An easy, but somewhat expensive approach for a conversion is with the MES-DEA RM4 fluid heater. It sits inside the hood area and connects to the original vehicle's heater core tubing. It supplies hot water to the core. The biggest advantage is that no work under the dash is required and all heater / ventilation controls work exactly like the original vehicle.
You do need an additional switch to enable the heater and circulation pump. (The ICE donor engine always made heat so no provision was normally provided in the original car.) Since the electric heater takes away range, you only want it running when needed. The MES-DEA does have some very nice features for easy use: - Thermostatically controlled. Turns itself off when the water gets hot. - Internal switch so you don't need a contactor. You control an enable input; not the high-voltage DC. I have mine turned off by the main contactor and ignition switch, but there is no separate contactor for heater operation. - Integrated 12V circulation pump. It is kind of loud, though. Mike > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Mike Scott > Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2013 10:47 PM > To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List > Subject: Re: [EVDL] Heat and defrosting an EV- basics, please > > "With a setup like that, however, you have to use an interlock so you can't > apply power to the heating element unless the blower is running. If it > overheats, the safety cutoff, which is designed for AC, is apt to weld closed > on DC. (Guess how I learned that lesson.)" > > I just finished wiring the thermal fuses in my ceramic heaters in series with > the contactor coil so that the DC will be shut down by the contactor's main > contacts. I was trying to sort out an air-flow switch that would inhibit the > contactor if the fan quit spinning, but ran out of time on that. All the > microswitches I had on hand took too much pressure to operate, such that > the slowest fan speed would never switch. I'm thinking optical gap detector > for the future. > > > On Sun, Oct 13, 2013 at 2:24 PM, EVDL Administrator <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > On 13 Oct 2013 at 13:53, David Chapman wrote: > > > > > In the ill fated Twike ... > > > > Ill-fated? > > > > http://www.twike.com/ > > > > Looks like it's still hanging in there. > > > > It's a tad pricey, though, at 23237 euro with the smallest battery. > > > > > they used a pair of Braun hot air styling wands. > > > > I've used pistol style hair dryers. They're annoyingly noisy, but if > > you can figure a way to keep them aimed at the windshield they do the > job. > > > > You very definitely need a contactor or a substantial relay to turn > > them off and on. > > > > I've also cut the "barrel" off such a hair dryer and fed it from a much > > larger DC motor blower. That reduced the noise quite a bit. > > > > With a setup like that, however, you have to use an interlock so you > > can't apply power to the heating element unless the blower is running. > > If it overheats, the safety cutoff, which is designed for AC, is apt > > to weld closed on DC. (Guess how I learned that lesson.) > > > > In my C-car I also used a box type space heater with a rewired > > nichrome element and the AC motor replaced with a DC motor. > > Alternatively, you could power the heater's original AC fan motor with > > a small 12v input inverter. > > > > There are also no doubt many small ceramic element portable heaters > > that could be used this way, though I'm not sure how many could be > > wired for lower voltage EVs (96v and less). > > > > David Roden > > EVDL Administrator > > http://www.evdl.org/ > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > > http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > > For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA ( > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev- > evdl.org/attachments/20131013/ad702f39/attachment.htm> > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA > (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
