Electrically driven AC

[fitz]

i thought i'd start a new thread rather than hi-jacking ozzy's but all this removing belt drain from the engine for power got me thinking about the air con. Whilst you guys are mostly after power, the increased fuel economy would be a boon...every little helps these days...

but back to the point, the Toyota ES18 compressor fitted to the prius is electric, so potentially something else that could be converted to leccy along with the water pump and potentially PAS? if you wanted to keep cool in the summer

Still trying to find prices, but i'm guessing if you knew what you were going it would be "toooo" difficult as its just the compressor?

Rich

[robertverhey]

Hmm an interesting thought. I imagine any motor that needs to pressurise an A/C system must draw a lot of current......so maybe an upgrade to charging system would also be needed? The Prius of course has a massive battery....wonder if that's what makes it feasible?

Robert

[fitz]

Upon some further investigation, the compressor requires a 288V feed which comes from the prius' 288V battery! so you are right!

From a little more research i did find a couple of heath robinson Electric car conversion forums which have had setups where the belt driven compressor is simply driven by an electric motor instead of being part of the pulley system, however this isn't as neat a solution and you would have to find somewhere to place the motor and the extra weight and inefficiency of the setup would likely negate any advantages from less stress on the engine when the AC is not in use..

Pity, as in the UK they AC would see relatively little use (for me anyway) running the car daily throughout the year, but its really nice for those hot days not to get to work sweaty and bothered!...seems a shame you pay for it 100% of the time with the pulley drag

[hodders]

I find the AC useful for demisting the front windscreen and that reminds me to switch it on at least every month or so.
I never notice any drag or drain on the performance with it on.

[robertverhey]

There should be no pulley drag when the aircon is not on. It's only when the clutch on the front of the compressor clicks on that it actually does any horse-power robbing work.

So it's just the extra weight. I don't notice much power loss when I have the aircon on (which is a lot of the time in Oz)....180bhp is more than enough to keep you cool and motor in style!

Robert

[fitz]

Ah - I didn't realise that!, 180 bhp is more than enough...it was if it was robbing me of excess fuel!...lol, 50kgs for AC and PAS is worth it for those hot summer days...