Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Finding

an efficient air conditioning solution for electric vehicle conversions is one

of the greatest challenge facing individuals doing EV conversions today.

Despite the fact that air conditioning is a necessary luxury in modern

automobiles, few readily available solutions exist for electric

vehicles.

Regular

AC solutions are very inefficient, even for use in vehicles with internal

combustion engines. The problem is more pronounced in electric vehicles because

conventional AC solutions significantly reduce EVs driving range by drawing

from the limited power storage that their batteries can hold. In such cases

many electric vehicle owners opt to roll down the window and allow the rushing

wind to do much of the cooling.

If

having air conditioning is a must, then one of the following solutions can be

considered for use in your electric car:



Use a Peltier cooler - Peltier

coolers use Peltier modules to super cool a contact surface across which air

can be blown to cool the interior of the vehicle. The Peltier effect was

named after Jean Peltier who observed that when a current was past between

two dissimilar metals (type P and N), that one metal became very hot and

the other very cold. Peltier modules are quite flexible, in that they can

provide heating or cooling on any of the two surfaces by simply reversing

the polarity of the current. The principle is use in some computer CPU

cooling systems but can be adapted for use in automobiles. Some popular

solution providers include CoolIT and Ferrotec that provide complete

modular solutions that include temperature displays and controllers to

ensure the efficient operation of the cooling systems. Peltier cooling

systems may also be referred to as TECs or thermal electric coolers.





Use a compressor with an

integral motor - More recently some manufacturers have integrated

motors into compact air conditioning units that are specifically designed

for electric vehicles. Masterflux offers one such solution in their Sierra

line of products (model 06-0982Y3). The Prius and some electric car

conversions use similar solutions. These units utilizes a variable speed

controller to maximize efficiency http://ey2013-italia.eu/?p=111