Fun with Voltage Controller Heatsinks
 

I'm converting a 1991 VW Golf to all electric, and planning on some aeromods to extend my range. This is my dream project (well, one of them at least) and I'm having lots of fun so far.

The Future Awesome:

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k2...h/P4100144.jpg

(Side note: You must look at this: Golf EV Aeromodders rejoice!)

Since I'm planning on adding a belly pan and blocking the grill, I am a little concerned about keeping the controller at the ideal temperature, since you lose efficiency and shorten the lifespan of the controller. That and scalding yourself on a 200 degree controller while showing off to your friends and family how safe and simple an EV is would be a little...crunchy.

My basic approach with this whole project has been to keep it simple (stupid) but also have fun, try new things out, and hopefully get other people interested in EVs as well. In the end I even get a cool car and a big 'FU' to the Oil execs out of the deal.


I'm planning either a 108v or 120v battery bank, depending on my battery shoehorning skillz, a Kelly KDH 120v controller, and a Warp 9 motor, so at max amps on a hot day, my controller could get dangerously hot.


But I had this idea. Its probably a detour from the KISS principle, but I wanted to see if this sounds crazy, or doable.

Heat pipes...

No direct airflow to controller necessary, no pump or voltage drain required. Heat pipes are used in various cooling applications because they are simple, cheap and effective ways to dissipate heat.

The limitations of heat pipes from Wikipedia:

Ok, so I need to figure out my target heat dissipation temperature, the expected average ambient temperature, a working fluid, and what materials to use to make it all work out.

The biggest consideration to start is ambient temp, since I have no control over the weather. At least not yet. The Northwest US is pretty mild weather wise, usually no more than a week or two of extreme cold or heat. 'Heat' around here qualifies as anything above 65-70F. The average temperature is around 45-55F. Extreme cold snaps do happen, but the blocked grill and bellypan help out at that point. The hot months of summer are the main concern.

The Kelly controller has an upper working temp of something like 120F and a lower temperature of 32F for optimum performance, the extreme ranges being -22F (If it ever gets that cold here, I'll have bigger worries than my voltage controller) to 212F, which, on a hot summer day may be possible for a hard working controller lovingly crafted in China. So lets aim at the safe side of the optimal operating temps, say 65-70 degrees for the target cooling point.

But what if it gets really really hot, or really really cold you ask? Well, there is a vacuum pump already planned for brake assist, why not use the vacuum for something else, since its there already? By installing a nozzle, check valve and a vacuum gauge, you can lower the pressure in the pipes, making the boiling point and target temp reasonably adjustable to varying seasonal averages.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q5gEZGoBnk

Now, its time to figure out what fluid to use. I just learned about heat pipes recently, so I don't know if there is some Gold Standard Fluid that (duh) everyone uses in their heat pipes, so I'll start with the cheapest idea.

You could use water with a little antifreeze. Never freezes, easy to get, easy to find phase change charts to adjust vacuum, plus it has that attractive slime green color. Downside is that higher temps could boil it to complete vapor. At regular atmosphere, water starts bubbling at 100F, and is a roiling boil at 212F. 100F is too far from our cooling target, assuming vapor is the main workhorse in the heat pipes magic. You would need to introduce vacuum to lower the boiling point to the temperatures you want to maintain. If higher temps do become a problem, you need a larger reservoir of water and larger condenser area.

You could get fancy with temp/pressure sensors, and automatic switches to regulate the pressure to optimize cooling automatically, but thats not cheap, or simple, just cool. Get it? Cool?:D

Sorry.

So this is where the materials and design specifics come in. I'm imagining an aluminum block big enough to fit the DC/DC converter (they cook too) and the controller on. Drill a grid of holes through the block, thread the holes and attach fittings to create a heat circuit (does that term even make sense?) then run hose to the condenser portion, basically a bunch of copper tubing or whatever coiled somewhere in airflow. The VW MK2's happen to have a good place for it.


Like so:

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k2...h/Heatpipe.jpg

Yes, that is MS Paint. Yes, I am a noob.

I think I'll be able to make this pretty cheap, at least cheaper than some of the cooling kits some places are selling for $200+

Any ideas? Hints? Opinions? Reality checks?

Thanks!

(Dear Mods: please feel free to eliminate the mystery double YouTube linky, I don't know whats up with that. Then feel free to erase this message as well!)

If you want to keep your coolant from boiling then you need to add pressure, not vacuum.

Avoiding the heat tubes issue entirely... the car looks great!

(Fixed your YouTube doubling up.)

I forgot to mention the pump is reversible, so you can do that too.

I'd suggest avoiding the heat pump as its just overkill and overcomplex. Your going to be adding weight, cost, and more things that can go wrong. Follow your KISS rule. :) Stick the controller somewhere that its going to get enough airflow. Use ducting if need be.

Keep the controller in the car. Put it in an enclosure with a fan that sucks air from the cabin. In the summer, port the exhaust air to outside the vehicle. That will keep you cool too since it will get rid of all the stale air in the car. In the winter, let it recirculate in the cabin. You'll be glad to have that heat, and it will be shielded from the elements..

I believe you are way overthinking this.
I agree with JohnnyGrey.
Go back to KISS.
S.

That was another option I was thinking of, using the heat from the controller to warm the cabin, and completely enclosing the controller is a good idea since the Kelly is not all-weather optimized. Its also not isolated, so reducing any chance accidental shorts is a good thing. I do want to avoid running a fan the whole time if I can, but I can duct air from the hood vent easily enough.

I know I'm breaking my own rules here, it just sounds like a fun experiment. I have most of the materials sitting around already, and I need to mount the controller on an aluminum plate anyways. The biggest cost would be the check valve and gauge. I think the weight would be pretty negligible though, 6-10 feet of tubing and a cup or two of liquid. I would need to adjust the pressure seasonally, so It wouldn't take much maintenance.

I got the idea from work, where we started using heat pipes to cool some heavy duty LEDs. They were getting super hot, now they remain room temperture, or cooler.

It's not even that complicated. Cut a hole in the enclosure for the fan. Mount the controller to your car floor. Cut a hole in the body of the car next to the controller. Place the enclosure over the controller and the hole in the car. Air will be evacuated from the cabin over the controller and out the hole in the body. For winter, take off the enclosure and simply have a fan circulating cabin air over the controller to cool it, and to warm the cabin.

PS - I was referring to having the controller inside the car, which would make weather a non-issue. The only use for the enclosure is to route hot air outside of the car. With the controller under the hood, not much of the heat would make it inside the car at low temperatures, and you would lose recirculation, which is your only hope of heating the cabin with such a limited heat source.

I'd like to keep the interior cabin as original as possible. There will be kids and a wife in the car often, and I don't want to get into ripping the dashboard up or sacrificing foot room, not to mention having the controller too far from the motor. I do like the idea of using the heat in the car,

I'll probably end up just mounting the controller on an aluminum plate and ducting some air to it, I have a IR temp sensor, so I can see how hot it gets after running for a bit, if the simple heatsink isn't sufficient, I'll do something else.

This just gives me something to think about while I'm waiting for parts to show up.