ripple4
Well-known member
With the polar vortex just happening and these negative-F cold blasts being a regular thing for 10’s of millions of people I wanted to share my thoughts on a 120v heater for the 12v lead acid battery. Lead batteries perform at their peak at around 77F both in expected life and also ability to provide current. So when the temps drop into single digits the battery is only going to provide 50% or less of what it’s rated at on the sticker. While the leaf does not have a ICE starter motor to power, the car does seem to be very sensitive to a low voltage situation of the 12v battery, and a battery heater cannot hurt there.
To try out this idea I cobbled up some items I had laying around to illustrate one way to do this, the heating plate approach, the picture shows a 150w 120v 4”x5” silicone pad and just about the cheapest temperature controller rigged up to heat the 12v lead battery to 77F/25C. $30 or so will buy a nicer temperature controller with better cable management. The second and probably better way to do this is the battery blanket approach, i bought a zero start 280-0055 battery blankets for the long term. This blanket is lower power, only 50w, but its also insulated, so it will keep the heat in better. Being 28” long it should completely cover the perimeter of the group 51 battery size.
https://ibb.co/LpXgRdB
Here is some reading on cold temperature performance of lead acid batteries:
https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a239115.pdf\
To try out this idea I cobbled up some items I had laying around to illustrate one way to do this, the heating plate approach, the picture shows a 150w 120v 4”x5” silicone pad and just about the cheapest temperature controller rigged up to heat the 12v lead battery to 77F/25C. $30 or so will buy a nicer temperature controller with better cable management. The second and probably better way to do this is the battery blanket approach, i bought a zero start 280-0055 battery blankets for the long term. This blanket is lower power, only 50w, but its also insulated, so it will keep the heat in better. Being 28” long it should completely cover the perimeter of the group 51 battery size.
https://ibb.co/LpXgRdB
Here is some reading on cold temperature performance of lead acid batteries:
https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a239115.pdf\