Using Waste Heat From Hybrid Vehicle Battery
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 07. 4.05
The batteries of a hybrid are not only a source of electricity, they also can produce a lot of heat - between 270º and 340º for the Zebra battery by Zytek Electric Vehicles. That firm is currently working on a heat exchanger system that would use that waste heat to keep the car's cabin warm in winter and cool in the summer. The advantage that such a system would bring is obvious: Climate-control in the car could be operated without drawing any extra power (or less power, in any case), making hybrid cars even more efficient. Along with other systems such as using the exhaust to power the air conditioner (we wrote about it here), this falls into the "turn a problem into a solution" category. Not a major breakthrough, but every little bit helps.
::UK Team Developing Hybrid Vehicle Waste Heat Heating System
Tgame is afoot as Mr Holmes would say. Waste heat can be used to power a thermo-electric coupling with heat exchanger that flows alternately cool or warm air to the cabin. This is the same technology used by those plug in coolers for use on a car or boat. Breakthroughs on thermocouple efficiency are looming, adding to the promise. Ammonia chillers, an alternate technology, are not going to fly in cars for obvious safety reasons. But the big gain and the one that no one seems to be speaking about publicly yet, will come when solar gain reducing window coatings are included in all models. Cutting solar gain 30% lowers the chiller demand proportionately, meaning that a much smaller compressor is needed in the air conditioner, which in turn means more electricity is reserved for propulsion.
Thermoelectric Primer
Thermoelectric tech is in existence and in use, and can make use of that waste heat with out the need for exotic sono-cooling or whathaveyou. Not sure why t-e couplings aren't a standard part of every vehicle already (hybrid or not) - there's so much waste heat coming out all over the place its ridiculous.
http://www.sustainabilityzone.com/comments.php?load_this=67
Ooops - there's my link. Didn't like my HTML in last post..
i wanna all info & issue a bout hybrid