JPAviation wrote:
: The 2004 Toyota Prius hybrid car has a Denso electrically powered air
: conditioning compressor that apparently does not need to be mounted on the
: engine. This offers the possibility of reasonably putting A/C in a homebuilt
: airplane. What comes to mind is one of these systems mounted in the aft
: fuselage (one way to overcome a nose heavy design) with a duct (with a
: retractable scoop) for air for the condensor.

Probably not feasible. Even a small AC unit will require many hundreds of
watts.... usually 1kW or more. If you do the math, at 14v, that's almost 100 amps for
just the AC. The hybrid can do it because it's got access to high-power (higher voltage
too) electricity. Think of how many electric AC's are in conventional cars.... and how
you have to turn off the AC in a four-banger going uphill. It takes a (relative) lot of
power to run an AC compressor.

-Cory

--
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* The prime directive of Linux: *
* - learn what you don't know, *
* - teach what you do. *
* (Just my 20 USm$) *
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