Performance evaluation of electric vehicle ventilation using directly powered photovoltaic fans

Electric vehicles have tremendous potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. One of the main draw-back of the electric vehicle though is the sourcing of energy for air-conditioning of its cabin space. In this work, a fully instrumented Renault Zoe electric car has been used to conduct experiments for parasitic energy consumption. The object has been to evaluate the proportion of the total energy consumption that is used for cabin ventilation. These experiments have been part of a wider project under which Edinburgh Napier University's Transport Research Institute has operated a fleet of 18 electric vehicles over a two-year period. The object of the present work was to evaluate the performance of electric car ventilation when roof-mounted photovoltaic (PV) modules were used to operate DC power fans. It was found that the selection of fan for extracting the hot air from cabin space is of crucial importance, i.e. fans that matched the PV output under the most commonly occurring solar radiation and ambient temperature conditions have been selected. Experimentally obtained results are presented in detail.