Better, Diesel-Fired Liquid Heater for 2011-2012 Leaf

[BrockWI]

I was wondering if you used some kind of smaller 2 inch'ish ducting to vent the output up front to the foot well area.

[PaulSp]

Im hoping to get mux's range extender. So i will be forced to remove the heater from the boot.

Placing the heater in the engine bay would still save me about 2-3kw per hour of driving saving me precious range. Allso since i allready have the heater, heating the car with diesel is actually cheaper than to use electricity.

If i have it in the engine bay i can extend the exhaust to a max of 2 metres. And since i only use it while driving... Sucking up exhaust fumes is allmost impossible.

i allso thought about just letting the heater blow its heat into the clean air suck in point under the hood. It will be fairly inefficient but would still provide heat.

Does anyone have the schematics of where i could be able to tap into the cars air system?

[Oilpan4]

You would need to find someone that has pictures of the dash taken apart.

Leaving the loop heater off in a 2011-2012 car will boost range at least 10% at freezing if you want to stay uncomfortably cool.
I don't know any other way to boost range and increase winter comfort for a few hundred dollars.

[PaulSp]

In the Netherlands we have the water boiler type heating system in the leaf.
I modded the heater so i have 3 modes
Heater off but i can still use the blower
Heater on
Heater on but reduced power.

This way i can use the diesel heater and still pull in fresh air.

If i use the heater with reduced power it uses about 500 to 750W less per hour compared to full.

It appears i might be getting my extender battery within 2-3 weeks. So ill have to clear the boot area and my heater.

[whereswally606]

I have been following this thread for a bit. I live in the UK and was the first UK customer with Emile @ Muxsan. Consequently I don't really have the boot space for an air heater even though I have a spare 8kw one from my camper van. I really like the idea of the hydronics style one and have been looking at getting an old oem one and ripping it apart to circuit bend the control electronics to my will rather than have to interpret the an oem hydronics' canbus (which I would need the car for which it came out of, and some more canbus sniffing expertise)

That aside I have also put in heated seats (£25 bargain, but a pain to install). Part of my winter warming plan is to put in some extra battery to run the 12v accessories alone. That being a string of paralleled 36v mower batteries with diodes and a 13.8v 50a step down. I am part way through the printing of the pieces for holding the batteries and connecting to the terminals. I have lots of these as I originally have them as my ebike batteries. Anyway I still like the idea of the hydronics heater but money (I don't want to fork out for a non-oem/new one, they are expensive). I have about 10x 4ah 36v batteries. which is about 1.5kwh extra for 12v auxiliary power. I also think I should be able to fab up a heater that will provide some air heating which can be recirculated using the leafs system (I have the 3 way switch mod on the stock 2011 heater). Running it at the 40% mode on 16 degrees is best at the mo to keep the battery happy.

I agree with the danger of potentially pulling co/(other dangerous gases) into the car if the exhaust isn't fitting correct and the exhaust isn't vented properly to the rear.

Anyway I think that the car is performing well post install of the 17.6kwh extender however the cold is hammering the range. One thing I note is that having the heating off entirely still isn't good for the range as the battery doesn't like being cold. more so than the car occupants.

I would like any pics if anyone has a hydronics install that is functional on a gen1 leaf.

[Oilpan4]

My hydronic diesel heater finally arrived after ordering it a nearly a month ago.
So the ship time on these is going to be at least 3 weeks.

Just holding the heater and comparing it to the the hood it looks like the best place to put it will be on the drivers side behind the grille for 3 reasons.
1 it will be the new lowest point in the coolant system so it will always be full of coolant. Learned this with my 5,500w 240v hot water heater element based coolant heater I used in ice cars. If the heater were placed too high in the coolant system an air bubble would cause the element to melt.
2 it's next to the heater loop coolant lines and coolant expansion tank.
3 it's near the battery.

Draw backs,
It will be all the way at the front of the car which makes exhaust routing as difficult and as long as possible.

[PaulSp]

Keep us posted man! And show us some pics

I have my 8.8kwh extender battery now so my diesel air heater is removed.
Still wanting to mount in under the hood somehwere though.

[Oilpan4]

Keep us posted man! And show us some pics

I have my 8.8kwh extender battery now so my diesel air heater is removed.
Still wanting to mount in under the hood somehwere though.

How much did that cost and did you post pictures?

[Nubo]

...I wonder how they distributed heat to the old VW Bugs that had the Stewert Warner gas heaters and where they put the heater.....from what I remember the cabin heat came from the back floor area, not sure if/how they got it up to the windscreen....

Here's a basic diagram. In practice very little heat ever made it to the windscreen, especially if you drove in a salt-loving area that ate holes in the shrouds around the heat exchangers. I took to applying glycerine to the windshield to avoid frost and fogging.

[goldbrick]

In practice very little heat ever made it to the windscreen, especially if you drove in a salt-loving area that ate holes in the shrouds around the heat exchangers.

Amen to that. I remember wiping the windshield with my hands to get a 'port hole' open to look out of. Those were the days....

Funny how the graphic shows the pipes at the front of the car as red - eg hot - while the rear is blue.