Heat option I'd like to see

[FisherPete]

I don't know what would prevent anyone from building cars with an electric slave heater that provides heat to passengers until the motor warms up, then switch to the normal mode. It's only a few minutes that would make a difference, but some mornings it's just plain cold!

 

[khpony]

Isn't that what they've done on the PRIUS hybrid?

 

[alaskanexpy]

they do this with the diesel super duty pickups. its called the "rapid heat supplemental heater"

i just have remote starts installed on all my trucks, let them run for a bit before i leave and always get into a warm truck.

today it never got above -10F so i let the truck warm up for about 25mins before leaving work.

 

[Captain Morgan]

It would require something like a blow dryer to crank out enough heat to make much difference. Assuming the vehicle is running and the alternator carried the load, you would need to supply some serious amps to whatever the element is.

The same 1500w blow dryer that runs off AC would require 115A if it were 13v DC.

In the old days, there were plenty of vehicles that used electric elements to supplement heat until a certain temperature was achieved but they did put out much heat.

For the price of such a work-around it's just more expedient to add a remote start to a vehicle and let it run for 10 minutes before everyone piles in.


.

 

[Thermo]

You can make your own heating system. But, keep in mind that you will need to get some 1 ohm, wire wound resistors capable of around 300 watts of thermal heat. Then you can wire 2 of them in parallel with each other and run them off of a 30 amp relay. This will give you about 600 watts of heat while the relay is engaged. The big trick will be putting in a safety circuit to shut the resistors off should they get too hot and also a timing circuit to shut them off after say 5 minutes (the motor is capable of handling the heat load). Also keep in mind that those resistors are going to get very warm. So, you will need to place them in the center of the vent duct, held in place by ceramic spacers and not allowing the bolts to come in contact with the resistors. Else, you are going to melt your duct, the resistor is going to fall down and really make a mess.

 

[Big White]

600 watts of heat would go unnoticed in a SUV. Electric heat just is not in the cards. 600 watts is about a 1/3 of a hair dryer.
Installing seat heaters is pretty easy and cheap and effective however. You can get both seats in front done for 100 bucks if you are willing to spend the afternoon to do it yourself.