Konvertieren THERMOTOP Heizung, um Freizeit-Batterie

[Mark]

Entschuldigung für die schlechte Deutsch. Ich bin mit Google Translate, wie ich spreche nur Englisch.

 

Ich habe mich nur gefragt, ob jemand in Deutschland gelungen war, den Thermotop C-Wasser-Heizung in der Cali auf die Wohnraumbatterie zu konvertieren? Ich benutze es, um die Windschutzscheibe an kalten Morgen über eine Fernbedienung Telestart auftauen. Allerdings glaube ich nicht sehr lange Strecken, so dass die Hauptbatterie wird allmählich abgelassen. Das ist nicht gut für den Akku und es wäre viel besser, wenn die Heizung könnte von der Freizeit Batterie betreiben.

 

Niemand in England scheint dies getan haben, ich hoffe, ein Experte auf diesen Foren könnte es versucht haben. Sie scheinen viel mehr Wissen über die technische Seite des Cali dort.

 

Dank

Mark

[Ridethebulli]

Hey Mark,

Welcome to our Forum, you may also write in English here, i guess some of us can handle it:)

Lets see and wait what the experts will say here.

Which California do you have, Model, Year?

 

 

cheers

Gerard

[Mark]

Hi Gerard

 

Thanks for the reply. I have a Natural Grey 2012 California SE. At least that's what it's called in the UK. I think it's maybe called the Comfortline in Germany. We don't have quite so many variants of the California over here. We have a pretty good English forum at

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, which you may want to check out if you haven't seen it. However, you guys over there seem to be much more adventurous and technical with your modifications to the Cali so hoping I can get a lot more knowledge from here.

 

Cheers

Mark

[CaliPilot]

Hi Mark,

 

i checked for you our forum (and also the forum at t5-forum.de) but didn't found an useful answer for your question. I found a few threads with your subject but they did not gave a solution. Do you have a "Bosch car service" in the UK? If you don't get an satisfying answer here, Bosch should have one for you (for a few bucks hehe).

 

But let's wait and see what the professionals here may have for you..

 

I checked vwcaliforniaclub.com and created an account, looks great and also informative!

 

BTW do you made a check with an Voltmeter on the main battery when the block heater is running?

 

Cheers

Chris

Bearbeitet 21. Januar 2014 von CaliPilot

[Ridethebulli]

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Hi Mark,

i already signed up to the forum because we are planning to visit the UK this summer:) and i was interested in maybe a forum meeting in this time.

 

cheers

[Mark]

Chris - thanks for searching the forums for me. It's quite difficult to do using Google Translate! I did find a whole lot of other useful stuff though. Hopefully someone might have tried to do the same thing. I haven't put a voltmeter across the battery but I know it definitely uses the main engine battery as it does drain over the course of a couple of weeks if I use it every day and don't drive very far. I think that on some T5 multivans, that use the Thermotop as a parking heater, it is actually wired up to the second battery, but not on the Cali. The Cali is also slightly different since you can't just wire it directly to the leisure battery, otherwise the current it draws won't show up on the roof display. I guess I could try to work out where the air heater is wired up to since this is powered from the leisure battery. I was just hoping someone here might have done it already.

 

We don't have Bosch car service in the UK. Not many places know anything about the Cali. The only ones that really have any knowledge are the main VW dealers and they obviously won't do any unofficial modifications.

 

Gerard - There is a big meeting in the UK in July called "Cali's on the Farm". I'm not sure if this is when you are in the UK but last year there were about 110 Calis! The info is at:

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Thanks again.

Mark

[Ridethebulli]

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Hi Mark,

yes ive seen it and i will talk to my wife if we gonna make a "short trip":)

[dedetto]

Hallo.

My English is too poor to use it for a long answer. So I try it in German.

 

Ich denke die WWH auf die Camperbatterien zu verlegen ist nicht die beste Idee.

Es ändert vor allem nicht viel. Wenn ein Verbraucher mehr Strom braucht als die

Kurzstrecken hergeben ist es egal von welchen Batterien der Strom kommt.

Irgendwann ist die Batterie alle und es muss aufgeladen werden. An den Camper-

batterien dauert es länger bis sie leer sind, aber das ist mE alles.

 

Aufladen mit Landstrom steht also so oder so an. Soll man ja auch gelegentlich

machen um die Camperbatterien auf voller Betriebsbereitschaft zu halten. Das

wird ja auch so im Handbuch beschrieben, alle 4 Wochen wäre gut.

 

Also würde ich so ein kleines Voltmeter (> 10€ ) im Zigarettenanzünder nutzen

um den Zeitpunkt einer notwendigen Aufladung besser zu bestimmen. Dann ab

und zu den Cali an den Landstrom hängen und die Starter- wie auch die

Camperbatterien bleiben munter. Zumindest bei den Calis ab 2008 mit der

kleinen 1A Ladeleitung zur Starterbatterie. Die älteren brauchen dazu ja noch

das bekannte Ladegerät zwischen der Steckdose und dem Zigarettenanzünder.

 

Best regards to England

.dedetto

[Mark]

Hi dedetto

 

Thanks for your reply. My main worry is that the main engine battery is not really designed for repeated charge/discharge cycles and it may considerably shorten it's life. Leisure batteries however, are designed for exactly this purpose, so although I will have to charge them maybe once a week by electric hookup, it shouldn't damage them. Also, if I do forget to charge them, at least the van will still start.

 

Thanks

Mark

[dedetto]

Hallo Mark.

 

Ich verstehe deine Sorge. Daher das einfache Voltmeter

um die Spannung der Starterbatterie zu überwachen.

Im Sommer hilft das Voltmeter bei freien Camping.

Man kann einfach besser einschätzen, wann es

für die Weiterreise Zeit wird, bevor der Wagen

nicht mehr anspringt.

 

Im Winter fahre ich auch nur extreme Kurzstrecke (

Manchmal spinnt mein Radio und stellt sich nicht ab.

Daher hatte ich schon mehrmals Startschwierigkeiten.

Jetzt kommt der Cali bei

Leine und darf aufladen.

Das klappt seit vielen Jahren, speziell im Winter.

 

 

Best regards

.dedetto

[Mark]

Hi dedetto

 

I've just ordered a voltmeter that plugs into the cigarette lighter. Thanks for that tip. Hopefully, that will stop me from draining the battery completely in the short term. In the long term I'd still quite like to change the heater over to the leisure batteries. This would allow me to go longer between needing to charge up and also eliminate any risk of not being able to start the van.

 

Hopefully someone on here will have done this or know what to do. Really it's a matter of knowing where to run the wires to to get a connection to the leisure battery.

 

Thanks for your help everyone.

 

Mark

[Yachtie]

hi Mark

 

I don't know it that thing is powerful enough :

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it's a "Saftschubse", literally "Juice pusher" (*Saftschubse is a derogatory term for airline stewardess)

 

anyway this little gimmick uses some clever electronics to keep the voltage level of the starter battery constant, thus avoiding cycling.

the "juice" is supplied by a secondary battery.

The Saftschubse is originally designed for normal cars with relative small (

it can supply 4 A /50W to the primary battery.

I know a bunch of people who use them with good results on cars and motorbikes (sidecar rigs)

As soon as enough charging voltage is supplied from the alternator, both batteries are charged, and whenever the starter battery starts to drop in voltage, the Saftschubse pushes some "electrical juice " from the secondary battery

 

of course, it can only draw as much power as was charged into the batteries in the first place, but at least it makes sure the secondary battery is drained first.

 

I don't know what the power requirement of the WWZH is.

anyway, just a thought

 

cheers

Chris

[dedetto]

Hallo.

Vorsicht bei solchem Zubehör.

Die Camperbatterien des Cali sind keine völlig von der Starterbatterie

unabhängigen Batterien sondern bereits in das Ladesystem des California

eingebunden.

Ich bin kein Elektriker, vermute jedoch das so nicht funktionieren wird.

[Yachtie]

ok das habe ich nicht bedacht (hab ja noch keinen Cali)

Sorry Mark I think dedetto is right, this might interfere to much with the on board electronics