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Liquid-Cooled vs Traditional Charging Stations: Which is Better?
Comparison of air-liquid and liquid cooling
When a conventional DC charging gun is in operation, its current is usually limited to less than 250A to ensure the stability and safety of the charging process. However, with the development of super-fast charging technology, the current that the charging gun can withstand has been able to reach up to about 500A, which greatly improves the charging efficiency, but also brings a significant challenge – a significant increase in the thermal effect, which is mainly through the air-cooling and liquid-cooling two ways.
In the context of increasingly popular high-voltage fast charging technology, both air-cooling and liquid-cooling methods have their unique characteristics.
Air-cooling relies on air-cooled modules and natural cooling through airflow to reduce temperature. However, dealing with the high heat generated by fast charging requires thicker copper wires to increase heat dissipation area. This not only raises manufacturing costs but also adds weight to the charging gun cables, making them inconvenient to use and potentially posing safety hazards due to their increased weight. Additionally, a significant limitation of air-cooling is its inability to effectively cool the cores of cables directly.
On the other hand, liquid-cooling technology demonstrates clear advantages. It combines liquid-cooled modules with liquid-cooled cables, using coolant like ethylene glycol or oil to flow through the cables and directly carry away the heat generated. This method not only achieves high heat dissipation efficiency but also enables small cross-section cables to carry large currents while maintaining low temperature rise, greatly enhancing charging safety. Moreover, with thinner cable diameters, the weight is reduced, making them more convenient to use and lowering the associated safety risks of excessive weight. Furthermore, liquid-cooling systems have fewer moving parts like fans, resulting in lower noise levels and further improving user experience.
Liquid cooling is the future
Liquid cooling in the field of electric vehicle charging offers significant advantages: it speeds up charging, efficiently dissipates heat, ensures excellent safety, minimizes noise, and provides higher protection levels. This method features a dual-loop cooling architecture where internal liquid-cooled modules swiftly remove heat with efficient water pump circulation, while external low-speed high-volume fans or air conditioning units further dissipate heat from radiators into the environment, maintaining ideal temperature conditions for charging equipment at all times.
The shift from air-cooled to liquid-cooled thermal management technology is becoming inevitable for high-power charging modules. As module power increases, so does the heat generated during operation. While air-cooling remains mainstream, its limitations are becoming apparent.
Air-cooling, despite being widespread and cost-effective, has limited heat dissipation efficiency and struggles to meet the thermal demands of future high-power charging modules. Additionally, it generates significant noise pollution, impacting the surrounding environment. Moreover, direct exposure to air can lead to dust buildup, corrosion of components, higher failure rates, shorter lifespan, and increased maintenance costs.
In contrast, liquid-cooled thermal management offers numerous advantages. It circulates coolant through sealed channels, facilitating efficient heat exchange between heat-generating components and radiators. Utilizing low-speed, high-volume fans or water cooling systems significantly reduces noise compared to air-cooling’s high-speed fans. Liquid cooling achieves higher efficiency, meeting the thermal demands of future high-power charging modules. Components are not directly exposed to air, resulting in lower maintenance costs, reduced failure rates, and longer lifespan.
Traditional charging pile and liquid cooled charging pile
All Liquid Cooling: Uses liquid cooling to ensure a 10-year product lifespan. Extremely reliable. Fully modular: Single cabinet up to 720kW, supports 12 charging cables, flexible power evolution. Integrated solar and storage: Smart peak shaving, no power expansion needed, DC storage efficiency boost by 2.5%. Ultra-fast: Covers all power levels for supercharging all car models. Two synergies: Car, charger, and grid integration, leading to fully intelligent charging networks.
Car-Charger Synergy: Long-term cooperation with authoritative car institutions, wide compatibility algorithm. Fast startup: Charging startup time cut by 50% compared to industry standards. Smart linkage: Strategic partnerships with car manufacturers for a differentiated charging experience.
Charger-Grid Synergy: Grid cooperation for demand response, VPP, and V2G. Solar and storage integration: Smart dispatch algorithm for optimal returns. Three extremes: Ultimate experience, top quality, best returns.
Ultimate Experience: Over 99% first-time charging success rate. Plug and charge; high-power “200 km in 5 minutes” charging experience. Quiet charging under 60dB, peace and quiet.
Top Quality: Uses an all-liquid-cooled supercharging architecture. Extensive data simulation, innovative design, and rigorous testing ensure a 10-year lifespan.
Best Returns: Compared to traditional chargers, power sharing boosts utility rate by 30%, allowing 30% more charges. Proprietary topology, liquid cooling, and smart optimization improve system efficiency by over 1%. Smart maintenance system for visual management, reducing manual site visits to near zero. Achieves a 40% reduction in total lifecycle TCO.
