Why not a dehumidifier?

[A-A-Ron]

Bleed air from a jet engine is very warm, hundreds of degrees. There’s more that enough heat being generated by a jet engine to heat anything you want. You could heat a jet cabin to 100°F if you wanted to.

I’m now envisioning an electric car with a turbine engine for heating. This might be the funniest thing I’ve thought this year.

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[woody]

So, old school nonsense:
1) winter, use fresh air (prevent fogging)- must have heater
2) summer, recycle to save energy (using AC for cooling)
in Colorado(humidifiers) or Ohio (dehumidifiers)
made sense then, think it makes sense now
I dunno
[for some unknown reason my MME works in sub zero and 90+ degree temperatures]

 

[RedOctobrrr]

You must not have been moving very fast, there’s no way it will keep up on the highway at -40° for long. The convective loss from the wind is a huge thermal load. I ran out of heat on the interstate when it was only -10°F. If you heat up the car before leaving and only drive slow around town you might make it for a few minutes at -40° but if you get on the highway you’ll freeze after 30+ minutes.

I think you're making this stuff up out of anecdotal (at best) evidence or just a lot of guessing.

I drove in -5°F on the highway and it was just fine.

 

[mkhuffman]

I think you're making this stuff up out of anecdotal (at best) evidence or just a lot of guessing.

I drove in -5°F on the highway and it was just fine.

Unless you have documented your testing like Lee has, your response is a lot more anecdotal than his. In fact, he has 10 pages of cold weather testing and discussion. You've got a ways to go to even be close.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/mach-lees-mach-e-cold-weather-testing-taking-requests.24393/

 

[SWO]

i understand the existing one doesn't work this way, but why can't it run a dehumidifier inside the cabin like i have in my basement?

yes it'll create a bucket of water but you can imagine it getting pumped out once every [30] minutes so it doesn't easily freeze etc

The air conditioner is a dehumidifier (hence the puddle under the car when it's humid and the AC is running) and works the same way a home dehumidifier does.

Cooling the cabin air just to heat it again is just adding extra steps when it's already cold outside.

 

[Mach-Lee]

The one day I remember exactly where I was driving, the route was ~12 miles, 20 minutes, from the airport (where the car had been sitting plugged in but cold-soaked for almost a week) home, on roads with speed limits of 45, 40, 55, 45, 30, 20 in that order. There aren't a lot of wide open interstate highways in Fairbanks, Alaska, but we do indeed get plenty of cold weather. And I can confirm that the Mach E will indeed handle real winter temperatures.

But like I said, this is coming from someone with a lifetime of winter driving experience, so maybe "dressing appropriately" means something different to me than it does you.

FYI my threshold for having enough heat is maintaining a cabin temp of >60ºF, which I think is a reasonable temperature to be comfortable. If you are okay with a cabin temp in the 40's or 50's and having to leave all your winter gear on while driving, then you may be okay with the colder temps. I'm basing my evaluation on a lifetime of experience driving ICE vehicles in below zero weather (down to -30ºF), and the Mach-E is the first vehicle I've had trouble feeling warm enough in when it's really cold. The heater is undersized for the heat loss the vehicle experiences.

I think you're making this stuff up out of anecdotal (at best) evidence or just a lot of guessing.

I drove in -5°F on the highway and it was just fine.

Quite the contrary, I've done instrumented testing: https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...her-testing-taking-requests.24393/post-568625

-5ºF is probably still warm enough to maintain heat. Between -5ºF and -10ºF, the heater will no longer be able to keep up and the cabin temperature will start to drop with time. Again it's also speed/wind dependent, I'm basing my evaluations on a trip scenario traveling 75 MPH on an interstate for 30+ minutes.

 

[Neilthepilot]

Two things,
One: A dehumidifier is an air conditioner that doesn't blow the cold air and uses a lot of electricity.

Two: Has anyone tried putting a cover (thick but like the sunscreens used in the summer) to cover the glass roof. On my Jeep I found closing the shade on the panoramic roof made the car feel warmer in the winter. I was looking at this to try on my Mach e.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B09PHNF381/ref=twister_B09PHP7P1C?_encoding=UTF8&th=1

 

[flapjake314]

The air conditioner is a dehumidifier (hence the puddle under the car when it's humid and the AC is running) and works the same way a home dehumidifier does.

Cooling the cabin air just to heat it again is just adding extra steps when it's already cold outside.

Two things,
One: A dehumidifier is an air conditioner that doesn't blow the cold air and uses a lot of electricity.

it turns out i had no idea how a dehumidifier worked haha thanks

 

[RedOctobrrr]

Unless you have documented your testing like Lee has, your response is a lot more anecdotal than his. In fact, he has 10 pages of cold weather testing and discussion. You've got a ways to go to even be close.

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/mach-lees-mach-e-cold-weather-testing-taking-requests.24393/

He replied about -5, apparently that's really close to his cut-off for heat working just enough

 

[Phrozen]

FYI my threshold for having enough heat is maintaining a cabin temp of >60ºF, which I think is a reasonable temperature to be comfortable. If you are okay with a cabin temp in the 40's or 50's and having to leave all your winter gear on while driving, then you may be okay with the colder temps. I'm basing my evaluation on a lifetime of experience driving ICE vehicles in below zero weather (down to -30ºF), and the Mach-E is the first vehicle I've had trouble feeling warm enough in when it's really cold. The heater is undersized for the heat loss the vehicle experiences.

So that's the difference. Essentially no car will maintain a cabin temp in the 60s when it's -40 or colder outside. Trucks or vehicles with overly large engines (think Ford 460) can manage it once you get them hot, but nothing else really can. Also, when it is that cold, you need to be dressed appropriately for safety reasons as well--it doesn't take long to get in serious trouble in that temp, and mechanical devices of all kinds are more prone to failure.

So if you're dressed right, and can keep your cabin temp in the 40s that's perfect. And the Mach E does that just fine. It also has another advantage: I can get hot air coming out the defrost vents within seconds. My F-350 will take a good fifteen minutes to even think about doing that.

This is based on 30+ years of winter driving in a place that has longer and colder winters than Wisconsin. I have driven Subarus, Fords, an Isuzu, Hondas...

Are you using the seat heaters and wheel heat? Heating physical objects is more efficient than heating air, especially with all the glass in the Mach E. If you haven't been, try using those--it should help considerably.

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