Installing diesel parking heater in Leaf's trunk

[rogersleaf]

I was considering using my Leaf for Lyft/Uber in Minnesota (with my NoCharge2Charge card!). I was thinking that it would be hard to get good customer ratings without installing an Eberspacher heater, or else running the car heater full-blast and tanking my range. That would be a problem, since there is no way to tell a passenger to only "pick me" for rides less than X miles.

Similarly, there are now electric buses running in Duluth and Minneapolis MN, and they all have auxiliary kerosene heaters. Buses, which have frequent extended door openings, require massive amounts of heat in below-zero temps, and you'd need an extra $500k in batteries to use electric heat. Burning fuel is inefficient for locomotion, because most of the energy is lost as heat, but if you just need heat, then it's not so bad. If desired, biofuel could be used (though it's hard to buy aqueous E90 or B100 diesel).

Curious as to which heat-A/C system is in your LEAF? Reason I ask is that the '18 SV that I test drove last week had the base model resistance system (non-heat pump) that lacks heat ducts to the rear seat. It also did not have the seat or steering wheel heaters. It was a miserable cold 20 minute drive compared to the '14 SV I had prior. It just felt cold & drafty in the cabin with heat blasting in my face as if nothing is circulating into the rear. That was on a 35-degree night with blowing rain/snow, would hate to have that system on a 0-degree night.

[specialgreen]

Curious as to which heat-A/C system is in your LEAF? Reason I ask is that the '18 SV that I test drove last week had the base model resistance system (non-heat pump) that lacks heat ducts to the rear seat. It also did not have the seat or steering wheel heaters.

I have the '17 Leaf-S. I've been told that the inductive heat comes-on faster than the heat-pump, which I guess is a plus. It doesn't have a heated steering wheel (I wear gloves) or heated mirrors (I keep a mini-ice scraper handy for frozen rain, mini-squeegee for mist, and an old library card for frost).

According to this:
https://nissannews.com/media_storage/do ... -FINAL.pdf
...it has heated ducts to the rear, but I still felt the need to add Wagan heated seat covers in back, plus a Cozy-2 heated blanket... definitely not something you can force onto a rideshare customer!

[LeftieBiker]

I've been told that the inductive heat comes-on faster than the heat-pump, which I guess is a plus.

What you've probably read is that the direct to air resistance heater heats much faster than the old liquid to air heaters in the pre '13 cars. The resistance heater is probably a little faster than the heat pump, especially since they are programmed to complement each other, but the difference isn't huge. What is relatively huge is the amount of heat the direct to air resistance heater produces in cold weather.

[rogersleaf]

Curious as to which heat-A/C system is in your LEAF? Reason I ask is that the '18 SV that I test drove last week had the base model resistance system (non-heat pump) that lacks heat ducts to the rear seat. It also did not have the seat or steering wheel heaters.

I have the '17 Leaf-S. I've been told that the inductive heat comes-on faster than the heat-pump, which I guess is a plus. It doesn't have a heated steering wheel (I wear gloves) or heated mirrors (I keep a mini-ice scraper handy for frozen rain, mini-squeegee for mist, and an old library card for frost).

According to this:
https://nissannews.com/media_storage/do ... -FINAL.pdf
...it has heated ducts to the rear, but I still felt the need to add Wagan heated seat covers in back, plus a Cozy-2 heated blanket... definitely not something you can force onto a rideshare customer!

Using a LEAF for a commercial ride share in a cold climate will be a challenge given the range constraints. Don’t take this the wrong way, it’s a wonderful car in many ways. However the reality of very limited range in cold weather, charging time recovery vs. amount of revenue driving, and not having total control over pre-planning for charging events would make this type of use too frustrating for me.

[Goran]

The project is completed. I'm currently driving around testing it. I purchased a Chinese clone, 5kw diesel heater. I've been driving so far for about 45 minutes, and the heater works AMAZING. It is very quiet, odor free and puts out a TON of heat. Maybe even too much, it gets pretty hot on lowest setting. This project will serve me well in the upcoming months. I have a secondary job where at times I sit in my vehicle for 6-8 hours overnight. Before this, i have used two large marine deep cycle batteries, connected to a 750 watt power inverter, with two lasko 200 watt space heaters, depending on the need I would turn one or both on. Both would last approximately 3 hours, one 6 hours. But when the temperature drops down to teens, they were inadequate, plus the fogging of windows was a big issue when driving. This diesel heater removes any moisture from the air in the cabine, it is that hot. Feel free to hate, or compliment, ask questions etc. But keep in mind, that even though I am no longer 100 percent green for 3 months out of 12, it is still better than using fosil fuel to propel a car and waste most of it to heat. This thing barely sips any diesel on low setting . I'm gonna try to upload a few photos.

[jjeff]

Wow lots of results by searching Amazon for 5kw Diesel heater. In fact all I had to do was type "5kw D" and up popped diesel air heater
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i ... L056X2DE4K

[specialgreen]

I have the '17 Leaf-S. According to this:
https://nissannews.com/media_storage/do ... -FINAL.pdf
...it has heated ducts to the rear

I sat in the back seat, and stuck my hand down under the driver's seat. With the heat+fan on full blast, I did not feel any warm air moving under the drivers seat, regardless of whether the Mode was set to windshielf vent, face vent or foot vent. If the 2017 Leaf-S has a vent to the back (as claimed in the Nissan document), I don't know where it is.

On the bright side, the Sojoy SJ145A heated seat cover I added in back seem to be as warm as the front seats, even though they are only 3A.

[PaulSp]

The project is completed. I'm currently driving around testing it. I purchased a Chinese clone, 5kw diesel heater. I've been driving so far for about 45 minutes, and the heater works AMAZING. It is very quiet, odor free and puts out a TON of heat. Maybe even too much, it gets pretty hot on lowest setting. This project will serve me well in the upcoming months. I have a secondary job where at times I sit in my vehicle for 6-8 hours overnight. Before this, i have used two large marine deep cycle batteries, connected to a 750 watt power inverter, with two lasko 200 watt space heaters, depending on the need I would turn one or both on. Both would last approximately 3 hours, one 6 hours. But when the temperature drops down to teens, they were inadequate, plus the fogging of windows was a big issue when driving. This diesel heater removes any moisture from the air in the cabine, it is that hot. Feel free to hate, or compliment, ask questions etc. But keep in mind, that even though I am no longer 100 percent green for 3 months out of 12, it is still better than using fosil fuel to propel a car and waste most of it to heat. This thing barely sips any diesel on low setting . I'm gonna try to upload a few photos.

Hi im going to do the same! ordered a 2kw heater from china, currently awaiting delivery.

i plan to place it in the far right or in the right-aft part of the trunk with a heating duct to the top. I intend to box it in as well so I dont have to be that carefull dumping stuff in the trunk.

Do you have any pics of how you placed yours?

[LeftieBiker]

I can understand this choice in the kind of situation mentioned above, although I'd probably choose propane, or use bio-diesel. I hate diesel/home heating fuel.

[Goran]

Paulsp,
I have never used this website before and am not really sure how to upload the photos to it. It seems that the link has to be posted , they can't be uploaded. If you send me your email , I can email you the photos.

I placed it directly over the hole in the trunk, you will see the rubber plug once you remove all of the items covering the trunk area. The heater and all its components are mounted on a decorative, wire basked I purchased at lowes for ten bucks. This way, all the hoses, exhaust csn be routed through the basket without the need for any cutting and it makes it easy to zip tie to the basket. The fuel container is also zip tied to the back of the basket, making the removal easy in the spring as it is all one piece now. I had to add a 90 degree pipe from hardware store to extend the exhaust out back and at a slight angle down. The heat output hose is placed over the rear seat, underneath the headrest. It faces the windshield which eliminates any condensation while driving. So far I haven't even used a half gallon of diesel, but the heater works flawlessly and puts out a ton of heat. I'm working overnight tonight and it should be abut 20°F, so I will run it for about 6 hrs consistently. I am not really familiar with diesel and kerosine all that much, but have been researching if I can substitute kerosine which you can burn indoors as it burns clean.