Why no electrical intercooler cooling?
Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2006 6:52 pm
There are stupid questions below. You may need to get a beer first.
We just got a new fridge today. Let me back up. I'm a whisky man. And I like it single malt -- single barrel if I can find it, and I generally take it with a single or sometimes (for the 59.6% stuff) double distilled water ice cube. So this new fridge has one of those stupid "makes ice cubes that spill all over your freezer" things, which I proceeded to rip out when I got home today.
In the process of ripping it out (I was literally a-gouging with a phillips at one end and yanking with my right hand on the other end), I perceived what was my first 120vac shock in many years (I hadn't done this since back when I was soldering boards as a kid. However, I have gotten many a 20,000+ vdc shock when fussing around with ignition). This is a sensation you don't really forget, as it's rather unique. However, it appears I was wrong. I was not shocked, I was burned. And in fact, I think the proper terminology would be "I burned the shit out of my right hand" (maybe I should head to the Arlington Pediatric Center).
Now, now, what has this got to do with cars? Well, as you know, in order to make something very cold, you must make something else very hot. I think we all understand this. So this ice cube making thingie has a coil on the bottom of it which dissipates heat, and a corresponding coil on the top which freezes the (tap) water into their cute little buckets.
Now, said ice cream widget is about the size of my TMIC, and I could probably further disembowel it to get both the hot and cold parts out of it. And since it lives on 120vac, it's easy enough to get an inverter for 12vdc. This would mean, in theory, that I could keep my intercooler at a frosty 32F, whilst somewhere else in my car, something would get hot enough to burn the shit out of my hand. Again.
I have some curiosity about this, though, so here's where the stupid questions start.
If you are using power to drive the cooling element to cool the intercooler, you are creating additional draw on your alternator, which will result in lost power. The net effect might be negative power, even with a colder intercooler. Especially at tame boost levels.
Consider also the "electric supercharger." These have the same problem. They're able to generate 5-6psi and a fairly good CFM rate, but because they're such a horrendous draw on the alternator, the power you make with the additional air is lost generating the wattage for the supercharger.
Furthermore, I suspect I am not smarter than the guy who designed the placement and configuration of the STI TMIC. In fact, I bet he's a lot smarter. And I'll bet, if he thought he could electrically cool it, while venting heat to the atmosphere (say by a muffin fan or something), he woulda done it.
So what am I missing here?
We just got a new fridge today. Let me back up. I'm a whisky man. And I like it single malt -- single barrel if I can find it, and I generally take it with a single or sometimes (for the 59.6% stuff) double distilled water ice cube. So this new fridge has one of those stupid "makes ice cubes that spill all over your freezer" things, which I proceeded to rip out when I got home today.
In the process of ripping it out (I was literally a-gouging with a phillips at one end and yanking with my right hand on the other end), I perceived what was my first 120vac shock in many years (I hadn't done this since back when I was soldering boards as a kid. However, I have gotten many a 20,000+ vdc shock when fussing around with ignition). This is a sensation you don't really forget, as it's rather unique. However, it appears I was wrong. I was not shocked, I was burned. And in fact, I think the proper terminology would be "I burned the shit out of my right hand" (maybe I should head to the Arlington Pediatric Center).
Now, now, what has this got to do with cars? Well, as you know, in order to make something very cold, you must make something else very hot. I think we all understand this. So this ice cube making thingie has a coil on the bottom of it which dissipates heat, and a corresponding coil on the top which freezes the (tap) water into their cute little buckets.
Now, said ice cream widget is about the size of my TMIC, and I could probably further disembowel it to get both the hot and cold parts out of it. And since it lives on 120vac, it's easy enough to get an inverter for 12vdc. This would mean, in theory, that I could keep my intercooler at a frosty 32F, whilst somewhere else in my car, something would get hot enough to burn the shit out of my hand. Again.
I have some curiosity about this, though, so here's where the stupid questions start.
If you are using power to drive the cooling element to cool the intercooler, you are creating additional draw on your alternator, which will result in lost power. The net effect might be negative power, even with a colder intercooler. Especially at tame boost levels.
Consider also the "electric supercharger." These have the same problem. They're able to generate 5-6psi and a fairly good CFM rate, but because they're such a horrendous draw on the alternator, the power you make with the additional air is lost generating the wattage for the supercharger.
Furthermore, I suspect I am not smarter than the guy who designed the placement and configuration of the STI TMIC. In fact, I bet he's a lot smarter. And I'll bet, if he thought he could electrically cool it, while venting heat to the atmosphere (say by a muffin fan or something), he woulda done it.
So what am I missing here?