How to heat while charging ?

[ZsoZso]

Hi All,

Once a week a need to make a longer trip, by taking my daughter to a University math club in the evening (in the next city). To make it safely home while using heating on the trip (its cold up here in Canada during the winter), I need to do some charging at a dealership while she is in class.

During the 2 hours of this charging, I am sitting in the car and reading a book. I am wondering if there is a way to activate also the heating during this time -- I tried to turn the car on and use the climate control knob on the dashboard, but it does not seem to work. I can turn the fan on, but it blows cold air, the heater does not activate.

Could anybody give me any advice how to turn the heating on while charging, please ?

Thanks a lot,
Zsolt

 

[alohart]

Maybe this thread has your answer.

 

[Don]

I'm not sure it's possible to activate the heat while charging, but even if you could, it might be fruitless because if you were using much heat at all while you were charging, you won't be charging very much, if at all

The heater can draw as much as 5Kw. The charger in the car can provide only 3.3Kw. If you were running the heater at half (2.5Kw) then you'd be 'missing' 5Kw of charge for your two hours because the heater used that much and the best you could hope to be putting into the battery under that circumstance would be 1.8Kw, or less than 10 miles of range . . . . and that's assuming your dealers EVSE can provide the full 3.3 Kw to the charger

3.3 Kw for 2 hours is 6.6Kw, minus the 5Kw used by the heater gives you a charge of only 1.8 Kw for the two hours. Assuming you're getting 5 miles per Kw used (and you certainly aren't if youre running the heater while driving) your 2 hour recharging session would gain you less than 10 miles . . . . *if* you weren't using the heater on the way home. Since you got so little recharge during your two hour session, you might not make it back home

Don

 

[MLucas]

Another thought, you can set the climate control while charging and get some heat. But, it would only last for a 1/2 hour before it turned off again. I guess you could run it again and again, but as Don said you would be cutting into the amount of charge being poured into your batteries.

Also, not sure how low you are but if you are too low, then the heat won't even come on if you try the remote heating.

I'd say a better option for you is to purchase a propane tent heater and crack the window a bit. It'll beat freezing in your car for two hours. Look up Sandange, he's got a great looking propane system for his i MiEV.

 

[DonDakin]

Hello,

I am guessing that the preheat uses 1 KW since I can preheat with the Mitsubishi 120V EVSE. But does anyone know if you plug into L2 then does the preheat draw more and heat more ?

Assuming the preheat is 1 KW I think that running the pre-heat heater while plugged is a good way of doing things. I think most L2 chargers are 30 amps so the supply should be able to run the heater at 1 kw and also charge the car at 3KW. This way you can charge and also heat at the same time provided 1KW of heat is enought to keep you warm. If it's not then you would have to turn the car on run the heater for awhile and then stop it and continue charging.


Don

 

[Don]

I think most L2 chargers are 30 amps so the supply should be able to run the heater at 1 kw and also charge the car at 3KW. This way you can charge and also heat at the same time provided 1KW of heat is enought to keep you warm.

Like the air conditioner, the heating system runs on 330 volts DC. Heating power comes either from the traction battery or the onboard charger. The charger is only capable of 3.3 KW, so if you are charging the car and you turn on the pre-heater, whatever amount of heat you get will be deducted from that 3.3KW so your recharge wattage will be decreased by that amount

An L2 EVSE can supply 20 or 30 amps AC from the outlet, but the car will never accept any more than about 14 amps, since that's all the onboard charger can handle

Your supposition that pre-heating only uses 1KW is an interesting one and it may be correct . . . . or it could be that pre-heating uses more power and gets some of it from the traction battery if the EVSE cannot supply enough - I don't know and it will be interesting to find out. I would be a little surprised if it turns out to be true because 1 KW of heat is a very small amount and it doesn't seem like it would warm the car too much if it was sitting outside in below zero temps . . . . 1 KW might not even be enough to defrost the car in only 30 minutes

Don

 

[MLucas]

Hello,

I am guessing that the preheat uses 1 KW since I can preheat with the Mitsubishi 120V EVSE. But does anyone know if you plug into L2 then does the preheat draw more and heat more ?

Assuming the preheat is 1 KW I think that running the pre-heat heater while plugged is a good way of doing things. I think most L2 chargers are 30 amps so the supply should be able to run the heater at 1 kw and also charge the car at 3KW. This way you can charge and also heat at the same time provided 1KW of heat is enought to keep you warm. If it's not then you would have to turn the car on run the heater for awhile and then stop it and continue charging.


Don

I don't have any numbers but I can tell you what I feel. The car is definitely warmer when I preheat using L2 versus L1 after 1/2 hour on each one. I also found using the defrost option works best and gets the interior the warmest.

 

[DonDakin]

Thanks for that MLucas,

I also noticed that the defrost setting has the fan running at a higher speed so I assumed that it would move more heat and distribute it move evenly in the cabin.

It makes sense that the preheat is stronger with more power available from the grid. Thanks for confirming that. If someone has measured this perhaps they can post it here.

Don......

 

[joev]

Cabin heat bonus while charging (in the winter).

In the summer while charging in my garage, I open the hatchback and lift the carpet and the insulated metal cover that covers the motor. This helps keep an air flow around the charger. Then I close everything back up before driving.

Cabin heat bonus while charging…
I do the same as the summer routine but now in the winter mode, I keep the hatchback closed and I try to time the charge to finish just before I need to use the car. Then I close everything back up and turn on the preheat (if needed).

I didn’t put a thermocouple (sensor to measure temperature) on the charger but it gets almost “ouch” hot!

I think it may add a few valuable BTU’s to the cabin.