Global manufacturer of air conditioning and cooling systems for commercial vehicles, Konvekta AG, has launched HEAT2GO a quick-charge enabled modular latent heat storage system for electric city buses.
This emission-free heating concept is the newest joint venture development research project of the Fraunhofer Institute for Traffic and Infrastructure Systems and Konvekta AG.
After the first successful presentation at Busworld in Brussels, and the completion of the test series in the Konvekta climate chamber, the system will be installed in a 12m test bus of the Fraunhofer Institute and then start regular route service next year. The tests were successful and Konvekta claims the system performed in mounted state better than expected. The HEAT2GO-System reached a heating capacity of 20 kW (inside temperature 18° Celsius at a system capacity of 13.5 kWh).
HEAT2GO is suitable for the OppCharger just as it is for a depot charger. With opportunity charging, the latent heat storage system is charged within a few minutes. The thermal energy produced during charging is used, if required, directly for heating the interior cabin without any additional energy from the batteries. For depot chargers the system also gets integrated in modern thermal management concepts, like a Konvekta CO2 heat pump.
The battery size is rated according to the energy consumption peaks, which become reduced considerably with the HEAT2GO heat storage. This means that during a bus life cycle an operator can save up to £15,250 in battery capacity.
