/"Typical AC motor is probably around 85% efficient so 15% = heat. 100 amps at 150 volts = 15kw. 15% of 15kw =2.25 kw of heat."/ That's a fair amount of heat if you live in CA, but not AK, and that's assuming you can direct it to the cabin with 100% efficiency. Approaching that would require completely enshrouding the motor in some well-insulated plenum with ducting to collect air circulated around/through it from the cabin, and heavily insulating the ducting to/from the cabin. Otherwise at colder temperatures such as -10 F (-23 C), much of the heat will be lost under the hood and the air inflow to the cabin will be tepid at best. You also still have the problem of fogging with recirculation of cabin air with moisture added from human bodies, and you don't know what's entrained in the air circulated through the motor that you are breathing.
The first electric heater core I used in place of the original core only produced about 900W max. It felt somewhat warm at 40 F (4 C) ambient, felt cool at +10 F. However, I think I recall Roland saying less than 1kW heats his cabin well in MT after re-insulating his cabin, so it might be made to work if everything was heavily insulated. The Commutacar reminds me of VW bug cabin heating from the engine. The ducting was integral to the unibody construction with no insulation just steel. By the time the air got to the cabin it was cool. I drove one for a 80 mile round trip. On cold winter days I clearly remember getting out and feeling like my feet were bricks, completely numb, despite having 2 pairs of wool socks and multiple layers of clothing on. -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/Re-Heating-system-tp4672239p4672295.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ 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)
