7. Interior heating and defrost
From Europe, a MES-DEA RM3 4kW fluid heater:
This 4000 Watt unit heats fluid that is pumped through the interior heater core.
From the inside, the heating and defrosting system will operate in the original way except for being a bit quicker to deliver heat since there is less thermal mass to heat up, not having an engine block.
The power for this comes from the main battery pack and has a relatively small effect on driving range because because of its low duty cycle (percent of on time). My direct experience of summer/winter driving in the Rav4EV has shown less than 10% worst case.
The quickness of this heat source makes the factory electrically heated seats almost unnecessary.
Since there is little heat generated from the ACmotor/Inverter drive system, the water cooling has insufficient heat for use in the interior. This way, you only consume energy when needed for the comfort of the human occupants.
Aug 2008 update:
The heater is mounted:
The heater mounts to the inverter's vertical support element with it's side mount flange. It hovers about a half inch above the chassis stiffener.
Jan 2010 update:
Here is the complete heater assembly:
The pump is supported (and isolated) by hanging on the heater input port.
Here is the installed assembly
The remaining task here is to add inlet/capped tee and hose clamps.
