DonDakin
Well-known member
Hello all,
Well temps have been well above average this winter in Montreal but it was -18 deg C overnight recently and I did a little test leaving my second car without the Diesel heater outside overnight to coldsoak.
For the past 3 years I have been keeping my first iMiev in the garage during the winter but since I have 2 iMievs now one has to stay outside. This test was a worst case
scenario for my situation leaving the car with the stock heater and no insulation mod's to the heater outside on a pretty cold night. This car has no Chademo and no
battery heater also. The car was charged to 68% when I parked it and I deliberately left it not charging overnight to see what the battery temp would be in the morning.
I preheated the car with L1 for 1 hour in the morning before heading out to work.
The average battery temp was -10 Deg C when I got in the car in the morning. The L1 preheat didn't warm the car up to a comfortable level at all but it did make the car a
little "softer", What I mean by that is the seat was not hard and the air in the car was warmer then outside, you didn't see your breath when you exhaled in the car. L2
would have been much better in terms of a preheat but I only have L1 run outside for now.
I ran the heater on Max temp with the fan on Max also (press the max button) pretty much the entire trip to work.
The car did heat up much quicker with everything on MAX. I found it best to put the airflow on foot and face and direct the air to my hands on the steering wheel. Still
after 15 minutes my feet were cold. So I plugged in my heated insoles in the boots to get the bottoms of my feet warmed up. That's about the only area that stock heater
was unable to get warm fast enough.
By the time I got to work the car was well warmed up and comfortable. The battery avg temp had risen from -10.5 Deg C to -4.0 The SOC to drive to work went from 68 % to 32
%. This year we have L2 chargers at work so it will be no problem to return home even getting to work with 30% battery.
Total distance was 12.6 KM and it took 31 Minutes. Ave moving speed was 32.3 KM/H
The Canion read out was 3965 WH total for the trip with 1936 of that for heat.
Total energy use of 310 WH/KM with 154 WH/KM of heat. So 49.6 % of the energy used was for heat. The heater was running at 3819 Watts average for the trip.
So for me this little experiment highlight how important it is to preheat on L2 and start with a warm car. If I compare it to my normal routine of preheating in the garage
it's doable to leave the car outside when it's very cold but much less comfortable. Normally I preheat with L1 in the garage and the car is hot when I get into it. I don't have to keep the fan and heater on high during the trip to work.
So here are my take aways from this little experiment:
1) It took about 2KWH to bring the cabin up to temp from a cold soak of -18 Deg C. So at these temps a 45-60 Minute L2 preheat would be the way to go.
2) If you have a garage you don't need L2 for preheat. Also you battery will stay above freezing which is probably a good idea.
So if you have a garage that's the best scenario but if not you really need L2 for preheat. I use L1 to charge the car outside because it's fast enough for the KM perday
that we do with this car but L1 is not enought to preheat the car in these temps. It still works if you have a short drive to work but it's a big range hit.
Or course if I use the disel heater car in this scenario the extra 20 Deg C temp that the DH provides makes a big difference in the cabin warm up time and temp. The diesel
heater warms the fluid to 80 Deg C vs 60 Deg C for the electric heat. One exception to that is on L2 preheat the fluid is warmed to 80 Deg C. I guess 80 Deg C fluid temp
while the car is running would have been too much range drain from heat so it it limited to 60 Deg C.
Don....
Well temps have been well above average this winter in Montreal but it was -18 deg C overnight recently and I did a little test leaving my second car without the Diesel heater outside overnight to coldsoak.
For the past 3 years I have been keeping my first iMiev in the garage during the winter but since I have 2 iMievs now one has to stay outside. This test was a worst case
scenario for my situation leaving the car with the stock heater and no insulation mod's to the heater outside on a pretty cold night. This car has no Chademo and no
battery heater also. The car was charged to 68% when I parked it and I deliberately left it not charging overnight to see what the battery temp would be in the morning.
I preheated the car with L1 for 1 hour in the morning before heading out to work.
The average battery temp was -10 Deg C when I got in the car in the morning. The L1 preheat didn't warm the car up to a comfortable level at all but it did make the car a
little "softer", What I mean by that is the seat was not hard and the air in the car was warmer then outside, you didn't see your breath when you exhaled in the car. L2
would have been much better in terms of a preheat but I only have L1 run outside for now.
I ran the heater on Max temp with the fan on Max also (press the max button) pretty much the entire trip to work.
The car did heat up much quicker with everything on MAX. I found it best to put the airflow on foot and face and direct the air to my hands on the steering wheel. Still
after 15 minutes my feet were cold. So I plugged in my heated insoles in the boots to get the bottoms of my feet warmed up. That's about the only area that stock heater
was unable to get warm fast enough.
By the time I got to work the car was well warmed up and comfortable. The battery avg temp had risen from -10.5 Deg C to -4.0 The SOC to drive to work went from 68 % to 32
%. This year we have L2 chargers at work so it will be no problem to return home even getting to work with 30% battery.
Total distance was 12.6 KM and it took 31 Minutes. Ave moving speed was 32.3 KM/H
The Canion read out was 3965 WH total for the trip with 1936 of that for heat.
Total energy use of 310 WH/KM with 154 WH/KM of heat. So 49.6 % of the energy used was for heat. The heater was running at 3819 Watts average for the trip.
So for me this little experiment highlight how important it is to preheat on L2 and start with a warm car. If I compare it to my normal routine of preheating in the garage
it's doable to leave the car outside when it's very cold but much less comfortable. Normally I preheat with L1 in the garage and the car is hot when I get into it. I don't have to keep the fan and heater on high during the trip to work.
So here are my take aways from this little experiment:
1) It took about 2KWH to bring the cabin up to temp from a cold soak of -18 Deg C. So at these temps a 45-60 Minute L2 preheat would be the way to go.
2) If you have a garage you don't need L2 for preheat. Also you battery will stay above freezing which is probably a good idea.
So if you have a garage that's the best scenario but if not you really need L2 for preheat. I use L1 to charge the car outside because it's fast enough for the KM perday
that we do with this car but L1 is not enought to preheat the car in these temps. It still works if you have a short drive to work but it's a big range hit.
Or course if I use the disel heater car in this scenario the extra 20 Deg C temp that the DH provides makes a big difference in the cabin warm up time and temp. The diesel
heater warms the fluid to 80 Deg C vs 60 Deg C for the electric heat. One exception to that is on L2 preheat the fluid is warmed to 80 Deg C. I guess 80 Deg C fluid temp
while the car is running would have been too much range drain from heat so it it limited to 60 Deg C.
Don....
