Battery Blanket
#1
Battery Blanket
I thought that I would add a few pictures on the addition of a battery blanket on my Camry. Since I live in a bitterly cold environment, and that the car has to sit outside a lot of nights, I decided to add some assistance to the engine block heater already installed. I struggled to find a suitable blanket that would keep the batteries warm, but not burn a lot of power. The block heater already burns a little over 400watts, I did not want to add a in car heater since they consume too much electricity. I settled on a 80 watts blanket that is used to keep standard batteries warm and instead of wrapping it around, I just layed it flat. I routed the power cord as shown in the pictures, and connected it in with the engine block heater cord so that only one plug needs to be plugged in.
#3
Re: Battery Blanket
That's a good idea to warm the traction battery in the cold weather. At dusk it cools off fast here were we live. I have noticed the warmer the batteries the faster they take a charge. They also drain slower when warm.
It would be nice if the traction battery would stay that way during the cold winters.
It would be nice if the traction battery would stay that way during the cold winters.
#5
Re: Battery Blanket
On a timer for 4 hrs before leaving in the morning, $0.10
Gas right now is $1/l or $3.79/USgal
How much does it save? Don't know that one
#8
Re: Battery Blanket
To clarify things in this case, I do not have to pay for the power consumed. My wife takes the car to work and plugs it in at the parking lot. Most parking lots have their own plug-ins here since -30 to -40 C is not unusual in this area in the winter months. To add to that, windshill can be extreme, so the car cools off much quicker to the ambient temperature.
For information sake, electrical cost here is about .06cents/KWh and when you include all the taxes, it adds up to about .09cents/KWh.
I do not plug my car in at home where it sits in an unheated insulated garage but even with -30C outside, it usually doesn't go lower then -10C.
I have a scanguage, but I do not have the command sequence to send to find the SOC and the battery temps. I keep hoping that someone will want to share with the rest of the group once it is discovered
Cheers
For information sake, electrical cost here is about .06cents/KWh and when you include all the taxes, it adds up to about .09cents/KWh.
I do not plug my car in at home where it sits in an unheated insulated garage but even with -30C outside, it usually doesn't go lower then -10C.
I have a scanguage, but I do not have the command sequence to send to find the SOC and the battery temps. I keep hoping that someone will want to share with the rest of the group once it is discovered
Cheers
#10
Re: Battery Blanket
Bit of a calculation error
480 watts times 4 hours = 1.920 kwh@ 9cents per kwh which includes all taxes surcharges and delivery charges amounts to about 17.28 cents per day or $5.18 per month or $63.07 per year.
given that gas is around 2.50 per gallon we could buy 25.228 gallons of additional gasoline which would allow us to travel a further distance of about 1000 miles.
One must wonder if we are really saving anything.