Installing diesel parking heater in Leaf's trunk

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Little update. Been using it for over a week now. Guesstimated 500-600km travelled and used less than 1 litre of diesel. I plan on using the car as i always do. Reset the trip counter and check how many hours and km's travelled untill my 2.5 litre tank is depleted.

Usage:
I start the heater about 5 min before departure (using the remote so i dont have to leave the house). Car is comfortably hot.

I had a faint diesel smell in the car the first few days. Now that is totally gone, i reckon it was from installation.

During trips the car gets nice and warm. The windows sometimes tend to fog, but as i have the heater modded i blend the air with cold air from outside so i dont have fogging and fesh air.

I am totally happy with it! And love the range combined with heat.
There is one downside. Normally when you warm you car, the heat output is towards your feet, as warm air tend to rise. With the diesel hester however i cant point the heat output downward, so i have to heat the car starting from the top. That means i sometimes get cold feet. Not a big deal, but worth mentioning.

The heaters are sized as 2kw and 5kw.
The 2kw(which i have) is smaller as the 5. And the 2kw does the job perfectly. I think a 5kw can be a bit overkill.
 
If you use less than a liter a week during the winter I would still consider it an all electric vehicle.
 
If i would to put an extension hose to the foot area, that would have to go over the backseat and i want the car to be looking nice.

Perhaps a small 4v fan mounted on the ceiling of the car to blow the hot air downwards.

I really dont care if people say my car is electric or it uses diesel. I drive it because it is cheap driving.
 
Even if heating uses 10 liters per week, any vehicle that runs (drives) on electricity only is electric.
Using PTC for heating is much worse than diesel (long tailpipe of at least somewhat partially non-green electricity).
 
PaulSp said:
I really dont care if people say my car is electric or it uses diesel. I drive it because it is cheap driving.
Agreed, I love it.

On the fb groups people freak out if you mention something about using a fossil fuel heater in a EV. I think it's funny. They can stuck to their holyier than tho purism.
I'm a realist, I will stick with what works.
 
I looked for a propane Webasto and Eberspacher hydronic heater, I think they made them but I can't find anyone selling them.
Propane powered cabin air heaters are available.

I like diesel because it's ignition point is fairly high like 300F, it's energy density is 140,000ish BTUs per gallon, it won't go stale like gasoline, fill up the heaters fuel tank in late winter and 8 or 9 months later it's still perfectly good when it gets cold again, diesels evaporative pollution is almost 0 compared to gasoline with out an active evap system.

Actually coal gets a bad wrap, at least the good stuff does. I have a coal furnace and burn some anthracite coal in it. It burns cleaner than most of the wood I burn. Anthracite burns with virtually no smoke, it has about as much sulfur as wood does.
The problem is the cheap coal.
 
Even though it makes no sense but a real automotive "vegan" can modify diesel fuel heater to
run on regular oil. New or used. Sunflower or whatever oil. That oil will solidify at cold temperatures
but only a small portion should be warmed up with 12V heating element to make it totally usable
in winter. Byproduct is usually a smell of fast-food restaurant exhaust :lol:

Particulates that come out of fuel heater exhaust are much safer/cleaner than those that come out of
older diesel vehicle due to no compression of the fuel. Plus of course amount is like 10x less than car.
 
Was thinking outside the box and figured I'd share my thoughts on a possible heater option...

I wonder if a tankless, indoor, propane water heater could be used, along with radiant heating mats:

https://www.amazon.ca/MountainNet-Digital-Tankless-Bathroom-Supplies/dp/B014GZVWLK/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1548899021&sr=8-6&keywords=tankless+indoor+water+heater+propane

I'm thinking the tankless heater could be vented through the floor of the trunk space...
 
I wonder if your propane heater is cost efficient. My diesel heater set me back 140 euros or 160 usd.
A broken ptc heater could set you pack a couple of thousands!

There are liquid diesel heaters, they are to be set up in line with the normal water circuit. If you're looking for a more discrete installation that is the way!
 
alozzy said:
Was thinking outside the box and figured I'd share my thoughts on a possible heater option...

I wonder if a tankless, indoor, propane water heater could be used, along with radiant heating mats:

https://www.amazon.ca/MountainNet-Digital-Tankless-Bathroom-Supplies/dp/B014GZVWLK/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1548899021&sr=8-6&keywords=tankless+indoor+water+heater+propane

I'm thinking the tankless heater could be vented through the floor of the trunk space...

My tank less water heater I installed in my rental house cuts off if the inlet temperature goes above 90F.

The Eberspacher hydronic heater is exactly what you need and it is a lot smaller than any tankless heater I have seen.
 
PaulSp said:
Do you have a diesel hester fitted Oilpan?
I have not even bought it yet.
My hope is that they go on sale when it warms up. Plus I have been so busy with work I doubt I will have time to install it before spring.
 
Sooooo i used about 1 liter per 300km.
Aka 1 gallon for 700 miles. And used during freezing temps and including preheat (by the diesel heater)

Quite satisfied. As i dont have to fill it on a regular basis
 
Excellent...
I was figuring 300 miles to a gallon, unrealistic, worst case scenario.
I was expecting at least 500 miles to the gallon.

But 700 miles to the gallon!
I would only have to refill a 1L tank roughly once a week.
Where I am it will get cold for 2 or 3 weeks then warm up to where it's bearable for a week or so. Then back to being cold again.
So probably use 1 gallon per month or less.

My tractor uses diesel fuel so already have it on hand.
 
Keep in mind i have the 2kw version not the 5kw. The 5kw will use more.

I also calculated it is actually cheaper to heat the car with diesel thsn with electricity.

I use about 1kwh per 40km.
So per 300km ~7.5 kwh.

7.5kwh at 23 eurocent cost me 1.7 euro
A liter of diesel is about 1.30 euro.
 
PaulSp said:
Keep in mind i have the 2kw version not the 5kw. The 5kw will use more.

I also calculated it is actually cheaper to heat the car with diesel thsn with electricity.

I use about 1kwh per 40km.
So per 300km ~7.5 kwh.

7.5kwh at 23 eurocent cost me 1.7 euro
A liter of diesel is about 1.30 euro.

This is correct.
Exception is solar energy. But that is hardly available in winter.
 
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