Cooling chargers?
Posted: Wed, 18 Sep 2019, 14:06
G'day people,
As you may be aware my battles with chargers seem to be a never ending story! I have used both TC/Elcon chargers and KPES (Kingpan) chargers and have had both types fail at various stages. At present I have a 2kw (or is that kW? - I should have checked Weber's post before I started writing this post) KPES charger in the car. I also have 2 more KPES chargers coming from China in the next few days. One is a 1.5kW charger and the other is a 2kW charger. The 1.5kW charger will go under the bonnet and be used in conjunction with the existing 2kW charger to charge at public charging stations and the new 2kW charger will sit in the boot in case the other two blow simultaneously as has happened before.
I prefer the KPES chargers as they are open to the air at both ends. One end of the charger has two large exhaust fans which turn on at a predetermined temperature and a vent at the other end which allows air to flow into the charger to replace the air exhausted by the fans. I realise that this means water can get into the chargers more easily than with fully enclosed chargers but it does allow the chargers to heat up less quickly. The vent end of the chargers is as per the following photo:
As we are coming into our summer months I am worried about the chargers overheating and am thinking about adding a small fan to the "vent" end of these chargers to help force air into the charger. Maybe this would get more air through the charger rather than just relying on the exhaust fans drawing air through. It should look like the following photo:
I suppose I have a couple of problems with my own plan above:
a) The body of the fan on the vent will actually close off two of the "slits" in the vent which may allow less air to get through the vent? Any opinions?
b) I think(?) the existing exhaust fans are turned on at 40 degrees C but I can't find where I got that figure from? I will wire up the new smaller fan with a thermal switch but the only one I can find near to 40C is the Jaycar switch which turns on at 50C. Therefore a possible scenario could be that the charger reaches 40C, the exhaust fans turn on and attempt to draw air out, The fan at the vent end of the charger won't turn on until the temp reaches 50C. So, until the charger's temperature reaches 50C, the exhaust fans won't be able to get much air out?
Of course I will add heat sinks to the top of these chargers as well.
Any opinions?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Cheers Paul
As you may be aware my battles with chargers seem to be a never ending story! I have used both TC/Elcon chargers and KPES (Kingpan) chargers and have had both types fail at various stages. At present I have a 2kw (or is that kW? - I should have checked Weber's post before I started writing this post) KPES charger in the car. I also have 2 more KPES chargers coming from China in the next few days. One is a 1.5kW charger and the other is a 2kW charger. The 1.5kW charger will go under the bonnet and be used in conjunction with the existing 2kW charger to charge at public charging stations and the new 2kW charger will sit in the boot in case the other two blow simultaneously as has happened before.
I prefer the KPES chargers as they are open to the air at both ends. One end of the charger has two large exhaust fans which turn on at a predetermined temperature and a vent at the other end which allows air to flow into the charger to replace the air exhausted by the fans. I realise that this means water can get into the chargers more easily than with fully enclosed chargers but it does allow the chargers to heat up less quickly. The vent end of the chargers is as per the following photo:
As we are coming into our summer months I am worried about the chargers overheating and am thinking about adding a small fan to the "vent" end of these chargers to help force air into the charger. Maybe this would get more air through the charger rather than just relying on the exhaust fans drawing air through. It should look like the following photo:
I suppose I have a couple of problems with my own plan above:
a) The body of the fan on the vent will actually close off two of the "slits" in the vent which may allow less air to get through the vent? Any opinions?
b) I think(?) the existing exhaust fans are turned on at 40 degrees C but I can't find where I got that figure from? I will wire up the new smaller fan with a thermal switch but the only one I can find near to 40C is the Jaycar switch which turns on at 50C. Therefore a possible scenario could be that the charger reaches 40C, the exhaust fans turn on and attempt to draw air out, The fan at the vent end of the charger won't turn on until the temp reaches 50C. So, until the charger's temperature reaches 50C, the exhaust fans won't be able to get much air out?
Of course I will add heat sinks to the top of these chargers as well.
Any opinions?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Cheers Paul