Saturday, November 21, 2009

Insulated Rear Battery Box

Today I built the battery box for the 4 Discover EV31A-A batteries in the far rear of the Honda. From start to finish, it took me about 9 hours, not including breaks! My wife was helping me for about the last 3 hours, too. The tasks included: Unwiring the 4 batteries and removing them from the car. Cutting a 1/2" styrofoam sheet to go under the 4 batteries. Wiring up the 4 heater pads and the thermostat. Mounting the heater pads in the car. Replacing the 4 batteries. Cutting and fitting the styrofoam walls of the box. Fitting a lid. Wiring the batteries all back up. Mounting the thermostat. Cleaning up.

Now all of my battery racks are running at a nice toasty 90'F!
Some pics:

The box, about 1/2 finished, putting together an inside corner.

The corner after it's been slid into place

Buttoned up with the cover.
[Yes, I remembered to get the scissors out! :-)]

The thermostat hides under the block sticking out. Hot water heaters place their thermostats under the insulation, so that the entire body of the thermostat heats to temperature. I mounted the thermostats on the batteries the same way, surrounded and covered by insulation.

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