Power consumption by electrical heater

Next time we have a discussion about how much the heater consumes .....



BTW: I've seen higher values, so apparently it is not simply on/off per element.

Blue is engine temperature (highest value approx 80 deg C)
Red is power consumption by electric heater (highest value is approx. 4880 watt)

There are three heating elements, one single and two double capacity elements. By switching them on and off selectively, you can create 6 levels of heating. The second peak shows this ramp up nicely.

I've had my gx4 for 5 months

I charge at home on cheap rate night electric

I do a regular commute to an office 15 miles away,
where I park for the day, no charging facilities,
then 15 miles home

to begin with, most days I did it all electric and still have 2 or 3 miles of range remaining when I get back home,

recently the engine runs for the last couple of miles because there is nothing left in the battery

but this last week, with the drop in temperature, and it being dark and raining on the way, and on the way home ... having the fan and heater on means that when I get in the car to come home, I've only got about a third to quarter left in the battery when I get in to do the return leg
and the engine is running for a noticeable amount of the journey

Anko, what time period was that graph? And roughly what ambient, and set temperatures? If you know.

Regulo said:

Anko, what time period was that graph? And roughly what ambient, and set temperatures? If you know.

Click to expand...

Duration was 53 minutes.
Heater set to 18 deg C initially, and 20 later. Can't say where that was. Will see if I can add such info to my readings.
Ambient was about 8 - 9 deg C I think.

RichardOFB said:

to begin with, most days I did it all electric and still have 2 or 3 miles of range remaining when I get back home,

recently the engine runs for the last couple of miles because there is nothing left in the battery

but this last week, with the drop in temperature, and it being dark and raining on the way, and on the way home ... having the fan and heater on means that when I get in the car to come home, I've only got about a third to quarter left in the battery when I get in to do the return leg
and the engine is running for a noticeable amount of the journey

Click to expand...

But did it use all the battery up on the way home, as well, or when running the engine kept the battery level constant - like in Save?

anko said:

There are three heating elements, one single and two double capacity elements. By switching them on and off selectively, you can create 6 levels of heating.

Click to expand...

I would be interested to know how you can selectively turn the heater elements on and off, to create each level of heating?

Surely the driver selects a temperature and the PHEV controls what is turned on or off.

It seems that the heater uses a lot more energy than the aircon.