iMiEV Heater Installation
Overall, I love my little electric car, the Mitsubishi iMiEV. It’s a good, affordable, all electric commuter car.
It’s one shortcoming is that it was never designed for COLD Wisconsin winters. The heater is electric (of course!) but it heats a liquid antifreeze (coolant) which then circulates through a heater core, where a fan finally blows the heat into the car. It’s not particularly efficient and has a bit of a warm-up time. On top of that, the system only heats the coolant to around 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Most typical gas cars keep the engine coolant at 190 degrees once they are at temperature!
The car also has the smallest battery pack of any commercially-available battery-electric car in the United States. Combine a small battery pack with an inefficient heater, and a Wisconsin winter, and it becomes a recipe for short range and a cold driver. In this screen grab, red shows energy used by the heater, and blue shows energy used to push the car down the road. When it’s really cold, range can be shortened by a third or more!
So, after reading lots of information about “Winterizing” these cars on the MyiMiEV forum, I decided to install a dedicated fuel-burning heater. The heater I chose was one already used by several of those forum members. It’s a generic version of an Espar 5kW liquid heater. My heater was roughly $500 and was purchased through Aliexpress.com. You can also find the heater through the manufacturer’s web page. It’s the 5kW 12V Gasoline version.
So, far, I’m running the heater on E85 from my local gas station. I have a friend who makes his own ethanol from scratch, and I intend to get some pure, sustainably produced ethanol from him. Even with the heater running full blast, fuel use translates into hundreds of miles per gallon.
Mounting the heater in parallel with the original electric heating system allows me to use the electric OR liquid-fueled heater, and I can still use the car’s electric “pre-heat” feature. I intend to use the fuel burner when it’s either very cold, or when I have concerns about range, due to the electric heater otherwise sapping power.
In effect, what I am doing is using a liquid fuel for heating, to maximize battery energy for propulsion – trying to “use the right tool for the right job”!
After the heater arrived in the mail, I first rigged it up on a stand in my garage to learn what I needed to do to hook it up and test it. I also shot some thermal video of the heater running hot water into a bucket as an initial test.
Once I had a basic understanding of the heater, I started the process of the actual installation of the heater into the car.
What follows is a series of 6 videos showing step by step how I installed this heater in the car.
A big Thank You to other Mitsubishi iMiEV owners who have shared information on modifying the heater systems in their cars! I hope these videos help anyone else who is interested in hybridizing their heating system in cold climates!
I’ll add some more information here as I get more experience using this heater!
-Ben Nelson
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do the original electric heater controls work with both systems?
Thanks meantime,
John
The original electric heater control is completely unmodified, and works exactly as intended at any time. For the auxiliary system that I installed, it’s turned on and off with a very small control panel that was included, otherwise, it just uses the original existing controls for blower speed and where the heat is being directed. To use the auxiliary system only, I just set the temperature control on the car to neutral (neither hot or cold.) That makes sure that the electric heater does NOT come on, but that air is still being routed past the heat exchanger.
I know you use a petrol heater but is the comment below relevant?
Thanks for your quick reply.
John
Just beware that the diesel heaters should have more than 3 liters to work optimal. With only 2 liters the heater will have very short heating intervals. This may cause the heater to burn less clean, use more fuel, and needing service more often. You might want to add a small tank.
I can’t think of any reason why the size of the fuel tank would effect “How Clean” the heater burns fuel. If the tank was SO TINY that the heater could only run for a few minutes, that would be one thing, but even with this very small tank, the heater can run for hours. One upside of a slightly smaller tank would just be to top off the fuel less often.
This comment was for the amount of water ( Antifreeze mix ) in the original heating system.
Thanks again,
John
This car does have a rather small antifreeze/coolant tank. However, there isn’t an issue with the heater cycling on and off. Typically, I’m just running the heat full blast. The heat is pulled out fast enough from the coolant that the heater doesn’t shut off from the coolant getting too hot.
One advantage of having MORE coolant would be that more could be heated up using the “Pre-Heat” feature of the car.
So far, the aftermarket “Parking Heater” has worked very well, and is a really nice addition to the vehicle.
Hi Again,
My heater has now arrived but it has an external water pump this I assume is not required.
Thanks again,
John
Hi John, it would depend on your exact model heater. My fossil-fuel heater has a pump built right into it, which circulates the heated water into the existing heater system of the car. You may have a model of heater WITHOUT an internal pump. In that case, it may require an external pump.
http://www.melloronline.co.uk/product_uploads/14412927811.pdf
Please see above I bought the Petrol version and they said it was the same heater you used.
John
Hi John, I took a look at the PDF. On the first page that shows all the parts of the heater labeled, item #13 is the internal water pump. So, it appears that you have the same heater. I don’t know why yours also included an external water pump, but you don’t need it for an iMiEV installation.
HI Ben, I watched your videos on adding this heater . Thanks for the info. I just bought a 2013 leaf s. I understand that these have the older heaters from 2012 and older. Only sv and sl have that upgrade. How would I know if that’s true. Any help would be appreciated . I live in the suburbs of Chicago. It gets very cold here also. I didn’t realize you were so close until I saw many of your videos. HI neighbor 🙂
Hello Mr. Nelson, im from Germany and have a us i-miev.
The car hat an Waterdammage and i repair it.
The cable from srs ecu was oxidation. i replace it in long 30 cm.
now the left window airbag has an problem in srs ecu.
i am not sure in the pin place from left window airbag.
have you a pin list or a picture from the left window airbag cable in srs ecu socket place?
thank you
Werner
Hi there Ben. I’ve just bought a Peugeot Ion, with is the same as a I-Miev, with other badges.
I’m just wondering. Even if the parking heater is running, and you set the temperature gauge to max heat, without pushing MAX, and turn on the fan. Will the electric heater begin heating, or do you think it’s thermostat controlled. So when the parking heater is very hot, then the electric heater wont heat up? Thank you. Michael from Denmark.
Hello Michael!
With my parking heating, I set the temperature gauge of the existing controls to the middle setting. (Not hot, not cold) That allows the fan to run WITHOUT the car using any energy to run the electric heater. Set the fan to full. The parking heater heats to the liquid coolant which then is converted to heat for the passenger compartment.
Hi Ben,
Thanks for your site. It is very helpfull.
I’m thinking about upgrading my I-Miev with 5WSC Eberspaecher parking heater but there is one thing that worries me.
It there a risk that the higher antifreeze temperature from the parking heater will speed up car main battery degradation?
Thank you
Marek from Poland
No. Absolutely none. The heater only effects temperature in the passenger compartment. It is NOT tied in to the battery.
That’s a good news.
I though it is connected according to this diagram
http://forum.samochodyelektryczne.org/viewtopic.php?t=2266
Thx for great video Ben. I can’t tell from the video just how much the muffler deadens the sound and with it mounted so far from the passenger compartment do you think it makes much difference in what you hear inside the vehicle, especially while driving?
I’ve never run the heater WITHOUT the muffler, so I really can’t tell you how loud it would be or not.
Driving at freeway speed, the wind noise is probably louder than the heater anyways.
Good evening!
Thank you for the videos.
How are the wires for the car’s internal fan connected to the parking heater?
They AREN’T!
I simply set the temperature control in the car to neutral and turn on the fan.
The parking heater simply heats the coolant in the vehicle.
It is NOT set up for a remote start. If I wanted to heat up the vehicle before getting in (using the parking heater,) I would simply turn the car on, activate the heater, and turn the fan on.
Hi, Ben. New to the i-Miev, first winter and in a similar habitat to yours. I’ve always found the heater weak, but in the subzero F temperatures the other night, it didn’t seem to be working at all, air felt cold coming out. Is that just because the one that’s installed can’t keep up with temperatures that low or should I have that looked at anyway? It kept the windshield defrosted at least! Thank you.
The heater in the iMiEV is only OK.
It’s a bit inefficient, because it’s really just a replacement for an engine coolant loop. You SHOULD still have hot air coming out of the vents, even if it is pretty cold. So, it’s possible there’s something wrong with it.
Another thing I’ve always thought was a shortcoming is that the heater and the coolant lines to and from the heater are not insulated at all – they are just completely exposed to the cold. I know that some iMiEV owners have insulated both the heater and those lines.
I haven’t done that, but I did insulate the heater coolant tank and the lines under the hood. I also put some radiant barrier insulation in the knee-space of the passenger compartment. The “firewall” in the car isn’t exactly air-tight. It always felt to me like a cold breeze coming through there in the winter. The radiant barrier helped with that.
-Ben
Thank you Ben.
Your videos helped me install a coolant heater in my iMiEV. I insulated all of the hoses I could reach. Removing the bumper cover and replacing the plastic clips became the hardest part.
Now if I could only get it to work with the remote heater starter.
Glad it helped!
-Ben