Adding electric compressor to run a/c while truck is off?

I've been interested in this particular subject for quite some time. I have a Civil and Mechanical Engineering background. The proposed advancements should've been here 10 years ago. Very quickly I will try to use some basic engineering principles to tell you what I expect and have expected in HD OTR trucks for quite some time. I expect the utilization of EPS (electric power steering), Electric HVAC and high voltage large capacity safe lithium based batteries on existing HD truck architecture. Your large trucks run about 600 HP and use very little of that once you are rolling at speed. Why not utilize much of that excess by generating high voltage electric power for storage in a large traction style battery for use during your downtime and eliminate idling forever. The most practical high voltage matches our household current, i.e. 240-250 VAC+. An electric battery pack from a hybrid vehicle or small electric vehicle the closely matches your current 4 block battery box should provide enough electricity to run electric HVAC for several days and yet reserve enough power to start. Your alternator and electrical system can be converted or modified to supply the 250 VAC+ current to recharge the battery over the entire driving day. Good insulation, pre heating or pre cooling should give your cabin a head start in thermal regulation of your sleeping berth. You s/b able to run you refrigerator, TV microwave and HVAC all weekend w/o idling provided that the battery is large enough.

The removal of your A/C compressor from the engine bay and all of the associated vibration will reduce your points of failure and the complexity of A/C entanglement. The removal of the heater from your engine bay will reduce your points of failure and engine bay entanglements. Commonly used HVAC duct-work and condenser piping will become a coachwork exercise and no longer an engine bay exercise. These modifications are easily redesigned and implemented w/very little retooling. Electric A/C compressors are already all over the world and represent the majority. To that point and more commonly, our N American Tesla, Prius and Nissan Leaf all use electric A/C compressors and electric heaters. So there is no reinvention required. We just need to be smart and get the HVAC out of your engine bay and stop using long out dated 12V lead acid batteries. You can store so much more energy in the same basic space if you use high voltage Li-Ion. You can use that energy to make yourself comfortable and happy over extended periods of time. If only we would USE our existing technology now. BTW, we already have electronic control units to step down power to 12-14VDC for common uses about the automotive cabin. We have all the necessary hardware but we lack the will to use it.

 

Well said. Something to think about for sure!

 

sounds like a good idea

 

These are some awesome ideas that you put into laymans terms nicely. How does this get suggested to manufacturers?

 

You cannot count on days of power from batteries alone.

Over and over and over and over continuing in all of my trucks the alternator would quit, tossing the truck onto batteries only and I have about 4 hours to find me a shop before the 4 batteries quit.

In those days you had a natural air breathing desiel which I will want buried with me, you can run on that when everything else has died. Today's trucks cant run for *&^% if you aint got volts. That's not right. Someone or several someones created a monster with all this tech.

I intend to get a gennie as well, but one that will take fuel from the vehicle and feed a floor unit for cooling while exhausting out the window over night. You can buy a Floor AC for a computer room in walmart or newegg etc for a couple hundred if that. It burns in Arkansas several months of the year and I add that cooling to the main air conditioning to fight the burn on my radiator equipped computer.