Yes; when the coolant reaches a certain temperature it can open a valve connecting the cabin heater coolant to the engine coolant, so the heat from the engine warms up the cabin. The ICE warms up way faster in the Volt than any other car I've driven; you can usually get it to 160 *F in only a few minutes, which is plenty warm to heat up the cabin. Run in Hold mode until it reaches that and then switch to normal again; the coolant should stay warm for the rest of your drive without having to use a ton of battery power to heat it up.Does the 2017 Volt harness heat from the gas engine (when running) to warm up the cabin? I rarely drive on gas engine but it may make sense if the cabin would use the heat from it. That should save some extra Kwh.
Do you know what is the temperature point where this process takes place? There is coolant temperature indicator on the driver's screen which, then, should precisely determine when to switch back to normal from hold. Good information. Did not know about it.Yes; when the coolant reaches a certain temperature it can open a valve connecting the cabin heater coolant to the engine coolant, so the heat from the engine warms up the cabin. The ICE warms up way faster in the Volt than any other car I've driven; you can usually get it to 160 *F in only a few minutes, which is plenty warm to heat up the cabin. Run in Hold mode until it reaches that and then switch to normal again; the coolant should stay warm for the rest of your drive without having to use a ton of battery power to heat it up.
It should open whenever the engine is running, or at least once it reaches "operating temperature" (~80-90 *F is when it starts putting load on the engine in Hold mode). If you let it run until about 160-170 you should get plenty of heat in the cabin.Do you know what is the temperature point where this process takes place? There is coolant temperature indicator on the driver's screen which, then, should precisely determine when to switch back to normal from hold. Good information. Did not know about it.
I'm not sure about gen 2, but my first generation Volt would first open the valve at about 150F coolant temperatures.Do you know what is the temperature point where this process takes place? There is coolant temperature indicator on the driver's screen which, then, should precisely determine when to switch back to normal from hold. Good information. Did not know about it.
Why not just leave Economy on the whole time? Economy does a similar cycle by itself. And you'll have your eyes on the road for more of your trip.3a) When the air coming from the dashboard vents starts to feel cold to my bare hand I either start the gas engine or set the Climate control to Economy for about 5 minutes until the air coming from the vents starts to get warm. I continue to manually cycle the Economy mode on and off until I arrive at my destination, usually 1 to 2 on/off cycles of Economy electric heat,
Given more experience with driving in winter temperatures I probably would. It was my first winter driving a Volt and was trying to minimize the use of the electric heat. I precondition each morning, usually twice, before leaving home. I used to use just the preconditioning and the heated seats, steering wheel with no attempt to direct the residual heat from the preconditioning into the cabin. I eventually learned to use the fan to distribute the residual heat, that is good for about 15 minutes. My total drive time is about 35 minutes on a good day so I started cycling the electric heat on and off, not sure how my cycling the Economy setting on and off compares to just setting the climate control to Economy.Why not just leave Economy on the whole time? Economy does a similar cycle by itself. And you'll have your eyes on the road for more of your trip.![]()
1) At night, before you turn off the Volt, set Climate Control System: Auto, Set Heat/AC: Max (for maximum electric heat), Set Temperature: HI, Set Airflow:Recirculate.How to warm cabin when only electric engine running?
Exhaust Gas Heat Recovery in a 2017 Volt? It would be great but I do not think 2017 Volt has it. To the best of my knowledge it is available on Malibu Hybrid only. Did I miss something?They even use the exhaust to warm up the coolant on the GEN 2 cars. Just after the catalytic converter there is a manifold that has coolant running through it to collect the extra heat.
I agree...I don't believe there is any standalone HXR. However, the exhaust manifold is integrated into the head, so they can pull quite a bit of heat there compared to the average car.Exhaust Gas Heat Recovery in a 2017 Volt? It would be great but I do not think 2017 Volt has it. To the best of my knowledge it is available on Malibu Hybrid only. Did I miss something?