Cold Weather Heat / Ventilation Problems in a 2010 BMW 5 Series - Battery Charging, Engine and Battery Heating

For the past two winters, on extremely cold days -20C / -5F or below, on my morning commute I'll have problems getting heat out of the ventilation system. In some cases, the ventilation fan will slow down to minimum speed, and for 20 minutes I'll freeze on the drive into work. Eventually the heat will start working in about 20 minutes, and by then my feet will have frozen to the pedals. Some research into the issue on the forums, and a few phone calls to my service adviser at the dealership, lead me to a possible cause for this issue. The BMW battery charging system has a load shedding function to help protect the battery charge level. So, after you've cranked your car after an overnight cold soak at -25C, with the depleted capacity of the battery at that temperature, and you're now driving the car with the heated seats, heated steering wheel, and the ventilation fan on high - the charging system may decide to protect itself by shedding (shutting off or slowing down) non-essential loads. One of these loads is the ventilation fan, when the ventilation system is not in the defrost mode. In defrost mode, the ventilation fan is considered an essential load and will be driven to high speed.

To make a long story somewhat shorter, I decided to take action and make a three pronged solution to this issue, to see if I could reduce the discomfort on cold days. Follow the links below to review the detailed posts on various installations. 

1. Install an oil pan engine pad heater (to shorten cranking times in cold weather, and help reduce engine wear on cold days - I plan to keep this car for a while - at least until BMW North America starts importing the 5 series wagon to Canada again;

2. Install a battery warming blanket to help keep the battery warm on cold nights, and to facilitate overnight trickle charging and short cranking times in the morning; and 

3. Install a trickle charger to bring the battery charge to 100% overnight. 

I also wanted to connect all three electrical loads on the car to a single extension cord plug, tucked up underneath one of the bottom fairings at the back corner of the car next to the trailer hitch, so I only have one plug to manage in the morning for connection / disconnection, and without having to open or close the hood or the trunk.