Citroen AMI gets a Cabin Heater, Public Charge Point Successes and Fails
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2023
- Fitted a 250 Watt desktop fan heater into the Ami to allow pre-heating the cabin and to have some additional heat whilst on the move.
The Dimplex "Desk Friend" DDF250 heater runs on 240volt AC mains.
When in the garage, I can run from a 13amp mains supply but on the move, I can run the heater using an auxiliary 50Ah 12volt LiFePo4 battery via a 1000Watt 12V/240V inverter.
The heater can be attached to various points on the dashboard or on the floor using Velcro pads.
The heater and inverter draw 305 Watts from the battery. Maximum current draw is about 24 Amps.
The fan of the Dimplex heater is not very strong but is sufficient to demist the windscreen or side windows or keep my feet warm.
I have been charging at various Chargeplace Scotland Type2 chargers with varied success. I now have a "Tough Leads" Ami Type2, 5 Metre long, extension cable so that I can reach public chargers when less considerate drivers park badly at charge stations.
The last time I charged the Ami, the charge station cut off after only 27 minutes and only gave me 6 miles of additional range. Luckily I still had enough charge to get back home - with exactly 6 miles range remaining! - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
Lovely to see you driving around my local area of Scotland. For a bit of light entertainment, you must watch all your Ami videos with the subtitles switched on. Absolutely hilarious!
Wave if you see me!
Another AMI owner on youtube is getting a diesel heater fitted. That would totally solve the heat and condensation problems.
I'm sure it would. Especially if you could duct warm air around the battery pack.
Nice work, I’ve a similar set up in mine, an allpowers 300w power pack in the footwell, a small 100w heater PTC (surges to 300w initialy)
I found a 50w square flexi solar panel that fits exactly in the sun roof and trickle charges the power pack. Fitted it in the inside and used 3cm diameter plastic pipe to make cross bars on the interior frame
Sounds good. I only needed the heater in the winter. Car runs great now that the temperatures are above 15C.
@@DougsShed yeh it will come into its own in the winter, however handy to have constant power to charge Bluetooth speakers etc when the car is parked, and also provides shade from the sun and stops my head burning! I haven’t had to remove the allpowers from the car yet as it charges itself when parked on the drive or at work
@@chatters7969 A solar sun shade sounds good. My dash thermometer was showing 55C the other day!
So cool. I love that you have the bike in there.
Just fits in the footwell. I have a thin foam camping mat in there to protect the interior trim.
Great video! The company I work for did the steelwork for those Falkirk charging canopies 😅 first time I've seen them in the flesh 🤣
Nice to have covered charge points.
Very good series .thanks
Hopefully more to come soon.
Good work, I have a 500w desk too heater and outdoor socket and a 3.2kw Wi-Fi smart socket. I plan to plug in the ami and heater on the dash and pre heat/charge 39 mins before use. Also got an all powers 300w power station and 150w PTC heater for the dash to warm up as I go.
Planning to charge the power station with a 50w flexi solar panel attached to the frame inside the sun roof….
Sounds like a good solution.
Really interesting watching your videos. Thank you.
You're welcome.
You are very welcome. Instead of moaning about it , you do something about it. I love that and recommend your videos all the time. Great content
The little heater works really well. Good idea Doug. You are getting to be a real electric vehicle expect finding all the charging stations. Cheers
Hi Lloyd, it is good enough to get the chill off the car in the morning and demist the windows. We still do not have enough charging stations in some locations. If a return trip is over about 32 miles I need to recharge at some point and the Ami charges slowly at about 10 to 12 miles of range per hour.
32?? I thought range was 45 miles?
@@marmac567 It depends on too many factors. You need to allow a safety margin for a planned charger not being available ... or cold weather, or a rain storm ... and it helps battery longevity if you can reduce the number of times you are squeezing every few electrons out of it! (The quoted range of a car is not the distance anyone would routinely expect to achieve every drive ... which is the same as a petrol or diesel vehicle. It's just that a drop from a range of 500 miles to 400 miles doesn't generally affect your journey choices whereas a drop from 45 to 30 really does!)
You live closer to me than I thought. While I like the idea of the Ami, the lack of range would freak me out too much.
The Ami is great for everyday running into town.
I also use it to visit nearby towns (typically up to 38 miles round trip without recharging).
@@DougsShed I'm not in a position where I can recharge things from home so I'd have to reply on the charger network. Which does worry me, especially around here, most of the chargers are faulty.
I have considered the Ami but it really does come with so many issues highlighted by owners especially in the UK climate that I will give it a miss .
Should be fine in the summer (we just don't get a summer here).
I was going to suggest one of those carbon fibre seat heating pads that are available for motorcycles but didn't want people to think I was a big softie. I came across a 12V dash top electric fan heater / demister from the 70/80's (working) during a tidy up a couple of weeks ago, yours if you want it. Glad to see you getting some sunshine in the East. Thanks.
Still not a lot of sunshine. Heated (padded) seats would be nice.
Lovely Jubbly video, it's a great idea but electric cars designers haven't really though about disabled people. Myself I couldn't be lifting the cable in and out plugging it in and unplugging it again, it would mean I have to take someone with me, whereas most petrol stations someone will do it for you.
Some of the controls are probably a bit difficult for some disabled. The gear selection buttons are way down on the left hand side of the driver's seat and difficult to get to even for able bodied. I have seen an Ami with Bluetooth controlled gear selection buttons on the steering wheel - seemed like a good idea.
Great video Doug, thanks. I was considering one of these for commuting to work in Moray, but I'm unsure how well it would cope with the weather. How have your found yours when the weather gets very cold? How about heavy rain, can the single wiper handle spray from other traffic and is it properly water-tight?
Best if the temperature is over 10C. Wiper is good. Also use Rain-X on the outside and Rain-X Anti-fog on the inside. Only ever seen a small dribble from a door seal on my Ami - other users have had water leak problems.
@@DougsShed Thanks!
How do you find the fido d2 , i was looking at those, they have a good range. I cycled the forth and clyde from bowling the year falkirk wheel opened , was it about 2004 and didnt know it was just a muddy gravel path, was realy hard going :) hear its all tar now. I see your public chargers are 45p kwh same as ours now. I hardly ever charge on public now. Charge at home at 9pkwh nights
The D2s is still doing fine. Battery pack is holding up but I seldom need to use the battery assist except for strong headwinds or steep inclines. Charged the Ami today at Tesco in Stirling at 44p/kwh (equated to 6.8p/mile)
does it make sense to install portable diesel heater like webasto?
Not really! - Better to put the car in the garage for the winter. I only use mine if the temperature is well above freezing.
I am looking at a 35cc 4 stroke engine and coupling it to the belt drive and taking the heat from it for heating. Puttimg it in a box labeled Heater.
Interesting idea!
That was a great little video, like the idea of the independent power supply to your heater saves drawing the load off the traction battery, just wondering if a oil filled 250w heater might work, preheat on the mains before going and run off the inverter whilst on the go.
@gilburton hi there, if you watch the video he was using a separate 12v battery in a battery box with a 230v inverter to run the heating in the Ami.
@gilburton the traction battery in the Ami also charges the 12v service battery, so if you're using an independent 12v battery your not drawing an extra load off the traction battery.
@gilburton to start off with this is Doug's car, re the issues regarding the 12v auxiliary or service battery running down low in other people's Ami's I haven't seen, read or heard of this problem if it is an issue then Citroen may have to consider upgrading to 12v auxiliary battery with a higher capacity battery to solve this issue running any battery flat on a regular basis will degrade and shorten it's cycle live.
@gilburton this is an interesting debate 😁, I'd love to find some more technical information about the Ami, it's not been that easy, if I can find someone close to me with one I'd like to put a volt meter on the auxiliary battery and measure the voltage whilst the car is being charged and then measure it when the Ami is off charge and switched on to see if there's a difference in voltage if it stays above say 13.8 volts that'll show that the Ami's auxiliary battery is being charged off the traction battery, if it's not being charged by the traction battery when being driven the other test would be use a clamp meter on one of the leads from the 12 volt battery to see how much power is being used with everything switched on then you could work out how long it'll last between each charge.
I pre-heat the cabin using the Dimplex fan heater whilst connected to the mains in the garage. On the move I can power from the totally independent auxiliary 12v battery and 240v inverter.
Have you found, if your Ami has a full Charge back home and leave it in the Garage over bight. If it's very cold weather, the next day when you switch on the Ami you have lost a good amount from the Battery.
If the Ami is left for a while the range sometimes drops from 46 to 45 miles, not really significant.
If you know when you need to go on a journey you can charge the Ami immediately before leaving and have the advantage of a slightly warmer battery with a full charge. However you need to figure out how long the charge would take and this varies with ambient temperature.
Did you buy a 5m or 10m lead. I have one sat in my basket, just waiting to buy
I bought a 5 metre long Type2 Extension lead which combined with the Ami's fixed 3 metre lead gives plenty of length to reach most charge stations.
Another cracking video! Do you ever have problems with road rage motorists?
None so far. But you do get a few silly overtakes on solid white lines.
@@DougsShed Can imagine. Dad stays in Fife. Always look out for you. 👍
Can it use motorways?
No!
Buttons A and B, are you sure you are not plugging it into a 1950s public telephone?
Seems like that sometimes.
Paid a deposit for an ami and woke up. Love the concept but a 2.5 l 1400 quid bmw works well
Generally, a new car does not make financial sense. But - I do like the cheeky Ami!
Did anyone try carrying a 2kwh lithium battery (20kgs) and 2kw inverter(7kgs) and maybe stick a 200w solar panel on the roof for some charging. Could add 20miles to the range…..but would cost £1k to buy it all…..just an idea😉
Tim Fountain has used Bluetti power banks to charge for extra range when there were no suitable chargers on their routes. I think he was able to get about 20 km extra range. Still have the problem of stopping to recharge and the Ami only charges at about 12 miles range per hour.
See "me and my ammi you tube they carry battery pack in floor well
citroen have to ask electrolux how to make retractable cable ;)
You would have thought that it would be easy to do.
@@DougsShed millions (billions?) have that solution from 30 or more years ;)
@@edwardmadry4299 The cable randomly stuffed into the storage space is probably better for thermal management than a tightly coiled reel of cable. Some owners are unlikely to fully extract the cable before charging and this could cause overheating of the coiled up cable.
My vacuum cleaner have 2,1 kW with no problems. In Ami they could make better insulation and sensor to run charging only at full extension
250 w not worth anything, get a 3 kw diesel heater
The 250W heater takes the chill off and can be aimed at the side windows for additional de-misting
5 hours….what a joke…ill stick with petrol engines until im forced to do this time consuming faff..
Think you don't need to stand next to the car while it is charging. Suppose could be bit of a faf having to plug it in on the wall. But suppose you need to drive to petrol station.
It's quite easy to organise your day around the use of the vehicle if you can charge from home. I just stick it on the charger when I get back home and it's ready for the next time I need it. Never having to drive to the petrol station and travel costing 3x less is the bonus here.
@@blurigard447 until you need a journey involving more than 10 miles..and the electricity companies don’t make things difficult again,and the war in Russia dosent go on too long..
@@griswald7156 I'm pretty sure it's easy to make a counter-case against any vehicle if you put your mind to it. I find that I don't have any issues with waiting for my Ami to charge to do local journeys of up to 15-20 miles (which is what the Ami is really made for). Either charge at night or when you come back from a journey.
@@griswald7156 Wars make fuel prices go up ... any home solar installation could provide plenty of home made "fuel".