OT: Driving electric cars in winter

A thing that has always puzzled me about electric cars is how do they cope in winter. How do you heat the car up and demist windows, I should imagine it reduces your mileage considerably if it has to done electrically? I beli eve the batteries give off some heat and perhaps some heat from the motor/s can be harvested but I cannot see it compares to using the coolant system in a petrol or diesel car. Heat as opposed to sound insulation might help. Is it a case of wrap up well and stick your flying helmet on?

Richard

Reply to
Tricky Dicky
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I remember seeing at a motor show years ago a paraffin heater that can be built into the heating system of HGVs so lorry drivers can keep their cabs warm when the driver is parked overnight, without needing to leave the engine idling.

I wonder if a similar system could be built into electric cars, so you need to top that up with paraffin every so often and keep the batteries only for the motors and lights.

Reply to
NY

Webasto heaters. (Other makes are available).

They've been around for donkeys, and usually work on diesel from the main tank - but petrol are available, too. They're often fitted to motorhomes.

Reply to
Adrian

They're usually timeable, so that you can have the car heated up while it's still plugged in before you leave. But, yes, range drops in cold weather anyway - lights on, wipers on, heater on, battery capacity drops.

Reply to
Adrian

Mental image of Biggles pouring paraffin into his Nissan Leaf..... and then setting fire to it!

Reply to
Davey

The same people who made my sunroof many years ago?

Reply to
Davey

You wouldn't want to get stuck in a snowbound traffic jam for any time!

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Yep.

Reply to
Adrian

My answer to that would be 'Easier than on my motorbike', AFA traction is concerned anyway. [1] ;-)

In the case of my (very basic) electric moke, you don't.

Well, on the flat at 30 mph my Moke is pulling something like 200A. You can get little 12V car windscreen heaters that are about 120W so 'only' another 10A of load. ;-)

Not that I have ever noticed that could be used as such.

Again, possible but they can run quite cool in any case.

Quite ... an abundant quantity of 'wasted energy' to get rid of there (less so on a diesel). ;-(

On my Moke, yup. ;-)

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Cheers, T i m

[1] Well, my motorbike has heated handlebar grips so at least my hands are warmed (oh, and the flat twin warms my feet). ;-)
Reply to
T i m

Mate left the interior light on on his Rover 3.5 over a snowy night and the battery was pretty flat the next day. He rang me and asked if I could give him a jump start so went round there in the electric Moke.

The Moke has a total of 8 x 6V 200Ah batteries and when the ignition is off they are all effectively wired in series (ready for charging).

I had a pair of reasonably long and not that heavy-duty jump leads so I just gave him 18V (at the Moke end) for a couple of minutes. He said it had never spun over so fast. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

Used on canal boats too, usually rather heavily criticised for noise and unreliability.

Reply to
cl

We used to use a small half sphere shaped catalytic heater that ran off a liquid fuel of some sort. It was typically used under the (pretty well ventilated) canvas 'hood' of our small motor cruiser, just to provide a source of flameless heat during the colder evenings.

I've no idea how safe it was by today's Elf n Safety rules but we are still here. ;-)

I did find a report on the gas powered catalytic heaters and that seems to suggest you are more likely to die from oxygen starvation than the fumes as such.

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I wonder how that might compare with a liquid fuel based versions (but not like the liquefied gas some soldering irons use).

I think you had to start this particular heater with meths so best done outside and on the land?

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

Nice pose of the wife Tim!

Reply to
Bob Minchin

Hehe.

When I said 'my Moke' ... maybe I should of said 'my Electric Moke that is the exact same model///// version as linked. ;-)

eg, It's not the more typical variant of the 'Enfield 8000' that looks like this:

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And no, that isn't me, my wife [1] or our dog either. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[1] And that picture suggests boiler suits were actually 'On trend' at some point. ;-)
Reply to
T i m

Some sort of back up petrol operated motor is needed. This could be used to power an alternator to recharge the batteries and with a bit of thought in the design it is possible that the motor could also be used to move the car around town (and between towns) whilst at the same time supplying heat into the cabin.

Reply to
ARW

Dunno which Rover 3.5 that would have been. Mine had twin 6watt ones which wouldn't put much of a dent in a decent battery overnight.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Sarcasm (and hybrids) aside...

BMW i3 REx.

Reply to
Adrian

Indeed.

12w @ 12v = 1A for 12h = 12Ah. That's going to take a good chunk of the usable charge out of a nominal 70Ah lead-acid battery, even if it's healthy. Add in some voltage drop down the cables and a snowy morning, and it's no wonder it was grumpy.
Reply to
Adrian

And I don't think it was (as it happens ... judging by his observation that 'it hadn't spun over that fast before').

Quite ... especially if only recently used for local trips (in the winter) etc.

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

TBF, I'm not surprised a 12v starter would whoosh round with 50% more sparks up its chuff.

Reply to
Adrian

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