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Old 08-10-2008, 02:06 PM
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SteveFromNY SteveFromNY is offline
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Default Re: golf carts(again)

Quote:
Originally Posted by villages07
This is not to be judgemental of gas vs electric, just a question I've wondered about.

Does anyone know how good or bad gas powered golf carts are as it relates to pollutants that they emit? I assume these gas engines do not contain any pollution controls on them like we have in our autos. I had heard or read somewhere, unconfirmed, that they emit more pollutants than an auto.

Anybody know the facts???
V07 - You are right about pollution control devices, and I'd bet in an apples-to-apples scenario, the golf cart would produce more pollutants. Not unlike all of the lawn mowers and tractors cutting our grass everyday. They do not have the catalytic converters cars do, and all of the other computer gear designed to run more efficiently.
But it's hard to do apples-to apples. A car has 4, 6 or 8 cylinders. Golf carts have 1. And if you drive your car for a lot of miles I'd bet the car would produce more pollutants over that greater distance. At 50 mph a car is probably running at 2500 revolutions per minute. Each turn of the engine spits out exhaust. The cart turns much slower - don't know the number. But the point being the golf cart motor is less efficient but in terms of absolute number of pollutants in the air from exhaust fumes, I think the car produces more.
I hope I was clear....