Adding diesel power to the Nissan Leaf
 

I really push the limits of what the little leaf is capable of.
Winter pushes the limits of the leaf.
So in winter the poor little leaf gets a double beat down, the cold weakened battery gets to power the resistance heater.
What I need for winter is a good heater that works and causes little to no range loss. You know all the advantages of an electric vehicle with less of the draw backs.

My options are get a 2013 or newer. Meh, by the time I sell this one and get a 13 it would cost at least $3,000.
Put in a bigger battery. If I keep this car it's going to happen at some point, no point in doing it early and the supply of used 40kwh packs hasn't materialized yet.

So the 3rd option is to put in a diesel fired air or coolant heater.
The air heater would go in the back and blow air forward. The diesel fired coolant heater would tie into the heater coolant loop and work with the existing heater and blower.
Hopefully I can score one of these heaters this summer, when no one wants them for cheap. Hopefully a German made Eberspacher, none of that chicom garbage, I don't want to set my car on fire.

I know some one will cry "this isn't fossil fuel free".
I look at it this way. Bio diesel could be used, if it didn't gel, so probably not, but it's plausible.
Using a little bit of diesel enables electric vehicles to give a less miserable, over all better, safer winter driving experience.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1548123535

Plug in electric jacket liner and glove liners.
.
https://www.ventureheat.com/motorcyc...iner-lite.html
.
https://www.ventureheat.com/134-moto...ve-liners.html
.
Propane camping heater to defrost before driving when parked away from a plug.
.
https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Heater-F21.../dp/B001CFRF7I
.

We have Webasto diesel heaters in our trucks at work. They sip fuel and seem fairly trouble free. 0.13 gallons per hour on high is 13,300 BTU/hr.

They shove webasto heaters in school busses,too. Might find one in a schoolbus scrapyard like the one near Barstow.

I need the defroster to work with out killing the battery.

I already tried using a propane heater. The results were as I expected. It will deice the outside great and fog up the inside pretty good too. It's marginally more effective than using the factory heater alone. But I still have to use the battery heater.

At home I just plug in a 120v little space heater.

I will check out webasto heaters too.

I'm going to have to say that using the battery for heat is a waste.

I forgot about the propane heater throwing out moisture

Fleabay has Chinese made diesel heaters starting at about $200. There are reviews on YouTube if you want some reassurance they’re not complete junk. Look up parking heaters.

Given the stakes I'm not using the chicom junk.
I have seen them get plenty of 1 and 2 star reviews on ebay, mainly just from them not working, being dead on arrival, or breaking down almost immediately.

Oh, I understand not wanting to buy from certain countries...

My take on ebay items...whatever it is probably isn't going to be put in to severe service, so why pay 4x or more as much for it? Its a case of choosing between cheap or not at all; I'll take cheap.

Have you considered using something like the Goal Zero Yeti and a plug in heater?

No fuel fumes or mess. The 1000 is $999 at Costco right now.

If I'm going to spend that kind of money I want full 15,000 max to 5,000 min BTUs per hour the whole time I'm driving.
Plus I already have a 0.6kwh lithium iron phosphate battery with a 2000w pure sine inverter. It works ok. But I would kill it in a half hour. It wouldn't even make it to the next town over and back. Then if it's a cold snowy icey day that's when I need it most.
The whole point is I want the energy density of the fuel to save wear on the vehicle battery. I have about $700 in amp20 cells in my lithium power pack. So shifting the heating load to my power pack isn't much improvement.

I'm going to using this thing from October or November through march or April. Maybe longer, in 2018 I had hard freeze warnings into June. I would probably use it almost daily during those times.

So, cabin heat? With my air-cooled VWs, it was a nice-if-it-happens thing.

What's the use case? One hour of heat round-trip from a fixed base? Maybe you could put eutectic (phase change) salts in a wire basket and force air over it?

There's discussion on the Bolt forum about adding a diesel heater too. If you need it, you need it.

Mostly just a want for me since I am in new Mexico.
Only really need it for about a month out of the year when wintet briefly turns brutally cold.

Ben Nelson added a fuel heater to his I-miev, as well as adding some insulation.

https://300mpg.org/2016/11/01/insula...-electric-car/

https://300mpg.org/2016/02/07/fired-...e-fuel-heater/

https://300mpg.org/2016/02/14/imiev-...-installation/

Does it have to be diesel? You could mount this on your front bumper, (or under your hood, if there is room) use the electricity, and run the exhaust under your feet.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A6I1WUC/ref=sspa_dk_detail_4?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B01A6I1WUC&pd_r d_w=Ozx1C&pf_rd_p=21517efd-b385-405b-a405-9a37af61b5b4&pd_rd_wg=qP0IS&pf_rd_r=7AM27DMF5JB4T4 AJ4TN3&pd_rd_r=7f6da41f-1a6d-11e9-a3ab-c13fc89acce1

Yes it has to be diesel. I like diesel. Diesel can sit in the heaters fuel tank all summer and be good to go for next winter.
Diesel has almost 0 evaporative emissions compared to gasoline.

Running a little space heater off a little generator is only going to net me around 3,000 to 4,000 BTUs per hour. I want more like 15,000 BTUs per hour.
On a typical cold night the heater demand is between 8,000 to 12,000 BTUs per hour.
Normally it's over 9,000.

If I'm running the defrost I can use all 17,000 BTUs per hour of diesel heat no problem.

Get a very small ICE to use a generator. Use the waste heat for heating, use the electricity on an electric heater. You can also use it to charge the batteries, for example to extend the range, if needed.
With cogeneration the fuel will be used very efficiently.

I'm not interested in range extending yet.
Not using the traction battery powered heater when it's 10F is all the range extending I need.

Webasto and other marine diesel heaters should fill the bill, so to speak. Great idea on range extension and real comfort too.

Yeah I saw that, that is why I think it will also work on an older leaf too.

Not just comfort. Yesterday it was 20F and I was driving around with out the heat like usual, hit a big puddle, water splashed up on the windshield and instantly froze over.
Fun times.

I had a similar experience early on with my volt. It was around 20 degrees outside, as usual at that time I didn't have the heat on. The windshield started to fog a little so I put the defrost on and a very mild 68°. The windshield instantly fogged over completely at 60mph.

I no longer skimp on the HVAC settings. Save 50 cents to wreck the car because I can't see... yeah.


Is there any room to have a small honda generator to power an electric heater? Could also use it to add power to at least the 12v system and save energy from the dc/dc converter.

So we can agree that not running the heat to save range could be dangerous in the winter.

I just need a 40kwh battery and a diesel heater and I should be all set.

I'm not very familiar with these diesel fired coolant heaters. Will the stock heater also try and run or is there a way to defeat it?

On a bus, you don't get much btu heat on extended idle. So the webastos are plumbed parallel to the main system such that the kiddies dont whine they are cold. You switch off & on

The Webasto is an small Diesel fired air heater for cabin comfort.

The stock heater will only run if you switch it on, but if you need it to keep the windows defrosted,you should be able to rewire the heater away from the Leaf battery, and run it on an auxiliary generator, and if your aux gen is liquid cooled, you should be able to put it's radiator in the car for heat.
https://www.alibaba.com/product-deta...7945617enxOjZW

I actually want the stock electric heater to run on start up.
It would be a combined 32,000 BTU per hour. Then as the coolant loop temperature rises the electrical heat tapers off after about 2 or 3 minutes and the diesel fired heat should take over.
I found that if I turn the heat setting down to 60F and drive the car in eco mode it will only send like 300w to the heater.

Yes I can defeat the stock heater but in don't want to.

There are air heaters and hydronic heaters.
I want the hydronic heater.

then, you are talking about routing the coolant from a liquid cooled diesil engine into your cabin? So, it doesn't really matter how many KW you get from the ICE, just how many BTUs of heat? you could replace the ICE's radiator with a heater core, or you could move the ICE's radiator into the car, or with swithcing valves, you could vary between the two radiators. Beter to keep the exhaust outside.

No this isn't an engine.
It's a heater. It's a miniature heater that burns fuel oil for heat and puts that heat into liquid coolant. The only moving parts are the fuel pump and a fan to circulate combustion air.

I added this to post number 1.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1548123535

I think he is looking at diesel fired heaters. Think block heater but the energy comes from burning fuel and not electricity.

I don't know where the engine talk came from. This is very similar to the Eberspächer and West Bend gasoline heaters for air-cooled VWs. Similar reason too, the stock heater needed help.

I think it was me, in post 16. I misunderstood, and thought he was looking for extra electricity for the heater. My mistake.

I wonder if a fuel cell heater could be of use.

The electricity could ideally run a heat pump to achieve a thermal efficiency of more than 100% overall.
Or it could recharge the car while preheating it.

As somebody who has already installed a similar heater in an electric car, I think you will be very happy with the choice.

Heat is just a BAD way to use electricity. Burning things is a great way to make heat, but a terrible way to power a car. Using a fuel-burning heater turns your EV into a sort of micro-hybrid, appropriately using fuel for heat and electricity for propulsion.

Of course, you also want to use seat heaters, pre-heat, and heated steering-wheel (if ya got it!)

My Mitsubishi iMiEV has a tiny 16kWh battery, and a very inefficient resistive electric heating system. Adding the fuel burning heater has worked great to help extend winter range by using the electricity for power instead of heating the cabin.

Here's my whole playlist of working with the heater and installing it in the car:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvhP...BD9GjK23iQ_P1O

Another neat little winter hack (whether your car is gas or electric) is to use a 12V electric blanket. Very efficient use of energy. Warms up fast. Great for humans, but it won't defrost your windshield.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNTyKd4W_UQ

There are a few people on the i3 forum who use the electric blanket idea. On the coldest days, one person is claiming to getting an extra 10-15 miles out of the smallest battery version that way.

Coupled with the heated seats, it's really then just about keeping fingers and toes from getting icy and the windshield clear.

The blanket in my car looks almost exactly like that, same pattern and color though it isn't electric. I used it once only at -14 C on the chair, it does indeed help (transfers cold less fast than the chair does) but I should have taken it inside first.

almost fossil free heater fuel
 

A fuel powered heater is not a bad idea at all but would choose a heater made for gasoline/ petrol.

All petrol heaters, or at least those from Eberspächer, Webasts and Volvo Flygmotor run flawlessly on E85 (85% bioethanol, 15%gasoline) att no matter how low temperatures here in Sweden, so that is an alternative if you prefer an almost fossil free heater.

Other advantages with E85 in a petrol heater compared to diesel burning heaters are that exhaust fumes do not smell so bad and are probably not as unhealthy as diesel fumes and there is much less smoke when the heater is starting up.
A disadvantage of E85 compared to diesel is that it contains less energy so you’d burn a greater volume for the same amount of heat, but as the amount of fuel is so small anyway that is hardly an issue.

In the electric cars with NiCd battery from the 1990’s made by French car manufacturers Citroën, Peugeot and Renault a petrol powered Eberspächer? was OEM fitted and I know the these worked just fine on E85 as well.

see for example wikipedia Citroën_Berlingo_électrique -> heating

I have been working on diesel engines and diesel fuelled heaters since 2002. Not worried about the smell or fumes.
The less explosive natural of diesel fuel is more appealing than gasoline.
Plus I don't want gasoline alcohol mix turning to varnish over the summer and eating away at the internals of my $800 heater.
Then gasoline or alcohol fuel will start to stink as soon as it warms up and starts evaporating. Diesel fuel is completely stabile at 120F
Winter here can hit like an avalanche. It can go from 50F nights to snowy 10F nights in mid October in a week like it did this year so the heater needs to stay ready as soon as fall rolls around.
Rolling coal in the leaf won't just mean buying anthracite from tractor supply.