It's cold!

[cgbjake]

4 in Northern MI tonight!

[Automcdonough]

Originally Posted by DonR

Out of curiosity, do you know much charging wattage it would take to effectively warm up your batteries a decent amount?

Would a large (15w) solar phone charger left in your windshield while at work help warm things up enough to bother with? Obviously it's not going to help at night or when the car's covered in snow.

Don

pretty much worthless for anything but keeping the 12v topped off. :/

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by DonR

Would a large (15w) solar phone charger left in your windshield while at work help warm things up enough to bother with?

Nightlight bulbs are 5 watts.
How much heat does 3 night light bulbs put out?

You would get a lot more heat just from the car parked in the sun (for those rare sunny, clear, winter days.)

I have done some pre-heat of the car with an oil-filled electric radiator. The trouble is that when the car has been out in the cold for a while it's just a HUGE thermal mass that take a LOT of heat to warm up.

Before I drove the car to my Dad's the other night, I had the heater running most of the afternoon. Feels so wasteful!