Direct-air heating

[jpr]

I know the old mantra "heat the body, not the air". It's too cold here for my face to not hurt doing that mid-February. I would like it to be at least 10-15F in the car while driving, and I would like to be able to defog the windshield as needed.

The liquid heater in my second i-MiEV is, as many are, busted. B1108 after 3 minutes. Looking at all options here, I wonder about eliminating the entire coolant loop for that heater, which we all know wastes a ton of heat in cold weather, even with the pipe insulation mod. Some modern EV's go with a direct heater in the HVAC ducting, has anyone hooked one of those up in an i-MiEV? I would imagine it would be a fairly involved process, but I plan on tearing the interior out over the summer to install insulation like I did in my last one, so this would be just another step in the process before next cold season.

Picturing installing something like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/275738062635

Only thing I don't have is the dash torn apart and any idea 1) where it would go exactly and 2) how the wiring would hook up. I poked around a bit and haven't seen any threads on the subject, but I could easily be missing something.

 

[kiev]

You are likely the fleet leader on adding insulation and heater such as this, so be sure to take plenty of pictures and post them up.

 

[MickeyS70]

Picturing installing something like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/275738062635

Only thing I don't have is the dash torn apart and any idea 1) where it would go exactly and 2) how the wiring would hook up. I poked around a bit and haven't seen any threads on the subject, but I could easily be missing something.

Before you start tearing things apart, I would check what kind of power this 12V heater requires, the DC/DC ‘only’ has a 125A fuse…

 

[jpr]

Before you start tearing things apart, I would check what kind of power this 12V heater requires, the DC/DC ‘only’ has a 125A fuse…

What, no "Ready, fire, aim"?

Nah, I just picked that as an illustrative example. I'd certainly do a little more research before loading the parts cannon.

 

[MickeyS70]

Nah, I just picked that as an illustrative example.

Doesn’t really matter, you’re essentially planning to make a 14V DC, ‘built-in hairdryer’. While you can get 5V/200W cordless models, they haven’t replaced mains powered versions (1.5-2kW) for a reason.

Actually here is an idea: put a hairdryer inside the cabin on an extension lead and put it on full blast for 10min when it’s cold outside. If it feels cosy afterwards, look at the power rating and decide if your novel idea is worth pursuing..

 

[jpr]

Doesn’t really matter, you’re essentially planning to make a 14V DC, ‘built-in hairdryer’. While you can get 5V/200W cordless models, they haven’t replaced mains powered versions (1.5-2kW) for a reason.

Actually here is an idea: put a hairdryer inside the cabin on an extension lead and put it on full blast for 10min when it’s cold outside. If it feels cosy afterwards, look at the power rating and decide if your novel idea is worth pursuing..

Not even looking for cozy. I'm looking for "a nonzero amount of heat". Right now, the competition is "zero heat and ambient of -10F". I'm looking to improve on that. So yeah, even a hair dryer would be an improvement!

But there are lots of modern EV's that use resistive heaters without any kind of redundant, wasteful coolant loops. And they get plenty warm - warmer than my Meev with a *functional* heater, in fact. I'm sure with a little more research I can come up with something that's built for the 350v or so that the stock i-MiEV heater runs on.