Diesel/hydronic Heater for Honda E

[Striiter]

Hello!

Thank you for this lovely forum.

I purchased a used Honda E September 2023.

Since the consumption is higher than i expected in the winter, the range have become an issue for me. I was wondering if a hydronic/diesel heater from brands such as Eberspaecher, could be used as an addition or replacement to the existing heater, for cabin heating.

I found this forum post: viewtopic.php?t=592 ,which have a diagram of the cabin heating cycle. Since the cycle is so simple, i can't see a reason why it wouldn't be possible. Space under the bonnet/hood shouldn't be an issue either since a hydronic heater isn't very large.

Regarding savings, I've done some testing in Denmark during a cold period where the temperature ranged around -10C, and my avg. consumption with mixed driving was about 21-26 kwh/100km, at 21, step 2, aircondition off and recycle air, but if i switched off the climate all together the consumption would drop down to 14-17kwh/100km.

I pay about 2,3 kr/kwh, which means pr. driven 100km, having heat would mean a cost of 9,2 to 27,6kr pr 100km.

If we assume that the car, with my climate settings use

1L diesel currently cost about 10 kr, and diesel have a kwh value of about 10,7

However, if i used diesel for heating, i calcuated 4-12kwh, i would use between 0,370L to 1,121L, meaning a cost in Diesel of about 4kr to 11kr vs 9,2kr to 27,6kr/100km. Not only that, I would increase the max range of about 50%

Regarding the usage of the heater, it uses power from 12v, and could be controlled with a remote or a controller that would be possible to have inside the car. It uses a lot of power on startup, but once its going it uses about 30w, for fuel pump, pump and fan.

Do any of you have experience with this?

And yes, I know it goes against the idea of an EV, to have diesel heat, but is not uncommon on electric buses in colder climate. And yes I know I then should've bought another EV, however, I've fallen in love with the Honda E, so I want to keep it as long as possible!

[Deleted User 473]

The problem is that the bulk of the energy is used to heat the battery, not just the cabin.

That means that multiple journeys eat into the capacity quite quickly, as each journey the battery has probably lost most of it heats since the last trip.

I wouldn't want to artificially heat the battery as this would no doubt interfere with various systems, let alone the complexity of integrating such a system to the heating loop etc.

[Pehr]

Hello,
I used to have an old 1996 Renault Clio Electrique as my daily driver 2007 til 2017.
It had a gasoline heater that apart from sometimes clogging up did a fantastic job of heating the cabin and the batteries (water cooled NiCd). The tank was seven liters and and 2-3 fills per year was sufficient. Gasoline is extremely efficient for heating and contains a lot of energy. I also used to drive a Volvo C30 Electric 2017-2021 with a gasoline heater. Same thing there worked wonders in the winter time and really helped keeping the range up in the winters. This car had water cooled Li NMC batteries.
Im now on my second Polestar and I wished it had an auxiliary heater with gasoline although the range is actually not a big issue.
We are looking in to buy a Honda E as a second car and I also would consider trying to retrofit a gasoline heater to be prepared for the winter.
https://www.honda.no/content/dam/local/ ... rFlyer.pdf

[asjo]

Hello,
I used to have an old 1996 Renault Clio Electrique as my daily driver 2007 til 2017.
It had a gasoline heater that apart from sometimes clogging up did a fantastic job of heating the cabin and the batteries (water cooled NiCd). The tank was seven liters and and 2-3 fills per year was sufficient.

I used to have a Citroën Saxo Electrique with a similar setup - I used to joke that I would put gasoline into my car once a year!

I also used to drive a Volvo C30 Electric 2017-2021 with a gasoline heater.

How the ... did you get one of those? I am *so* jealous! How was it?

[ZeroEmissionRequiem]

Eberspächer seems to offer an ethanol heater specifically for small EV interior heating. That's a pure air heater, so it wouldn't be connected to the cooling system. I think they have similar heaters for other fuels, too.

[Pehr]

I used to have a Citroën Saxo Electrique with a similar setup - I used to joke that I would put gasoline into my car once a year!

Oh yes. Me too

How the ... did you get one of those? I am *so* jealous! How was it?

I work at Volvo Cars and I was actually initially part of the development team for C30 Electric back in 2009. Then years later I heard employees had a chans to sign up to lease them and I did and was lucky to get one. I still misses it. I loved that car.

Anyway Now I really considering buying a Honda E as an extra car. Auxiliary heater would be a nice upgrade.

[Pehr]

Eberspächer seems to offer an ethanol heater specifically for small EV interior heating. That's a pure air heater, so it wouldn't be connected to the cooling system. I think they have similar heaters for other fuels, too.

Nice. Like the auxiliary heaters in old VW
It will save precious battery energy for sure even if it doesn't heat the battery itself.