Easy Climate Control Fan-Only Solution - 5 cents, 5 mins

Hello everyone!
I'm french and i would like to do the method 2 on my leaf.

Someone has a video showing this method in details?

Or more photos about the differrents steps and components?

Thanks

No one?

i completely insulated all my LEAFs tubes last winter. took me 1,5h (i knew what to do from my i-Miev) for the job. you have to remove the battery carrier then you have access to all tubes.

the temperatur sensor is insulated automatically and therefore the power consumtion drops significantly about 0,8kW-1kW. i can drive preheated now for 8 miles until the heater comes on with very low kW/h. in carwings i jumped from 1000 to 200 in range.

here are my pictures: http://imageshack.us/g/1/10092398/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

hornstudio said:

i completely insulated all my LEAFs tubes last winter. took me 1,5h (i knew what to do from my i-Miev) for the job. you have to remove the battery carrier then you have access to all tubes.

the temperatur sensor is insulated automatically and therefore the power consumtion drops significantly about 0,8kW-1kW. i can drive preheated now for 8 miles until the heater comes on with very low kW/h. in carwings i jumped from 1000 to 200 in range.

here are my pictures: http://imageshack.us/g/1/10092398/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Click to expand...

That looks great, I'd like to do it as well. What did you use for the insulation? Where did you buy it. It looks like you used two different materials.

Thank you for the nice photos. I want to do this heater insulation to my 2011 before next winter. This will be very helpful.

i have measured the diameter and went to home depot and bought self adhesive tube insulation you use for any kind of heating system. very important are the cable binders: you glue the first 1" of insulation together and immediately close the first cable binder to avoid re-opening when you push it on the tubes. every few inches, just for safety, i use a cable binder. i would say insulation stuff is about 10mm thick. at the fire wall both tubes touch and its hard to reach the fire wall at the same time: ask your wife with little hands/fingers. if you want to do it right, buy armaflex. this sticks like hell. i would anyway use the cable binders. with outside temperatures i do not trust the adhesive.

the 2nd material is higly flexible foam "with skin", also self adhesive. i wrapped the expansion tank and again, cable binded it. 20mm thick this time. this is professional ebay stuff.

i have no clue how a global player like nissan can expose water (glycole) filled tubes of a cars heating system directly and fully naked to the wind chill at speeds of 100+km/h plus -10°C. the ptc is fighting against wind mills.

i doubt, after insulation, that the range of an insulated 2011-2013 leaf is less than of the 2013 heat pump leaf, which we all know, only works well, when we dont need heat at mild temperatures. at temperatures around -10°C the heat pump has a cop of 1 and is worse/equal to the non insulated 2011-2012 modell. the ptc works at temperatures below -20°C, the heat pump shuts off. no idea how they do it in alaska and norway...

remember:

hornstudio said:

i completely insulated all my LEAFs tubes last winter. took me 1,5h (i knew what to do from my i-Miev) for the job. you have to remove the battery carrier then you have access to all tubes.

the temperatur sensor is insulated automatically and therefore the power consumtion drops significantly about 0,8kW-1kW. i can drive preheated now for 8 miles until the heater comes on with very low kW/h. in carwings i jumped from 1000 to 200 in range.

here are my pictures: http://imageshack.us/g/1/10092398/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Click to expand...

Hornstudio, thank you very much for the information. That will certainly help save some range. Nice pictures! Not sure whether it is possible to also cover the actual heater itself with insulation?

Best regards,

HyperMiler

How about a way to control the recirculate function manually, overriding the climate control? I'm sensitive to exhaust fumes, and miss being able to just press recirculate when in defrost mode, rather than having to turn the CC off first before recirculate will work. Not only that, but there are times when recirculate makes the defroster work better.

BetterLeaf said:

Method 2: Separate Switch for Heater.
Pros: 20 to 50 mins, screw driver, no soldering required
Cons: Wire taps, location for separate switch required, pre-heating requires switch in off position

Click to expand...

I made this modification this morning. Works great! This will make it much easier to keep the windows from fogging up without worrying about the heater kicking on and zapping my range.

I have been procrastinating in doing this since it was released. (Method 3). I wanted to get it done while the weather is warm since I do not have a garage, but it is so easy to forget about it because I don't need the heat right now.
I finally got around to doing it, plus some extra stuff since I booked the day off work.

I first did this with a nice circuit board, but it didn't work as advertised, after some trial and error and re-reading, I found that R3/R4 were dropping the voltage too low, so I got rid of them, and now it works ^_^
Also, I used a 2N7000 mosftet, I think there is a typo, 1N7000 indicates a diode, not a transistor.
Because I had to do trouble shooting, i found it was easier to solder point-to-point, though I worry about the durability of this circuit. I have a layer of kapton tape between my components and the board and over the components to hold them down. This tape is safe for electronics and works in high temperatures.


Here are some pictures of my insulation mod. I initially used the same cheap pipe-insulation that is common, but I didn't really like it, plus the R value (insulation ability) is better on this metallic bubble wrap. According to the lowes website, this stuff is R4, vs the foam pipe insulation which is only 2.4

I have a sticky foam tape with foil on my reservoir, I just found it in the store, I don't have a link for you. (I bought my materials from a local Rona hardware store that is having a closing/moving sale)
I wish I could have gotten to the PTC heater itself, but I didn't have the tools (or the time) to get my tire off and the car lifted, so I went in from above instead. It looks nice, but I think I could have done better.
Here are the photos. any un-wrapped pipes you see are part of the coolant loop, so we do not want them insulated. (link goes to skydrive with more photos)

jclemens said:

I initially used the same cheap pipe-insulation that is common, but I didn't really like it, plus the R value (insulation ability) is better on this metallic bubble wrap. According to the lowes website, this stuff is R4, vs the foam pipe insulation which is only 2.4

Click to expand...

The manufacturer calls it R-4, but it is really only R-1.1 plus the radiant barrier. They are assigning a value of R-2.9 to the radiant barrier under some choice of standard conditions. But the value of that radiant barrier varies according to conditions. Anywhere it is up against another material, or anywhere it gets dirty, the radiant barrier has no insulating value.

Cheers, Wayne

Thank you very much, BetterLeaf!
You just made this world a little bit better place

I was already working on option 3 (deluxe) and I can confirm that my "MosFET in the drawer", a ZVN 211 0A is NOT compatible with the schematic. Probably because the voltage on the gate is too low. But when searching in the drawer for another FET, I realised that I did not have al the possibilities with option3 as one would have with option 2. (for example: AC-compressor ON & heater-PTC "hard"-OFF)
So I went for an option 2 variation. I will post the pictures later.

Thanks again for sharing information!

@ jclemens
Hope you didn't go to too much trouble putting that isolation on, because, to be honest, you should put the reflecting coating inwards, because its meant to shield/reflect heat.

after insulation i stepped up from 4500 to 1800 in carwings although we have fall temperatures now and not summer anymore. not bad at all.

EV1 said:

Hope you didn't go to too much trouble putting that isolation on, because, to be honest, you should put the reflecting coating inwards, because its meant to shield/reflect heat.

Click to expand...

No, the reflective side is only effective when facing an air gap. If you put it in direct contact with another material, then heat will pass via conduction. When facing an air gap, the reflective side will reduce the transmission of heat via radiation in either direction.

If the radiant heat source is external, it is easy to see that the reflective side will reflect back some of the incident radiant heat. But the reflective side also has a low emissivity--it is a poor emitter of radiant heat. So when the reflective material is hot, it doesn't lose as much heat by radiation as it otherwise would.

Cheers, Wayne

It is reflective on both sides.
and yes, there is an air gap (lots of gaps) between the hot fluids and the reflective insulation. The bubble wrap likeness also provides an additional airgap within the insulation.

If you have something better, please post it.

I've been reading this thread and had an idea. Excuse me if someone mentioned it but I must have missed it.

Why not install a switch and resistor to set the outside temp sensor at 60*? The heater should not come on nor should the a/c if the temp is set to 60*

For us northern lattituders that would give us heat if we set the temp up a little and we can turn if off by adjusting down. Easy it seems.

It's not like our leaf needs ambient temp for any other purpose (like ICE FI density calculation).

bowthom said:

I've been reading this thread and had an idea. Excuse me if someone mentioned it but I must have missed it.

Why not install a switch and resistor to set the outside temp sensor at 60*? The heater should not come on nor should the a/c if the temp is set to 60*

For us northern lattituders that would give us heat if we set the temp up a little and we can turn if off by adjusting down. Easy it seems.

It's not like our leaf needs ambient temp for any other purpose (like ICE FI density calculation).

Click to expand...

Seems like a good idea. Any idea how to do this?

This will not work, as the LEAF considers the inside temp, and the temp of the heater coolant loop too.

Even if you could make it work, you'd end up with a bunch of hacked wires, and non-elegant extra switches that defeat the auto temp features.

-Phil

Option 2 variant:

I remove the pins from the connector to slide over the shrink tube.

The switch above the "gas"pedal