I don't know if anyone has ever thought of or if they have heard of a conversion like this, but here goes.

I want to go to an electric A/C compressor. Like what the 04+ prius uses (link) .
What do you guys think? Possible?

The reasons why I'm thinking of this are because it will reduce the load on the engine and I'll be able to use the A/C while the car is off! The latter is the best reason for me to do it as their are a lot of times when either my wife or I am in the car waiting because the kids are asleep and the other is shopping. So, we end up waisting gas. I know this conversion would cost more than the comparative gas cost of idling the engine, but still I've been considering it for a while.

Lets not forget about the AC Belt break that happened to me in April, yeah no belt = no break

 

Not a clue. Need someone with some engineering background to chime in

 

the gas you save by turning off the engine probably won't save you enough $$$ to pay for the electric drive unless you use it a LOT.

Plus, A/C is run off of the engine because it takes a TON of power to drive; keep in mind the prius has a huge battery array. Your car only has the one... A/C will own that battery so fast it's not even funny.

I have a 9000 btu portable A/C in my room @ home, and that thing uses something like 1000 watts of power...

 

Remember I said, while my kids were sleeping and the wife is shopping. Think about how long that can be

I can run my car without the engine running for hours with my 1200w subs pounding... Turn off the subs and run the A/C instead. Sounds like a good compromise during those hot summer days

Since I have a mac mini in the dash, it turns off when the car battery starts getting low, then I'll know to start the engine back up. Not too much of a problem to me.

Still don't know what I'm going to do though. I have to get some real tech specs on that compressor that the prius uses. As far as power goes, I plan on either getting a second alternator or finding a high output alternator. Then another yellow top. So, I honestly don't think power will be that huge of an issue. I could be wrong.


But I do agree with you that the toll it would take on my electrical system probably wouldn't be worth it. Like I said, I'll look in to it.

I just thought about it. Your window A/C is built to cool off a much smaller space, so obviously it would consume more power. Your compressor on your car is much smaller. So, I doubt it would consume 1k watts.

 

1200w subs arnt pounding out 1200 watts all the time; they use power in bursts.

I do know that the load from the AC compressor is high enough on the engine that it actually is constantly turning on and off based on speed, engineload, and throttle position.

If you do make any siginificant discoveries, I'd be very interested

btw, my room's AC isnt a window unit, its a self contained AC unit that's made to cool roughly 180 sq ft... The load is so high that I actually run an extension line from the circuit outside the house.

 

Hmm, my post didn't post.
Anyway, I found out last week that I would need to supply over 200Volts 3 phase AC to the compressor. To many things are required to get it to run. So, it is a no go for me.

(I had links and quotes and everything last week, but I'm not looking it all back up )