What did you do to your MINI today?

[insightman]

I looked at mine longingly, wishing I could drive it but unable to do because it's too cold for the summer tires.

Look at it this way: You can sit in your SE whenever you want and fire up the, er, heater. You aren't waiting for some slow boat to bring it to you.

 

[CuriousGeorge]

Look at it this way: You can sit in your SE whenever you want and fire up the, er, heater. You aren't waiting for some slow boat to bring it to you.

True, true - I might just have to go do that. (But then I'd probably notice the half-chrome ring around the door handle cups, and it would bug me.)

If it weren't so cold, I'd be out in the garage pulling the wheels to paint the brake calipers, but it's a bit too chilly for that.

Here's a thought I had: if I operate the SE's heat pump with the windows and sunroof open, can I heat the whole garage?

 

[Puppethead]

Now here is my question: WHY aren't they fully chrome, when the part is available? Is that an upgrade as you go from level 1 (no chrome) to level 2 (half chrome) to level 3 (full chrome) trim, or something? (A bit of insightman-style facetiousness here.) Really, it makes no sense to me.

My 2021 Iconic trim SE from before supply chain issues has half-chrome. Personally I like it so no changing for me. I'm guessing it was just a design choice by MINI that all SEs would be half-chrome.

 

[SameGuy]

I created a couple of Alexa routines to streamline the use of the My BMW skill.

Somehow it escaped me that multiple trigger phrases could be assigned to one action. Because the car uses automatic climate control, ambient temperature determines the system’s output temperature. Having multiple trigger phrases helps with contextual logical association, and not needing to think about the trigger phrase, ie: needing to say “climatize” or “warm” in the summer or “cool” in the winter. So this routine is called “Warm or cool my MINI”; the trigger phrases are “Alexa, warm up my car,” (winter) and “Alexa, cool down my car,” (summer) while the action is the voice command “Alexa, ask BMW to ventilate my Cooper.”

I’ve set up similar routines that allow more natural flow, with trigger phrases such as “Alexa, what’s my charge at?” (“Alexa, ask BMW for my charge level”) and “Alexa, did I lock up?” (“Alexa, ask BMW my status”) and “Alexa, lock the car” (“Alexa, ask BMW to lock my doors”). I have also simplified checking my windows and what the charge is at. I also have a routine with several trigger phrases of variations on checking my range, using more natural language.

I don’t know why none of this occurred to me over the last six months or so.

 

[teslarati97]

Here's a thought I had: if I operate the SE's heat pump with the windows and sunroof open, can I heat the whole garage?

Mostly no in terms of the heat pump operation as you are just transferring the ambient thermal energy from the garage into the MINI and back out to the garage.

However, there are efficiency losses and heat generated by the electronics...so also yes!

 

[SameGuy]

My heat pump water heater is ducted to and from my heated garage, so (in theory at least), my MINI could heat my water. Technically, the Subaru’s latent heat after arrival does actually get transferred to the water. More so in the spring and fall, when opening the garage door doesn’t dramatically alter the temperature

 

[CuriousGeorge]

Mostly no in terms of the heat pump operation as you are just transferring the ambient thermal energy from the garage into the MINI and back out to the garage.

However, there are efficiency losses and heat generated by the electronics...so also yes!

It was the latter I had in mind when asking my (semi-facetious) question. Obviously the energy would have to go somewhere; I just don't have a good feel for how quickly/effectively it would work.

 

[Puppethead]

Here's a thought I had: if I operate the SE's heat pump with the windows and sunroof open, can I heat the whole garage?

You know, I hadn't thought of that. We all (hopefully) know how dangerous it is to run an ICE vehicle inside a garage, but the SE could, without hazard, run full climatization while plugged into the EVSE and theoretically heat the whole garage. I have an inadequate electric garage heater, I think I might have to give the SE a try as a space heater. Unless winter magically ends suddenly.

 

[SameGuy]

I don’t think you can select the resistance heater, though. As pointed out above, heat pumps (really “heat movers”) draw thermal energy from one area and move it to another. They don’t add heat. Putting the evaporator and condenser coils in the same enclosed space (ie. the SE in a closed garage with its windows open) creates an equilibrium. You might gain a tiny bit of heat from needlessly running the system and warming up the battery and pump motor, but that’s terribly inefficient.

 

[teslarati97]

You know, I hadn't thought of that. We all (hopefully) know how dangerous it is to run an ICE vehicle inside a garage, but the SE could, without hazard, run full climatization while plugged into the EVSE and theoretically heat the whole garage. I have an inadequate electric garage heater, I think I might have to give the SE a try as a space heater. Unless winter magically ends suddenly.

I have an attached non-heated garage and the coldest is about 25F when it's -40F overnight. My 16kWh solar PV battery is also in the garage but I don't think it makes a huge difference for heat generation.

When I have the garage door open to shovel snow, I've seen it dip down to maybe 10F?

 

[SameGuy]

Yikes. My two-standard-door, two-car garage is under the bedrooms of a split-level, and in true 60s style, had two small registers supplying forced air along the duct/beam bulkhead across the middle. I used to keep them foil taped all summer so as not to waste cooled air, but open in winter to warm up the garage. A few years ago I installed a 5000W, 240V garage heater and have left the registers sealed all year. In an upcoming phase of my long-term garage rehab project I'll be opening the drywall on the bulkhead around those registers and removing them, and properly closing the holes with sheetmetal and duct mastic (right now I'm sure there's a ton of leakage around the duct joints behind the drywall). I have a Zwave relay set up on Hubitat to keep the heat as close to 10-16°C (50-60°F) as possible during winter, and above 5°C (41°F) when it's below -12°C outside and my electricity rate skyrockets on my dual-rate plan. But I have the smart home system set to shut off the heater if a door is open longer than one minute, such as when I'm shovelling.

 

[Puppethead]

I don’t think you can select the resistance heater, though. As pointed out above, heat pumps (really “heat movers”) draw thermal energy from one area and move it to another. They don’t add heat.

Climatization brings the SE to a hard-coded temperature. I can tell from winter cold that climatization uses resistive heating when necessary, which is what I was alluding to. If my garage is 10 ºF (actually just below 30 ºF) and I open the SE windows and climatize, I'd expect the resistive heater to engage until the SE interior registered the proper temperature and due to air leakage end up heating the whole garage space to a point. Hence my note to be plugged into the EVSE to avoid draining the high voltage batteries.

 

[pictsidhe]

I don’t think you can select the resistance heater, though. As pointed out above, heat pumps (really “heat movers”) draw thermal energy from one area and move it to another. They don’t add heat. Putting the evaporator and condenser coils in the same enclosed space (ie. the SE in a closed garage with its windows open) creates an equilibrium. You might gain a tiny bit of heat from needlessly running the system and warming up the battery and pump motor, but that’s terribly inefficient.

If the Mini runs climatisation in an enclosed space. The heat delivered to the space will be the net power consumed by its climatisation system. Whether it is by heat pump, resistance, or gnomes. You definitely want to do this plugged up. If you do that on a fully charged battery, you can see the heating input to your space from your EVSE.
If you want to be efficient, seal the front of the mini outside, and the cabin to the inside. Won't help if it is too cold for the heat pump to operate. It also sounds like a royal PITA to do.
Insulating your enclosed space will dramatically decrease temperature variations.

 

[pictsidhe]

Yikes. My two-standard-door, two-car garage is under the bedrooms of a split-level, and in true 60s style, had two small registers supplying forced air along the duct/beam bulkhead across the middle. I used to keep them foil taped all summer so as not to waste cooled air, but open in winter to warm up the garage. A few years ago I installed a 5000W, 240V garage heater and have left the registers sealed all year. In an upcoming phase of my long-term garage rehab project I'll be opening the drywall on the bulkhead around those registers and removing them, and properly closing the holes with sheetmetal and duct mastic (right now I'm sure there's a ton of leakage around the duct joints behind the drywall). I have a Zwave relay set up on Hubitat to keep the heat as close to 10-16°C (50-60°F) as possible during winter, and above 5°C (41°F) when it's below -12°C outside and my electricity rate skyrockets on my dual-rate plan. But I have the smart home system set to shut off the heater if a door is open longer than one minute, such as when I'm shovelling.

Better would be to electrically operate the registers to keep temps where you want them.

 

[SameGuy]

Nowadays it’s against code, for one, and using the house’s conditioned air for a garage is terribly wasteful. I heat with a heat pump, so the registers would (and did) need to be open all the time. In the dead of winter, the 5000W heater ran for an average of less than an hour a day to maintain 50-60°F (I’m using a wide passband to avoid cycling too much). That’s around 20¢ a day.

 

[pictsidhe]

Nowadays it’s against code, for one, and using the house’s conditioned air for a garage is terribly wasteful. I heat with a heat pump, so the registers would (and did) need to be open all the time. In the dead of winter, the 5000W heater ran for an average of less than an hour a day to maintain 50-60°F (I’m using a wide passband to avoid cycling too much). That’s around 20¢ a day.

Grandfather clause, FTW! Heat pumps are much more efficient than resistive heaters. You only need to control the garage registers.

 

[SameGuy]

Perhaps a separate heat pump for the garage, but not if fed from the central system for the whole house. Basically like running the central heat pump with an open window.

 

[MrSnrub]

Perhaps a separate heat pump for the garage, but not if fed from the central system for the whole house. Basically like running the central heat pump with an open window.

Mini split in the garage on its own heat pump. They’re pretty cheap now.

 

[SameGuy]

Some day. Lol

 

[SameGuy]

…Every trip back from the workbench to the car was hope followed by exasperation. I kept shaving and squeezing and shaving and squeezing. When I finally got the tip in [hehe hehe] I decided to go big, got out the Knipex pliers and went at it. When I thought it was seated, I plugged everything else in and hit the Start toggle. Blue LED! Stuffed all the wires in the hole, lined it up, popped it in, and dropped my phone on. BOOM! Charging!

Tomorrow I’ll see if my phone heats up. But a 12 Pro Max in a Spigen shield just barely fits on the shelf, so I’m wondering how well centered the phone is, front to back.

Also, the area under the shelf is now almost unusable. It’ll be a struggle to plug in USB¢ or any sort of 12V adapter. On the bright side, it’ll hide my parking and tollway transponders (I don’t want them adhered to my ceramic-tinted windshield).

Phone is not heating noticeably, but running CarPlay on a 20-minute drive my charge only went from 73 to 75% lol. 20 minutes on a normal PD charge via lightning would get that 73% up into the 90s or even full.