David's 2001 Civic EV (80-100 mile range; 65+ MPH; 8 second 0-60)

[TheSGC]

Originally Posted by Daox

Have you been commuting with the Civic for the past week? How is it doing?

My dad once again had the EV this past week because my younger brother took his minivan camping. But I get the EV tomorrow!

I drove it 4 days last week and it went great. I'm now getting ready to get the air conditioner working as its getting hot here.

And my work is officially install 4 J 1772 plugs this summer!

[BrandonMods]

Amazing build! I would love to build my own someday, this is truly inspiring.

[TheSGC]

Due to the insane heat, I haven't driven my EV in a few weeks. The charge would over heat and stop charging. So I am installing a blower into the trunk. The decision I have to make is either make it blow air into the trunk, over the charger, or suck it out of the trunk.

I'm also working on installing the motor for the A/C this weekend and I'm going to start more testing on it.

[Rishar]

Originally Posted by TheSGC

Due to the insane heat, I haven't driven my EV in a few weeks. The charge would over heat and stop charging. So I am installing a blower into the trunk. The decision I have to make is either make it blow air into the trunk, over the charger, or suck it out of the trunk.

I'm also working on installing the motor for the A/C this weekend and I'm going to start more testing on it.

I'd go for out the trunk. Blowing air in would push it up to you whereas out would pull air from the front of the vehicle, helping to cool you as well

[Astro]

Originally Posted by Rishar

I'd go for out the trunk. Blowing air in would push it up to you whereas out would pull air from the front of the vehicle, helping to cool you as well

I would have went for the opposite, blowing air into the trunk. If you suck air out of the trunk then it is replaced by air entering from all the little gaps and drainage holes. Bringing all the collected dust and dirt into the trunk.
Blowing air into the space is the way it is done in the passenger area so i would do the same.
I wouldn't imagine it would require a great deal of air flow and also it would only be used during charging so you wouldn't be in the car to be impacted by the small amount of air that may make it from the trunk into the passenger area.

[TheSGC]

I went to install my blower today and while thinking about where to put it I discovered that there was a vent under the trunk lining right next to the charger. So I cut away the lining and flipped the charger around so the fan would suck in fresh out from the outside!

I'm going to test that out for a while and maybe add a few small fans instead of the 320 CFM blower.

I'm also going to redo the headliner as its coming apart. I found some real nice foam-backed headliner material at the JoAnn Fabrics nearby so I will buy some once I get to that project.

[nemo]

I thought the vent is for flow through ventilation. Design to bring in fresh air to the cabin in the front and exit here. This can be confirmed by which direction the flap works. You may be better off exhausting your pack here. You will be going with the normal air flow both under and through the car and less chance of drawing moisture into the battery pack. Just my thoughts.

[TheSGC]

Originally Posted by nemo

I thought the vent is for flow through ventilation. Design to bring in fresh air to the cabin in the front and exit here. This can be confirmed by which direction the flap works. You may be better off exhausting your pack here. You will be going with the normal air flow both under and through the car and less chance of drawing moisture into the battery pack. Just my thoughts.

The little vent is actually used to equalized pressure in the trunk, according to the shop manual. It makes it easier to open up and close the trunk.

The real issue with the charger is that the fan runs at a slow speed at 120v and twice as fast at 220v. If I charge at 220v, everything is fine, but at 120v and hot weather it tends to over heat unless I crack the trunk open and blow an addition fan on it.

[nemo]

Originally Posted by TheSGC

The little vent is actually used to equalized pressure in the trunk, according to the shop manual. It makes it easier to open up and close the trunk.

That actually makes sense.

[Astro]

Originally Posted by TheSGC

...
The real issue with the charger is that the fan runs at a slow speed at 120v and twice as fast at 220v. If I charge at 220v, everything is fine, but at 120v and hot weather it tends to over heat unless I crack the trunk open and blow an addition fan on it.

Is that the inbuilt fan in the charger?
So at double the rpm the air flow rate adequate. So at least you know the air flow rate you need.
Is it possible to crack open the charger and replace the fan with a higher flow version? So that you get a higher air flow rate at 120v and overkill air flow at 220v.

If there isn't enough room inside the charger for a higher flow rate fan then maybe remove the internal fan and bolt a higher flow rate fan to the outside of the casing.