Willie2 via EV wrote:
Here is a cautionary tale of conversions and air conditioning...
Ouch! It sounds like the guys doing your conversion are learning "on the job". :-( Let's see: Are these the takeaways from your experiences?
- Be sure there is sufficient belt wrap (looks like 120 degrees or so on the compressors I've seen). - Be sure the idler pulley is on the slack side of the belt. - A clutchless EV with a manual transmission does not work well for driving an A/C compressor with the traction motor. (Though I've done it with an alternator, and it seemed to work out fine). - I've heard of other people with the MasterFlux A/C setup, and it seemed to work OK. But it's a small sample size. Do you think it was a QC issue, or something else?
Wayne reported that he was using a 12vdc driven compressor with good results. Simple calculation revealed that there is just no way a 300w DC-DC can keep up with a sufficiently sized compressor.
I agree. The 12v system can't power an A/C of any size without the currents becoming enormous. It could power a small "chiller", to cool (for example) an insulated battery pack, to keep out the Arizona heat. But it would be totally inadequate for the interior of a car.
I tried a (name escapes me) pack voltage driven compressor. It seemed to be of sufficient size/capacity but the supplier was very difficult to deal with. I would never consider buying from them again.
Let us know if you or Steve recall who they were. Forewarned is forearmed. -- Problems that go away by themselves will be back with friends. -- Lee Hart's EV projects are at http://www.sunrise-ev.com/LeesEVs.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)
