Conversion Question: Air Conditioning

by Brad Wheeler
(Brisbane, Australia)

The Kooleraire

Air conditioning is one of my concerns. Do those that convert their cars to electric simply do away with that little luxury?

Hi, Brad -

Yes, a lot of EV people just roll down the windows and think of icebergs.

Personally, there's not a snowball's chance in Vegas that I'm EVER going to do without air conditioning in the car, either, and I live in Seattle. In Brisbane, you NEED air conditioning. I took a peek at today's weather, and this is not a luxury for you, it's a requirement.

So where does that leave us, Brad? Well, taking matters into our own hands, of course.

Here's a neat 12v gadget I came across the other day.
It's called the Kooleraire, and how it works is you fill a cooler with ice (or frozen 2L soda bottles) and install the Kooleraire 12v fan ($40 USD), and it fills your car (or boat; it was originally designed for marine applications) with blessed coolness for as long as the ice lasts. A simple PVC elbow joint ($1 USD) allows you to direct the cold air wherever you want.

Don't laugh, it's brilliant.

There are other solutions, more expensive, heavier, and draining more of your auxiliary battery power. One may be found at Masterflux, a company that makes air conditioners and heaters for golf carts (among other things).

Another possibility for desert dwellers (not us, too humid where we live) is a portable swamp cooler. Old cars used to have these evaporative coolers, and they work great...in dry regions. If the humidity is over 40%, forget it.

Bonus: The Kooleraire works perfectly well with bottles of Guinness nestled among the ice blocks in the cooler. How many air conditioners can you say that about?

Regards,
Lynne