Great idea for pre heat pre cool without imiev remote

[DonDakin]

Well i was cruising the french ev forums in quebec and i found a great idea from user SyCo.

http://www.aveq.ca/forums.html

He added a conventional remote starter to preheat his car at work. What a great idea. I never thought of that. I always thought it would have been a good idea to have the imiev remote preheat the car even if it was not plugged in. But since it doesn't do that i just shrugged the idea off. But SyCo put one in his car. This would be a good solution for people with no remote for preheat only. You would need to plug in the car and then have some method to kill the power to the car after the charge was complete. Then you could preheat from the battery. It would eat range but your car would be preheated.

Anyways i thought it was a novel idea. Could be used for AC in the summer also. Combine that with a timer on the evse and you pretty much have all the remote functions.


Don.......

 

[JoeS]

Don - thanks for posting.

In our NA versions, simply having the J1772 connector plugged in (even with no power applied) precludes the car going to Ready; nevertheless, this sounds like a great idea if you have plenty of charge and are not plugged in.

My own concern would be turning on the car and then getting distracted and forgetting to go out to it within minutes. :roll:

 

[sandange]

@ DonDakin
There are options for your Diesel heater too.
Looked at the JP diesel heater web site recently and noted they have 2 remote control options, with a transmitter (limited range) or Cell Phone activated.

 

[Kuuuurija]

You would need to plug in the car and then have some method to kill the power to the car after the charge was complete. Then you could preheat from the battery. It would eat range but your car would be preheated.

Sorry for my ignorance, but why someone should kill the grid power to preheat from the battery and to loose range, if there is option to plug in and use the grid power for preheating?

 

[JoeS]

Sorry for my ignorance, but why someone should kill the grid power to preheat from the battery and to loose range, if there is option to plug in and use the grid power for preheating?

Kuu, if you had been following the conversation you would realize that in the NA version of the i-MiEV it is not possible to activate the heater while the car is plugged into the grid without use of the Remote - which is what this thread is all about.

 

[DonDakin]

Hey Joe,

Thanks for doing the leg work on this. I was not sure if the car would start with the J1772 plugged in and the other end disconnected but I went ahead and surmised that it could be done. I guess that could be done by playing with the proximity wire on the J1772 but probably more trouble then it's worth.

In reflection this is a good idea for remote preheat/cool when you have no connection to the grid and range is not an issue.
The guy who did this has a 6 Km commute and he comes home for lunch so he does about 24 Km per day for work. I'm sure it works well for him.

However If you are pre-heating/cooling at home without an iMiev remote then probably an AC 1500 Watt ceramic type heater is the best idea to rig up. No range hit and at least some warming of the car. I know someone on the forum did this already on early model EU spec imiev that had no pre heat function built in.

Don......

 

[Kuuuurija]

Kuu, if you had been following the conversation you would realize that in the NA version of the i-MiEV it is not possible to activate the heater while the car is plugged into the grid without use of the Remote - which is what this thread is all about.

But wouldn't be much easier and elegant way just to get the remote, if it is missing?

 

[JoeS]

But wouldn't be much easier and elegant way just to get the remote, if it is missing?

Kuu, had you been following the conversations about the Remote you would realize that the price of a programmed unit is close to $1000 - an outlandish price! Thus the desire for a workaround.

This thread has drawn the following conclusions regarding the third-party remote starter accessory:

1. If the car is still plugged in (whether or not the EVSE is energized), the heater cannot be enabled since the car will not turn on (Ready). Sadly, not a substitute for the Mitsu Remote.

2. This remote starter concept should work if the car is not plugged in and one simply wants to pre-heat it using battery power. I envision this being useful in an everyday working environment where the car has been sitting outside shivering for many hours.

BTW, putting in one of these remote starters does not seem to be a trivial installation process (unlike the 'old' days), and I'm still puzzled about how they deal with the alarm system and key proximity interlocks.

 

[Zelenec]

I just don't care about missing remote in Citroen C-Zero. On cold days coming in a few weeks a small 240V 2 kW fan heater does the job quicker and better than integrated car's heater. I just need a power strip to charge and heat the car simultaneously home or at charging station.

 

[Phximiev]

Given the rather cold day here, 37 degrees, the snow flake indicator came on. I'd never seen it before. However, we did have the opportunity to experience a pre-heat scenario, which others may try or benefit from.

My wife had the opportunity to dry some clothes early in the morning and left the dryer exhaust directed (but screened) into the garage. This resulted in a warm garage, a warm iMiev, and dry clothes.

My thoughts on this extend to using the Budge cover to help in warming where the cover could trap warmer air for the car. A simple light bulb would probably suffice as a heater which could be placed under the vehicle and turned on with a timer.

Anyone try this before?

 

[JoeS]

My wife had the opportunity to dry some clothes early in the morning and left the dryer exhaust directed (but screened) into the garage. This resulted in a warm garage, a warm iMiev, and dry clothes.
My thoughts on this extend to using the Budge cover to help in warming where the cover could trap warmer air for the car. A simple light bulb would probably suffice as a heater which could be placed under the vehicle and turned on with a timer.

Neighbor uses a dryer outlet to heat up his cottage quickly - cheaper than the propane furnace. Just need to make sure you're not actually drying clothes because of all the moisture captured in the exhaust air.

The lightbulb idea has been used on unattended boats for decades, problem being the UV light fading the woodwork. In the garage, with the open volume we're dealing with, I doubt that a 100W bulb would do anything under the car; however, inside the car that might do something if you don't mind the upholstery gradually fading. I'd be tempted to do it empirically and stick a lightbulb in there with a thermometer and see what happens... of course, the usual cautions apply. Pre-heating with a modern ceramic ("safe") 120vac heater stuck into the car 1/2-hour before takeoff seems like a viable alternative to the Remote.

 

[PV1]

A space heater does great at preheating the car. That's what I used with Koorz for the few days I didn't have Bear. Simply moved the front seat all the way up, folded down the back seat to allow the cold air in the cargo area to move towards the heater, and put the heater in the rear footwell behind the passenger seat. I gave it about an hour to run. Worked like a charm.

 

[Phximiev]

I am going to try a test preheat with an infrared bulb inside the car. It's the kind of bulb (100 watt), that you would use to warm pets, food, etc. I have it attached to a timer set to go off at 7:00 a.m., and run for an hour.

We'll see how warm it gets in the morning.

 

[Phximiev]

Well, the garage was just under 60 degrees, not real cold. The light ran for an hour or so and heated the car up by no more than 10 degrees. I think that either the light must be run longer or a more powerful infrared bulb is required. Plus, once off, the heat dissipated rapidly.

Here the setup: http://imgur.com/a/jdtb9

 

[misterbleepy]

In this country (UK) you can buy tubular electric heaters, where the length is proportional to the wattage.
Maybe something like these are available in the US, and you could place a long one across the footwell?

http://www.f4enterprises.co.uk/hylite-ecoheating/hylite-tube-heaters/

 

[Phximiev]

That looks like a workable solution.

On the heat lamp idea, this morning I tried a 250 watt (rather than the 125 watt) infrared heat bulb for an hour or so which worked well. The temperature in the iMiev was noticeably warmer. This gives us an option of running it longer if it gets cold again.

But, it now feels like late spring here so the heat lamp goes on the shelf for the time being.