Electrical AC

975 Views 3 Replies 2 Participants Last post by brian_, Oct 1, 2021

J25GTi

Discussion Starter · Sep 30, 2021

Hello everyone,

I'm Jamie from the sunny UK and I've found your forum based on some research I'm doing into electrical AC compressors rather than belt-driven units.

I am hoping you guys may be able to help me as it seems this isnt a done thing very often for a retrofit!

I have a 1992 Subaru Impreza Type RA JDM import, its running roughly 600hp and we race it in time attack and sprints.

I want to find a suitable 12v compressor to use to fit an inter chiller onto the car as where the standard AC compressor would normally live, now has a throttle body in the way. I want to set it up to run a chilled water circuit and replace our very large Air-Air intercooler for a Water-Air intercooler.

However, deciding which compressor would be best is the difficult bit, it will ideally be readily available second hand, run off 12v, or have a readily available power supply etc, I want to keep this as simple as possible really!

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks guys!

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brian_

· #2 · Sep 30, 2021

The voltage is an issue. Air conditioning takes a lot of power, and electrical power is voltage multiplied by current, so to avoid excessively high current it is better to run at high voltage. A typical car's 12-volt electrical system can't produce enough power to run an air conditioner, so electric air conditioning is usually found only in hybrids or electric vehicles, running from the high-voltage battery. As a result, the experience of EV builder with electrically-powered air conditioning is usually with systems powered by about 100 to 400 volts, not the 12 volts available in a conventional car.

There are 12 volt systems mostly used in the custom car market, for older vehicles that were not available with air conditioning.

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J25GTi

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 30, 2021

brian_ said:
The voltage is an issue. Air conditioning takes a lot of power, and electrical power is voltage multiplied by current, so to avoid excessively high current it is better to run at high voltage. A typical car's 12-volt electrical system can't produce enough power to run an air conditioner, so electric air conditioning is usually found only in hybrids or electric vehicles, running from the high-voltage battery. As a result, the experience of EV builder with electrically-powered air conditioning is usually with systems powered by about 100 to 400 volts, not the 12 volts available in a conventional car.

There are 12 volt systems mostly used in the custom car market, for older vehicles that were not available with air conditioning.

Thanks for your reply.

I see, so these systems don't use something like a transformer etc to run from 12v up to 300, they are already 300v systems?

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brian_

· #4 · Oct 1, 2021

J25GTi said:
I see, so these systems don't use something like a transformer etc to run from 12v up to 300, they are already 300v systems?

Right - it is much less expensive to build a motor for the correct voltage than to build for the wrong voltage and also provide a voltage converter.

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