Winter is here and I live in the UK and its getting cold.
I am tired of having to defrost my car, or sit in it whilst the engine runs to warm it up.
I was wondering if there was a way to carry a charged battery to the car, plug in a heater and leave it on in there 10-30 minutes before I leave for work in the morning.
I see lots of devices that will run off a 12v car socket, but I don’t want to drain my car battery, or leave my keys in the car whilst it is unattended. I need to find a Lithium ion battery that provides such a socket, that I can carry down to the car and plug it in. Either that or I need to find an all-in-one battery heater but I don’t think such things exist?
Personally, I use my wife’s set of keys to lock the car once I turn it on in order for it to let it defrost. Basically a separate set of keys (or a valet key) should solve your issue pretty quickly I believe!
You’ll kill your battery that way. Converting electrical energy into heat creates a lot of draw, and car batteries are not designed for capacity. They’re designed to store high amounts of energy and release them in short, high capacity bursts.
What you want is a remote starter. They allow you to start the car with a remote, and will warm the interior while keeping the battery charged from the alternator, as it’s designed to do.
Those systems require the key to be present in the ignition in order to operate the vehicle. Attempts to operate it without the key will turn off the car, using exactly the same mechanism as an anti-theft system.
@imhigh.today I think you missed the point. I’m deliberately not connecting to the car battery, hence linking battery products that have 12v sockets. The car and its electrics are off the entire time. I don’t mind if I kill a 60 quid battery I bought that isn’t fitted to the car.
Not wanting remote start, that again starts the engine to burn fuel to create the heat.
Both of the items you linked have jump start capability. Jump starting requires the same “short duration, high amperage” that car batteries operate on. The chemistry of the battery determines what they’re best suited for. Batteries that advertise peak draw (or cold-crank amperage) operate that way. For continuous draw, you want something more like a marine, golf cart, or RV battery (deep-cycle).
But still, what you’re trying to do is grossly inefficient, and poorly suited for the purpose. You say you don’t want to waste fuel, but constantly charging from AC and converting to DC also wastes fuel, just a different type. Unless you know that your electric is from 100% renewable sources, the environmental impact of idling your car might be lower than the environmental impact of the electricity that’s being generated to charge your battery pack.
Finally, there’s the financial efficiency as well. By the time you burn through your second battery pack, you’ve already spent more than a remote starter costs.
constantly charging from AC and converting to DC also wastes fuel, just a different type. Unless you know that your electric is from 100% renewable sources, the environmental impact of idling your car might be lower than the environmental impact of the electricity that’s being generated to charge your battery pack.
I believe my electricity is 100% “green” (or at least linked in some way). I’m with outfox the market and they love to push the 100% green electricity thing.
I agree converting from AC to DC etc is ineficcient, which is why I would love it if there was an all-in-one unit I could find somewhere that was just a giant battery hooked up to some kind of fan heater…
By the time you burn through your second battery pack, you’ve already spent more than a remote starter costs.
I don’t think I can fit a remote start kit to my 2007 VW polo 9N.
Lets assume the lead acid battery is 35AH for fun. With the 150W heater means that you can expect around 2.5 hours of battery life out of it. This is just a shot in the dark but it shouldnt take more than 15-20 minutes to warm up the car to the point where you can comfortably sit in it.
Either find one with clips or cut the cable and attach them yourself (after verifying the polarity first)
I used to do this a lot in my truck until I got an electric car. My Leaf has a timer that kicks the heater, steering wheel and seat warmers on a schedule. It pulls power from the mains until I unplug it and drive off. Pretty darn nifty and better than watching the exhaust waft over the house.
12v socket is just limited in amperage so a small plug in heater will just take while to heat if it’s sub-zero outside.
Sorry but another BEV owner here and winter pre-heating as standard was a big reason why I decided to take the plunge. My cars starts pre-heating the car from 40-30 mins prior to departure time depending on outside temperature. I’ve seen it draw up to 2kw from the charger while pre-heating to it can take a fair amount of energy to do it thoroughly especially when it dropped to -4C recently.
I was just starting to look at alternative ways to do this myself in my ICE car and was thinking of plug in engine pre-heaters or maybe some sort of system from a Range Rover or Land Rover (paraffin/diesel heaters). I just didn’t get very far as the i3 BEV fixed this.
Now all I have to worry about is the range loss due to the low temps
