I thought it came through the ventilation system from the outside. Reading through the encyclopedia and through this forum, I thought that the car drew air through a vent directed to the battery, so if you had the heat running, some of the heat would go to the battery, same with the air when cooling the car.
If this is the case, it is pulling fresh air in and exhausting it to the cabin. If this is not the case, I can see how it wouldn't help and would probably just be blowing the air around a bit in a circular fashion. As far as I can tell it blows out the little holes on the bottom of the IMA box and into the spare tire compartment. What could be done is the air could be ducted to one or both of the vents in the rear of the car that exhaust outside, therefore air would be pulled in through the car and sent outside.
Figgy did this to cool down an Insight, but didn't do it for the batteries specifically.
The meat of the information and pictures is past the failure units that attach to the windows.
Solar powered venting fans for forced air cooling of Honda Insight
http://fungiart.com/insight/solar_fans_spinning2.JPG
