as for cars, the battery is recharge when the engine is running, but when fully charged, it automatically shut off. Where are the excess electricity going?we used to have frequent power interruptions here in our locality. So, whenever there is electric power.We connect some car batteries to a power regulator/dynamo installed to an industrial machine that should operate constantly. But having the electric power back on normal operation, the owner didn't bother harnessing this energy bcuz they say it was inconvenient.Is that typical of humans?
The voltage regulator turns on the small generator that is powered by the engine when the battery is low, and then the engine works a little harder, moving the car and turning the generator, and using a little more fuel. When the battery is fully charged the voltage regulator turns it off and the engine has a little less work to do and burns a little less fuel.
Burning the extra gas creates jobs somewhere.
Astonishingly, the solutions you have available to you are generally the most efficient that are available at the time. We're naturally lazy creatures, so we do as little work as possible to get the solution we want... thus also being as efficient as we can be. Knock yourself out on this one, but you'll soon see how silly it is.
There is no free lunch. The moment any electric energy is generated more fuel is burnt. Battery storage and later use has only about 60% overall efficiency. New technologies under an advanced stage of development on thin film solar cells and thin film ceramic batteries may soon bring down the cost of solar power drastically.
When your car battery is charging - energy from the gas motor is being used to create electric energy via the alternator. When the battery is fully charged, it stops pulling electrical energy from the alternator, which in turn stops pulling mechanical energy from the motor. Batteries do not generate energy, they only store it. When the power comes back on, you must use it to replace the energy you took from the batteries when the power was off. A battery is a tank of water, not a river.
