Alain Sepeda <[email protected]> wrote: > > I was assuming time to switch on of about 5 minute, taken from defkalion > (most of my computation are from defkalion hyperion) >
I do not know whether we should call this "switch on" or "ramp up" but yes, this is what I was looking at as well, when I estimated that a cold fusion powered car might need about 6 minutes of battery power at maximum speed. (One-tenth hour) When I say "ramp up" I mean I assume the cold fusion cell will remain turned on at all times, and when the driver turns on the car and prepares to drive off, the cold fusion cell will be boosted high temperatures as quickly as possible to drive a steam turbine or thermoelectric device. If that can be done in 30 seconds or so, then you need only a small number of batteries, like today's standard Prius. You might even use direct mechanical drive from a steam turbine. Although people might object to having to wait 30 seconds before driving off. That might be dangerous. Note that a Prius takes about 3 seconds to "boot up" its computer controls. If you drive off before that completes, the control panel goes ape shit and you think you are about to lose control and have it accelerate into a wall. Turbines are kind of slow to respond to controls. Jet engine aircraft are less responsive than propeller-driven ones. There was a gas turbine automobile prototype in the 1970s. I do not know what it was like to drive. It made a heck of a noise, I think. - Jed
