I know the air conditioning is driven by an electric motor? Am I corredt to assume that it is a 12 volt motor? We are still very pleased with the Prius. Saturday morning a friend gave me a ride in one of the small Buicks and it did not compare at all well especially the engine noise.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Perk @ Jun 3 2007, 03:18 PM) [snapback]454595[/snapback]</div> No, it runs off the high voltage battery.
Nope, it's a 200 volt motor, driven by a separate section of the inverter from the hybrid battery. . Think about it: the A/C needs at least 2 kilowatts to create enough cooling for the car's cabin, almost like a regular window A/C in a house. At 12 volts, that would be on the order of 200 amps into the motor, which is about like cranking the starter on a regular car. The voltage drop alone through those cables from the back would make that infeasible, let alone the fact that the whole 12V system is fused at 100A and never expects to get anywhere near that. . So a mere 10 amps from the hybrid battery, with a variable-speed system able to bring that efficiently down to just the amount of cooling needed, is the way to go. . http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/pix/udh2/800/scroll.jpg . _H*
Hobbit: Thankyou for your quick answer. It makes sense, with your input, it to be a high voltage motor. Also, thank you for the link to the photo! It is good to know that it is not a reciprocating compressor.
