![]() 12/18/2016 at 09:00 • Filed to: Leaf, EV, Nissan | ![]() | ![]() |
Ok, I know that all you mid-westerners and northerners probably don’t want to hear from us southerners right now what with your -40 degree wind chill and all. But, hey, we have winter here, too. I actually saw some ice this morning – at least I think it was ice. Anyway, it gets plenty cold. I happen to be lucky enough to have a two car garage attached to my house. It only has two walls that are exposed to the outside; one of which happens to be the garage door itself. The garage door is also insulated which I highly recommend. Nonetheless, it can still get pretty cold in there. I have one of those electric oil radiator type heaters, but it doesn’t get along too well with the ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) outlet if I am running my compressor or anything much else.
Suckling Leaf
So, I had an idea. I thought – what if I roll the windows down on the Leaf and run the heater at full blast. Now, I know this probably isn’t the most efficient garage heater in the world, but it worked beautifully. It worked so well in fact, that I eventually had to turn it off. Another bonus is that I could use the Leaf’s stereo as a gigantic Bluetooth speaker for my phone. The leaf was plugged into its level 2 charger the whole time, so it was actually running off of house current, not the battery. You can’t do that in an enclosed garage with a traditional ICE vehicle.
#solutionstofirstworldproblems
![]() 12/18/2016 at 09:05 |
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That’s pretty genius actually. Nicely done!
![]() 12/18/2016 at 09:10 |
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That’s one expensive heater and Bluetooth speaker.
![]() 12/18/2016 at 09:12 |
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I always joke about carrying around a $500 flashlight with a monthly subscription fee (my phone), but you’ve one upped me. You’ve got a $30,000 space heater/Bluetooth speaker.
Seriously though, that’s genius.
![]() 12/18/2016 at 09:34 |
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And this is actually an application where the optional heat pump might be less effective.
(It would still heat - the laws of thermodynamics make that much certain - but it would be pulling heat from the garage, putting it into the cabin, and then exhausting it back into the garage.)
![]() 12/18/2016 at 09:35 |
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That’s actually well done. Smart usage of what you have in the garage already. I 100% approve of this.
![]() 12/18/2016 at 09:35 |
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Good thinking! I have a gas fired heater in my garage, warehouse style. I have a Chevy Volt and since it will cycle the ICE on and off as needed, it’s my household emergency power plan in case of an extended power outage. I have an inverter to connect to my heater’s transformer so I can fire my furnace off of a 12V battery. In an expended outage I put the inverter in my Volt and leave it “running” which if I turn off all of it’s internal things should just be maintaining the 12V battery, I should be able to keep my house warm for a few nights before I need to go fill up with gas.
![]() 12/18/2016 at 09:43 |
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Hadn’t thought of that, but yes, the early inefficient resistance heater is probably better in this situation.
![]() 12/18/2016 at 09:46 |
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Yeah, cant’ really recommend a purchase based on these features alone.
![]() 12/18/2016 at 09:53 |
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Once upon a time, there was Leaf to Home kit that was supposed to be available, but I don’t know what became of it. It was supposed to allow you to power your house from your Leaf in the event of a blackout.
![]() 12/18/2016 at 10:08 |
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I believe it only launched in Japan.
![]() 12/18/2016 at 11:05 |
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Now that lambo speaker is almost a deal
![]() 12/18/2016 at 11:21 |
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Yay! You found a use for the leaf!
![]() 12/19/2016 at 03:26 |
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rip out the electric drivetrain and install a motor from a Micra.
![]() 03/22/2018 at 23:26 |
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What charger did you get for the Leaf? And the Level 2 port is the SAE port, right?