev going up. Use proper (lighter) gear if you luckily do not use one of them lazy-matics: Why automatics need to cool off their oil? A proof to waste of energy: Only high-performance cars with manuals have gearbox heat deflectors, but nearly all automatics do. Did you know an automatic TH-400 tranny of the 70s (best of the 70s, even used in Humvees then) was wasting BIG percentages of engine's torque/power, so a typical 1978 400 ci (6600 cc) automatic Trans Am could do only 123 MPH in its heydays, and that was only for a few minutes, before it breaks down!?



9. Keep your car light, a lot of people are too fat themselves, and/or have a junk yard stuck in their trunk and/or back seat. A rule of thumb says for a normal car, every 100 kg (220 lbs) adds 1 liter/100 km to your fuel consumption (MPG-conversion is not possible, since MPG is not linear in this case.) See, F430 Scuderia do not even have floor carpets, this is a hundred pounds less, believe me or not.



10. Keep your tires' pressure accurate. Less pressure results in better handling, but also warms the tires up which makes excessive tread wear, and less MPG. Excessive pressure makes tires unreliable and gives you bad handling.



* We're said each of these items could give us something like 5 to 10% less consumption. If half of it is right, every guzzler should be turned into a Civic.