Adding Enginer PHEV system.

[IamIan]

Originally Posted by ericbecky

Can you point me to a link about the dc-dc enable mod?
Also, I can't picture what you mean by a small heating element. My mind keeps drifting back to the thought of a electric stovetop heating element. Care to provide a link for that, too?

See Mike's post about the DC-DC... he pretty much covered it.

The unit I have I got from a GoodWill years ago... but the basic idea is just a DC powered electric heater.

You don't want to pull too much electrical power ... don't want to blow a fuse , or cause problems , etc.

But with non-Gasoline electrical power from your Plug-In power ... you can begin to heat up the cabin and even begin to put warmer air to heat up the battery pack without waiting for waste ICE heat.

Of course the PHEV system is limited in Wh and Watts ... so doing so would have pros and cons... on what you want to spend your limited Watts and Wh on... but it is at least an option.

As an Example ... here is a ~150Watt version.
The amount of heat will depend on how many watts you want to throw at it... I would recommend against high watts... like more than 500Watts would seem excessive... The cons would out weigh the pros.

http://www.amazon.com/Ceramic-Heater...3939959&sr=8-7

[retepsnikrep]

I used electrical heating on my old solarvan project. 150w max or something. I had the lithium cells in an insulated area and used an old electric blanket underneath them. You can even dissasemble the blanket and route the heating wire around the cells/battery/box. I used a vivarium habistat thermostat to control it. Worked very well.

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

A waterbed heater with thremostat is another nice flat surface heater.
It is designed to sit under the water bag but in direct contact with it. It is a waterproof assembly with a digital thermostat for under $100. I dont know how well the thermostat will work if the thing is not in contact with the water bag, In that position it has a virtually infinite heat sink,and the heat is evenly distributed.
Under the Insight pack, it would be in only in partial contact? So it would depend on the mechanical design.

[ericbecky]

While heading on a long trip the other day I removed the Enginer system from the car.
Pretty easy to do. Unplugged the converter (two wires), unplugged the cord to the charger, and then hefted the whole assembly out of the car. A bit heavy and slightly awkward, but doable. Oh, and I did need to unbolt and slightly move the cover from the stock pack so that the mounting plate would fit past.
It'll be a little while before I put things back in. No hurry for now, especially since the weather is back down in the single digits.

[retepsnikrep]

Originally Posted by ericbecky

While heading on a long trip the other day I removed the Enginer system from the car.

Why Remove it ?

[ericbecky]

Mainly because I was making a long (1100) mile trip in a short amount of time and didn't want the extra weight. Also I planned to take some more photos of the mounting plate while the plate was empty. I didn't take the pics when I first put it in, so I figured I'd take it apart and do it at this time. Lastly I just wanted to try moving things around to see if I could try some other possible configurations.