Utilizing the coolant for heating

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Wee John

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 12, 2012
Messages
134
Location
South Carolina
I think Mitsubishi could easily have utilized the coolant system to generate heating for the cabin. My coolant pump is running alot when I'm driving, surely they could divert some of that wasted energy into the cabin to save on drive battery power.
 
Sounds like a good idea to me. Now if this were the Prius forum, half a dozen people would have posted instructions and pictures of their hack. Divert some hoses...put a radiator under the dash...voila, heat.
 
jjlink said:
Maybe the first step would be to temporary put a wireless thermometer unit in the car with the remote sensor on the coolant pipe and see how often it is really hot.

I was just feeling the hoses and motor and it felt like it was 110°F-120°F and the pump runs probably every 10 minutes.
 
jjlink said:
Maybe the first step would be to temporary put a wireless thermometer unit in the car with the remote sensor on the coolant pipe and see how often it is really hot.

I did that. I put a remote thermometer on top of the inverter (which is cooled by the coolant.) I doesn't get as hot as I thought it would. Less than 90° F. I'm sure the inverter and coolant are hotter than 90° F because my remote sensor is not well thermally connected to the inverter.

I keep forgetting to check it during long drives. I will check it and report the highest temperature.
 
Great idea! Sucks to use the heater and reduce your range.

If they did this in combination with a small solar panel charging 12V battery that would be great!

Maybe they are already looking at that for the next model.
 
I would suggest to use heat pump isntead of heating strip to improve efficiency of the heater. The current heater cuts the range much more than A/C. With the A/C already in place, it should not be difficult to invert its function to provide heat.
 
A thought on this matter -

I wonder if a thermostatically controlled heat exchanger
(Liquid to liquid) between the cooling circuit and heater circuit would be effective , -
Like a pre-heater (Solar hot water idea)
 
Or a veg oil conversion heat exchanger. That is a great idea if the battery cooling system is liquid cooled and runs relatively constant...
Is i-miev's battery liquid cooled?
 
Eugene said:
Is i-miev's battery liquid cooled?
No - It's air cooled, using cold air from the A/C system when necessary

Assuming the heater and the motor/inverter cooling system use the same fluid (standard antifreeze?) it should be possible to combine them, using a 12 volt solenoid valve to make/break the fluid connection when you need the heat. I would take jjlink's advice though and monitor the fluid temps first during winter conditions to see if there is actually any heat there to recover - Personally I kinda doubt it. The motor/inverter may need external cooling during hot summers, but likely much less during the winter when you wish it was hot

Don
 
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