Ideas for science projects

[BrainDonor]

My 8-year old daughter has a math and science project to do in the next couple of weeks. Since we bought our LEAF about 6 weeks ago she has been very excited about it. She told all her friends and teachers at school so naturally, when it came to select a topic for her science project, she wanted to do something with the LEAF.

In order to keep the project at 2nd grade level, we will focus on the cost of driving the car. Her hypothesis is that it is cheaper to drive an electric car than a gasoline car. We will be using the data from Carwings for the duration of one month and our standard utility rates (no TOU here) to determine the cost for the LEAF. Every day on the way to school she reads out the price of gas at our nearest gas station and records it in her notebook; gasoline prices have gone up 5 cents in the last week alone! We will then estimate how much the gas would cost to drive the same amount of miles in our other car, a Toyota Sequoia (which we need to trailer the boat), and a direct comparison with the most efficient gas car, the Prius.

We informed the teacher and she was excited to see the results of the project since it is quite different than all the others. Her only concern was to keep it at grade level.

I wanted to start this thread to brainstorm what other "green" projects can be done involving the LEAF for various grade levels in elementary, middle, and high school.

 

[Caracalover]

I think this is the ultimate car to learn to drive in, learn about physics, and educate people of all ages how much energy it takes to move a mass any distance at all.

The same project parameters your daughter is using can be expanded. The cost of electricity from the wall is different than that which is used once it is in the battery. Carwings is ... shall we say a best case scenario? What is the resistance loss?

The power use meter is a wonderful feature that I wish all cars had. If people actually knew how much energy they were using to go faster, they might slow down. Lots of potential there for projects, showing how much energy it takes to go up a 1% grade at 25 miles an hour, versus 10MPH, etc. etc.

If you assume a useful 20KWH battery pack at full charge, and a 1% grade, how far could you go if you travelled at 50MPH? How far if you were using the AC and it was pulling .5KW? What if the heater was on and pulling 4KW?

How much energy is required to refine and transport a gallon of gasoline? How far would you be able to drive if that energy was used to charge the battery in the Leaf?

 

[Boomer23]

I'd recommend using one of the two on board energy efficiency meters that show miles/kWh of power used from the battery to the wheels. These meters are far more accurate than Carwings. At least record both Carwings and the on board meter and compare the results. As far as how much energy is actually expended, you need a measure of the energy lost in charging. Using my Aerovironment EVSE and a TED energy surveillance device, I'm seeing about 83% efficiency, or 17% energy lost in charging.

 

[walterbays]

I'm not sure what grade levels would be appropriate for these projects:

• Use Tony's range chart. Pick a destination with 3 different routes to reach it, with a different speed limit on each road segment. Calculate how much time and how many kWh it would take to reach the destination by each route driving exactly at the speed limit.
• For one of the routes assume that road profile keeps repeating for 200 miles. Assume that any time the battery runs dead there is an L2 charging station right there. How long will it take to drive the 200 miles? How long will it take if you go 10 mph faster than the limit? How long will it take if you go 10 mph slower than the limit? How long will it take if you drive a Ford Focus with 6.6 kW charger? How long will it take if you use a quick charging station?
• Same as above, but also assume an interesting elevation profile of the route.
• (Especially good if you live on the edge of a mountain.) On a map of your area, draw Leaf range "circles," but not the perfect circles that the Leaf's NAV system draws. For each of the major roads, take speed and elevation into account and plot the farthest range point in that direction. The "circle" will be stretched out towards the sea and squashed against the mountains. Along fast highways it won't go out so far, but if there is a good long surface street it may go much farther. Draw and shade the "circle" and compare with a topographical map.
• Start with problem 2 above. Assume the outside temperature is 25F, and that you use a constant 1.2 kW for heating. Now do you reach your destination faster by driving the speed limit, 10 mph over, or 10 mph under? At some point the energy required to heat the car exceeds the energy saved by more efficient driving at slower speeds. What is the optimum speed? How does the optimum speed change if instead of 1.2 kW for heating, you use only 0.3 kW for heated seats?