I am going to start looking at trying to add electric A/C to the Fiero. Here is what I have found so far. I see it has been done in a BMW so I figure why not in a Fiero. I am sure it will cost more than the conventional A/C but do not want to try and add the old compressor back to the car as there is just too much stuff in the way after the engine swap. I have all the other A/C components still in the car and everything is in the front so I want to add the A/C compressor to the front compartment so the lines would be much shorter and will not have to run the length of the car anymore either. There is a lot of new stuff out there for electric A/C with all the hybrids and electric cars out there now, so I am confident it can be done.

This place has compressors that have been used for this application.
http://www.masterflux.com/products/

This electric car company uses the same compressors
http://www.revoltevc.com/climate/cooling.html

BMW with conversion
http://www.evdrive.com/BMW_...AirConditioning.html

What do you all think?

You will have to really look at how much of a load that will put on your alternator. Are you ok with haveing to deal with swapping out your alternator?

It's a wonderful thought, but I think they take too much power for a 12 volt system. Remember, the electric cars that use these also use an electrical system thats packing about 300 volts.

The Sierra ones listed should work on 12v. They would take 36 amps.

I have a 100 amp alternator on it now, I think the stock ones have 94 amps. I am thinking a could use a smaller compressor than the electric cars use as the interior of the Fiero is very small so I would not need as much cooling power as most other cars. I am thinking maybe I will need another battery for reserve power?

quote Originally posted by phonedawgz: The Sierra ones listed should work on 12v. They would take 36 amps.

I missed that. Ok, now I'm interested! Still is a big draw on a 100 amp alt, especially after factoring in all the other loads, but I bet it's do-able. Might need to get into a 120 amp alt?

[This message has been edited by 1fatcat (edited 01-25-2011).]

You could cut down on how much load your other electrical systems are putting on the alt. For example, you could have a relay set up so that when your lights are on, your a/c can't be turned on. In theory, you'd be less likely to need a/c at night! Or there's always LED lights for everything besides your headlights.
I'd do the conversion first and then see if the alt has trouble keeping up, rather than change it for a bigger one without being 100% sure.

You do know amp listed for an alt is Max Amp. And Most alt never reach max in normal driving.
See cave, watt story in charge & start electrical section.

you likely need an alt rated at 200 amp or more to deliver enough power. Need a CS-130 and aftermarket mod.....

Battery Reserve Power? Not likely to happen... 39 amp for compressors + car needs normally? 3-4 battery likely still drain all of them. See Battery "Reserve Capacity" in same article.

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Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top and bottom of every forum page...)

I've work with aftermarket sys like this, for VW golf, years ago, cooling power not so impressive (think like this - current looks huge, BUT true el. power is about 400W only, so cooling is about 1kW in practice, sun power is about 1kW/m2 (here, in central EU, and much more in south lands), so cooling of black interior even of small car was illusion on sunny summer day, ok, as dryer and gadget sys works nice ), and heart of the system was new alternator, 120A, if I remember.

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Fiero 1985 notch 2.5 automatic
http://boni.smutek.pl/auto