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Turbo Or Supercharger?


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After looking into Superchargers and turbochargers and the way they work the main difference seems to be where they draw their power:

Conventional supercharger- Coupled to engine via pulley and belt to drive compressor turbine

Turbocharger- Coupled to exhaust manifold and powered byexhaust gas flow

Electronic supercharger- powered from car Battery

Now essentially they all generate mass airflow and increase air pressure therefore forcing more air into the engine which the ECU compensates for by adding more fuel to maintain the mix and therefore increasing power.

Turbochargers suffer from heat issues due to the hot exhaust gasses passing through and need circulation of cold oil and an intercooler for the pressurised air to keep cold air flowing into the engine.

Conventional superchargers draw power from the engine so there is a slight performance trade off but seem to be more robust and have reduced heat issues compared to turbochargers.

Electronic superchargers suffer neither from heat or draw power from the engine (work alternator harder to maintain the battery) and as operate in the same way as the others I'm just wondering why they get such bad press as surely one of these done properly will cost less and has the potential to be as efficient as the other options without the heat issues?

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Unfortunatly not quite right mate,

Turbochargers suffer from Lag as the gases have to pass through the engine to reach the hot side of the turbo. yes they produce heat but this can be kept in using ceramic wrapping and turbo blankets.

Superchargers do produce heat, for example the TTE setup is rumoured to be more heat than power above 0.5bar.

Electric superchargers are not very good for two reasons. they are powered by the Battery, this needs to have power to run it, its charged by the alternator which is spun by the engine, if its got a bigger drain (of which the motor for the electric one is a huge draw) it has to work harder and so saps more power from the engine.

Also the electric motor may not have the same amount of torque as a proper supercharger/turbo and is probally in all honesty being spun by incoming air rather than sucking any in.

In this way it becomes sort of like a dynamo and may then charge the Battery slightly meaning the alternater does less and so a feeling of extra power may be felt.

Just my opinion anyway

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Unfortunatly not quite right mate,

Turbochargers suffer from Lag as the gases have to pass through the engine to reach the hot side of the turbo. yes they produce heat but this can be kept in using ceramic wrapping and turbo blankets.

Superchargers do produce heat, for example the TTE setup is rumoured to be more heat than power above 0.5bar.

Electric superchargers are not very good for two reasons. they are powered by the battery, this needs to have power to run it, its charged by the alternator which is spun by the engine, if its got a bigger drain (of which the motor for the electric one is a huge draw) it has to work harder and so saps more power from the engine.

Also the electric motor may not have the same amount of torque as a proper supercharger/turbo and is probally in all honesty being spun by incoming air rather than sucking any in.

In this way it becomes sort of like a dynamo and may then charge the battery slightly meaning the alternater does less and so a feeling of extra power may be felt.

Just my opinion anyway

how does an alternator sap power from an engine ?

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when you turn on a heavy draw item like the heated windows, electric seats does the revs not drop?

not being argumentative, appreciate your views

but an alternator just turns, and has no mechanical resistance(or very little)

by applying a load on the voltage side, the alternator doesnt and cant turn any faster or even apply any more load on the engine

the two sides, mechanical and electrical being separate

presuming that revs drop because the electric side is being loaded and sapping the Battery power

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So possibly using a batter with better delivery such as a leisure type of the same voltage may improve performance when thirsty accessories are being used? Slightly off topic but I'm just trying to get me head around the reasons why an electronic supercharger could not match the performance of a mechanical one and it only seems to be the ability to transfer energy (be it kinetic from the engine or electrical from the battery) into pressure and minimising the negative effects on engine performance. So if the Battery was man enough there is no reason why a well constructed electronic supercharger couldn't replicate the pressure generated by its mechanical alternatives without turbo lag and engine load performance reductions so in essence the only issue is excessively draining the Battery.

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So possibly using a batter with better delivery such as a leisure type of the same voltage may improve performance when thirsty accessories are being used? Slightly off topic but I'm just trying to get me head around the reasons why an electronic supercharger could not match the performance of a mechanical one and it only seems to be the ability to transfer energy (be it kinetic from the engine or electrical from the battery) into pressure and minimising the negative effects on engine performance. So if the battery was man enough there is no reason why a well constructed electronic supercharger couldn't replicate the pressure generated by its mechanical alternatives without turbo lag and engine load performance reductions so in essence the only issue is excessively draining the battery.

no

an electric compressor would need to be huge if it was going to produce the same pressure as a mechanical device

the one you see are not capable of blowing the skin of a milk pudding

not only would the motor need to be big so would the amount of batteries

a supercharger is driven directly by the engine, try emulating the power of an engine with an electric motor !

look at the hybrid/battery cars to see what is needed

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