Quote:
Originally Posted by Woodsmith
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Yet if the controller needs to be cooled by a water jacket, presumably because blown air isn't enough then there must be some level of heat output.
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Seems that way, I know, but taking the Soliton1 as an example, the absolute worst case loss (300V/Quiet Mode/~600A) is under 2kW, which over the course of 1 hour comes out to ~6500 BTU. This is also "low grade" heat, hitting maybe a peak of 55C. More typical losses - cruising down the highway at, say, 300A, and with a 192V pack - would result in a downright paltry 400-450W of heat, which is around 1500 BTU.
In comparison, the typical cabin heater that operates on engine coolant at a temperature of 90-100C delivers somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 BTU.
I like your ideal of the black/finned tube running along the dashboard, though, and there might be enough heat output - especially from a Zilla Z2K (2W per Ampl) at full bore - to defrost a windshield all by itself, but you'd have to drive at autobahn speeds to get that amount of heat which kinda defeats the purpose...
I much prefer the idea of keeping the liquid
cooling loop for the controller separate from a liquid
heating loop for warming up the cabin.
Specifically, look into electric water heater elements to do the latter job. Some care needs to be employed when switching DC - regular relays and contactors just won't do - and your pack voltage needs to be at or below the
RMS Voltage rating of the element to work (or you need to use PWM to average it down to that point... a product I am going to whip up one of these days since it seems to be useful/desirable).
My two pence, anyway.
Re: Water Cooled Controller Heat
Linear Mode
