Could someone pls. describe to me how the independent heat/cool system works.....

[ryan roopnarine]

it has nothing to do with my car, per se, but for a design project i have to do. my understanding is that there is some type of electric element to produce heat with the engine switched off? i'm not even sure how the a/c would work. please enlighten me, if you all would.

[Mr Project]

You mean on an E34? Or on something like the Prius?

The E34 has an electric coolant pump that might provide a little heat after shutoff for a while, but it can't create heat if the coolant is cold. And the E34 A/C is not really functional without the engine running.

The new Prius has an electrically-driven A/C compressor, so it can run the A/C with the engine off....

[Jeff N.]

Huh? Like a block heater? Of course, y'all would know nothing about that in Florida... Rare as the Dodo down your way...

[ryan roopnarine]

jeff, i'm well versed in the battery blanket, dipstick element, block heater song and dance, i lived in saskatchewan for a good portion of my life. though you are wrong about the heater and florida. its critical to removing the dew on a lukewarm november morning. :^)

perhaps someone that's gotten their independent vent to work would be kind enough to explain to me how it works. the manual says that in either mode, runtime is limited to 30 minutes. i doubt that it would be limited to 30 mins if it couldn't heat or cool the car down any (the vent wouldn't drain the battery much in 30 mins). i've looked and looked, and am wondering where the source of heat is for the independent vent, and what exactly occurs to "cool" the car down if the engine isn't operating the compressor.

[Bill R.]

european cars, it didn't have inpendent a/c just heat, the a/c was ventilation only. The heat uses a gasoline burning heater that had a separate electric fuel pump to pump gas to the heater and the heater has a glow plug to ignite the gasoline in the furnace... Its in the etk if you look under the ECE default settings .. I installed a number of these gas heaters many years ago on vw buses and beetles for owners who wanted actual heat... Here is a link to the original southwind heaters that we put in vw's
(http://vw.itgo.com/)




it has nothing to do with my car, per se, but for a design project i have to do. my understanding is that there is some type of electric element to produce heat with the engine switched off? i'm not even sure how the a/c would work. please enlighten me, if you all would.

[Bill R.]

independant ventilation system that turns on only the fan the exhaust hot air from the car, so instead of 150F air in the car its only 112F out here..






jeff, i'm well versed in the battery blanket, dipstick element, block heater song and dance, i lived in saskatchewan for a good portion of my life. though you are wrong about the heater and florida. its critical to removing the dew on a lukewarm november morning. :^)

perhaps someone that's gotten their independent vent to work would be kind enough to explain to me how it works. the manual says that in either mode, runtime is limited to 30 minutes. i doubt that it would be limited to 30 mins if it couldn't heat or cool the car down any (the vent wouldn't drain the battery much in 30 mins). i've looked and looked, and am wondering where the source of heat is for the independent vent, and what exactly occurs to "cool" the car down if the engine isn't operating the compressor.

[Bill R.]

http://www.bimmernut.com/%7Ebillr/images/heater.jpg

[ryan roopnarine]

thanks for the pic, bill...i am using the computer i found by the dumpster, which doesn't have the etk on it, and i can't find the damn discs to put it on here. sucks that that thing has its own furnace, thought it was something more elegant than that. i guess i'll have to design my own system that gets the coolant temps up to 100 F and heats the inside :(

[Paul in NZ]

man thats a scary system..and the mileage!!!!!!!ha,ryan all you need is a timer start the car at a preset time!

[ryan roopnarine]

oh, it will definately be timed, alright, but i definitely won't have the motor starting, that defeats the pollution reduction factor of the whole thing. thinking that the dipstick heat and battery blanket drop down to nothing and have the "heating" system kick up to vacuum cleaner amperage for 2-3 hours before desired start.