Ask HN: Do EV charging stations need coolant? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do EV charging stations need coolant?

2 pointsburtmurphy7 comments

I’ve been reading seeing quite a few articles the past couple weeks about companies focused on EV charging stations...my question is do these require any type of coolant to protect it from corrosion or overheating?

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Usually not liquid coolant loops. Heat pipes and heat sinks and radiators are usually enough. They can generally put more silicon (MOSFETs and stuff) without worrying about weight as the stations are stationary. (So lower Rds values and more efficiency) Source: general EE knowledge, and owning a charging station for a Chevy Volt

Liquid loops are most useful at transferring heat rather than getting rid of them. (You still need a radiator) They are often employed to deal with high heat density applications, like processors or lasers and stuff.

Also - it's probably way cheaper to put a few more MOSFETs instead of dealing with liquid cooling. Pipes and pumps are expensive! Maintenance and repair costs would probably skyrocket with liquid cooling too. If they want to deploy these stations en mass across various harsh environments, liquid cooling is not the way to go.

Thanks for the quick answer. With your Chevy Volt, do you mind me asking what type of coolant you use?

The station itself is pretty compact and does not use any liquid cooling.

I'm not sure if we're on the same page about "coolant" - are you referring to those used in cars or the ones used for PCs and electronic devices?

In this instance cars

To be honest I don't know much about cars, but aren't they just water mixed with some concentrated chemicals? I don't think there's anything special we put in our Chevy

I'm a little bit confused about your question - I thought you were asking about liquid cooling for EV charging stations? If you're talking about EVs themselves, coolant loops for electronics might be pretty reasonable

Ha! My apologies. Your correct, my initial question was about liquid cooling for the stations themselves.

I then switched to the EVs themselves as a follow up.

Thanks for your help!

I've heard that the newest 350 kW charging stations use liquid-cooled cables.

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