[Ross Macdougall]

I bought an ex-demo Peugeot e-Traveller Allure in October and intend to put in a modular kitchen / storage / fold out bed utilising the original rear two seats. I'd hoped to use the HVAC system to maintain the temperature whilst camping, and the integrated 120W inverter was an added bonus though I hope to run an small induction hob so a separate inverter and / or battery storage would be required.

Due to various medical emergencies / work / Christmas I haven't been able to spend as much time looking at this as I'd like to, but it appears that the car disconnects the HV battery when in park for a (relatively) short period of time - around 10 minutes. On two occasions it lasted longer, first time was 1 hr 30 minutes when I started at 91% SOC, in ECO mode, in park, with no A/C but charging a laptop on 240v. Second time was 45 minutes when started at 83% SOC, in normal mode, in park with heating set to 18 degrees C, and a load on 240v inverter - in both these occasions, I only stopped the timer as I had to leave the car and do other things. When I tried again below 60% SOC, it only lasted 9 minutes or so, and I've been unable to replicate the previous results so I'm unable to say with certainty under what circumstances the HVAC system will run longer.

I'm slightly disappointed that ECO mode completely stops all heating, whereas on previous EVs I've owned it would only limit the performance. The dashboard gauge for the HVAC only seems to show either full (but not in the red zone) or off (ECO zone) - altering the fan speed, temperatures, or A/C doesn't make a difference other than indicating on or off. Lastly, the range guessometer also seems to be very sensitive, particularly in the tests above using HVAC whilst not travelling - with the range dropping dramatically, even if I then went to drive very economically.

Anyone bought a PSA group van or MPV with camping in mind? I assume there will be similar issues for the Spacetourer, Zafira Life since they are so closely related - don't know if there may be any firmware updates to resolve this (and if they'd be distributed to all models across the group) or a workaround... I already considered remote pre-conditioning but its a limited length of time, and doesn't enable 240v inverter (so I don't know if the DC-DC converter would top up the 12v battery if I used a separate inverter).

Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated.

 

[Veiko]

You can keep ”ready” mode on indefinetly if you put something heavy on brake pedal. This keeps the car from turning off heating etc.
ECO mode keeps only fan turning, no heating or AC.
HVAC power gauge is pointless, basically shows that heating uses power but does not shownhow much.

 

[Ross Macdougall]

A brick on the brake pedal might not be great for "camping mode" I was looking at putting a switch in to turn off the front running lights, but would have to do something similar for brake lights in this scenario. Ideally there would be some way of mimicking the brake pedal (which I assume is just a trigger touching the pedal), and switching off those lights - all from one button that you importantly cannot forget to switch off again!

Will test the brick idea tonight though

 

[Thomas carter]

Out of curiosity (as I am looking at PSA vans for a camper) Did the brick work?

 

[Ross Macdougall]

Out of curiosity (as I am looking at PSA vans for a camper) Did the brick work?

My personal body-brick i.e. foot on the brake pedal definitely stops the HV battery switching off. I'd read about just leaving the driver seatbelt attached and in park (I also tried neutral with handbrake on) but this didn't work.

So... what we need is something to make the brake sensor appear to be activated, but also to switch off the brake lights AND the DLR. I imagine this might be possible, but not easy...

 

[Veiko]

My personal body-brick i.e. foot on the brake pedal definitely stops the HV battery switching off. I'd read about just leaving the driver seatbelt attached and in park (I also tried neutral with handbrake on) but this didn't work.

So... what we need is something to make the brake sensor appear to be activated, but also to switch off the brake lights AND the DLR. I imagine this might be possible, but not easy...

Yeah, this is definately doable but not easy. You will need 6 relays. Peugeot uses 4 wire brake pedal sensor, when 2 contacts close, other two open. So 2 relays to brake pedal and two for DLR as they are independet of each other and two for rear lights.

 

[farmergiles]

Yeah, this is definately doable but not easy. You will need 6 relays. Peugeot uses 4 wire brake pedal sensor, when 2 contacts close, other two open. So 2 relays to brake pedal and two for DLR as they are independet of each other and two for rear lights.

Will disconnecting the lights not cause fault codes if the BCU thinks they are bulb failures? Might need realys with changeover contacts and switch in a resistor?

 

[Veiko]

No need, I have upgraded my front lights and while I was doing it, I occasionally had only one light connected. No warning/error messages on dash at first, but after 5-15min it showed a warning to ”check lights”.
Warning disappeared right after reconnecting the light. So in a way this would be a good warning to remind you that brake pedal/lights disconnect is still active.

 

[Ross Macdougall]

Yeah, this is definately doable but not easy. You will need 6 relays. Peugeot uses 4 wire brake pedal sensor, when 2 contacts close, other two open. So 2 relays to brake pedal and two for DLR as they are independet of each other and two for rear lights.

Great to hear it's achievable, but looks like I'd have a lot of learning to do as I wouldn't have the first idea of where to start. I can see this being useful for lots of people driving the PSA vans / MPV, especially if it's similar for the smaller van too.

 

[Ross Macdougall]

Testing out how much energy might be used for heating van overnight, if kept in ready mode (HV battery engaged).

9°C outside, dual zone climate control set to 16°C and "auto soft" (thinking about sleeping). It used 1% in 30 minutes, so 16% across 8 hours or over 20 miles range. Don't know if this would be less in summer, or if it would run less when it hits optimal temperature. At 1000W per hour, even a 10A charger should allow for heating and very slow charge.

Trying it with the rear heating on as well with temperature set fully hot and fan around one third -but not sure where any heat comes out in the back.

*had both front heated seats on but don't know that makes much difference. After 45 minutes (half way through second test), the range hasn't dropped and still showing 130 miles at 97%.

 

[Shiny]

Hi @Ross Macdougall
Are you able to answer the following questions about the heating please. Looking to buy for conversion to van.

• What does "if kept in ready mode (HV battery engaged)." mean?
• What is "auto soft"?
• Does the heating stop if plugged in (to wall charger or mains)
• I believe there are schedules but only 3 permitted if the van is not started. Can you confirm?

At the moment this seems to be the major problem to resolve

 

[easternguy]

The car keeps heating on indefinitely, if it's turned on and charging. I've spent for sure ~30min at charger stations and the heating never stopped, nor did the car shut down. The "READY" discussion matters only if there's no charger connected. Not sure what happens when charging ends, I assume it remains connected (but haven't tried). It may happen that, if the heat pump power draw is too large, the charging is interrupted.

"READY" means that the car is ready to start. Traction battery is connected. If you do not start within 10min, it cuts off the traction batt => no heat pump => no heating & cooling, accessories are running off of the 12V battery.

"Auto soft" is two things:

• climate set on auto, at some specified temperature
• climate option set to "soft" (you can select one of three levels, soft being the quietest / lowest fan speed)

 

[Shiny]

Thanks for your reply @easternguy

So to summarise, please correct any mistakes

If I wanted to sleep overnight in the van "camping mode":

Option 1) Put the van in ready mode (not fully on), but this requires the "brake brick" (or another workaround) to stop the van from switching off
Option 2) Turn the van on and plugged in. No-one has tested this option fully (over 8 hours)
Option 3) Schedule heating to come on ? times during the night.

Options 1 and 3. May also work without hook-up (again not tested)

Would someone with a van be able to test please?

 

[easternguy]

That sounds about right, yes. Also, I'm pretty sure this behavior is similar on all EVs sharing the same platform, I'd think any car (c4, e208, e2008) would work, not only vans.
Re: the "brick trick", I'm wondering if that would have any adverse effects on the brakes themselves. Having the system under pressure for a full night surely isn't normal usage and doing this might break stuff. Not an expert, just an assumption.

 

[Shiny]

Yes the brick trick doesn't sound like a good idea. But sleeping with the Van ON doesn't either.