Is there another method to keep your HV Battery warm when you are away from home in an attempt to induce quicker electric mode driving other than the engine block heater?

Would it possible to tap into the wire going into the HV battery heater and warm this battery via using a portable 12V power pack? Would the HV battery heater automatically turn on with power? What is the amp rating for the HV battery heater? Access to this wire is easy once the carpet is removed.



Links for the two photos:
http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...eryheater2.jpg

http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/f...teryheater.jpg

 

Yes. This SHOULD work.

You need 24 volts ( not 12v ) and 3 amps.

This is what the transformer provided with the engine block heater provides.

You would need that power for 2-3 hours to be effective. Longer would be better.

Two car batteries wired IN SERIES would do this for you, and would have enough juice for 3-4 hours between charges.

I still say, just look for an 120 VAC outlet!
How often do you park more than a couple hundered feet from an outlet?

 

Keep in mind that 4 things ( or more ) need to be hot for EV operation, so just warming the battery alone may be a lost cause.

I'm finding out the catalyist temperature is the LEAST important parameter now. That sucker is to normal temp in about 30 seconds. The engine and battery pack take 20 times longer to warm up.

 

I'm wondering if the Hybrid battery pack takes even longer than the engine to warmup? It is hard to tell with the scanguage not reflecting this quickly.

 

On it's own, yes... the HV battery is slowwww to warm up.

With the engine block heater / HV Bat heater combo, they seem to warm at an equal pace for me. 400 watts to the engine, 75 watts to the battery pack.

 

This is the information I wanted you to produce again. 75 watts is a lot less than the 400 required for the engine block. This is why I posted this because of the mistaken belief a portable 12V power pack could provide energy for this process away from home and speed up the process of going into electric mode. Then I forgot -as you reminded me--of the need for a transformer to change the 12V energy form.

 

Billy, I'm finding out that the temperature of the HV battery is not responsible for allowing or dis-allowing EV. With a cold battery, you are just limited to the number of amps that go in or out of the battery.

Once the engine is hot, I can get into EV and "coast" for a very, long time. Just the battery does not recapture regen when it is cold... almost all the power goes into the brake pads when the HV battery is cold. But I still get EV for coasting down hills, etc. Even at Zero degrees. It takes a little more "encouragement" from me though to coax the car into EV.

Brake tap in N really does work best at shutting the engine down when the battery is cold. Think about it from the car's POV. In D the car will apply the brake pads when it is too cold for regen. In D the car can use engine compression brake if more brake power is need, so the car keeps the ICE spinning.

In "N" the regen is disabled, and the ICE compression brake is also disabled, and power to the wheels is disabled, so the car "sees" there is no possible reason ( or senario ) where the ICE would be of assistance, so it shuts down.
-John

 

I've been telling this for a long time!

GaryG

 

I used the plug-in EBH / HVB warmer for 3 hours to get my HV battery from 25 degrees to 55 degrees.

Then, in 10 minutes of driving, with charging and discharging, my battery took itself up to 74 degrees. I think the air door opened because for the rest of the drive, it went down to 71'F and stayed there. It was 21-25 degrees outside.

Bill... maybe you are putting too much thought/effort into this?

*It occurs to me that perhaps 55 degrees was warm enough to allow strong charge/discharge.
If I had started at 25 degrees, who knows how long it would have taken to reach 74. An hour?
I'll try it some time, but normally I drive less than 1 hour!

 

I'm learning the hard way by reading, thinking and yes making errors. It is ok, I can pick myself up. I don't have much of a background in what goes on in many of these technical posts.