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Old 11-27-2018, 06:42 PM   #34 (permalink)
Isaac Zackary
Full sized hybrid.
 
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Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: Colorado
Posts: 602

Suzy - '13 Toyota Avalon Hybrid XLE
90 day: 37.18 mpg (US)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5 View Post
Naw, warming the cabin is small beans. Better to have consumers wanting EVs and the benefit of starting out in a warm cabin than to prefer their ICE counterparts. We're talkin 8 cents of electricity. You can't even start a car for 8 cents worth of gasoline.

Not only that, but winter driving usually requires windows to be defrosted, which uses warm air from the vents. Better to draw as much of that power from the grid than to use the battery upon departure.
My Leaf had a heat pump heater. Granted, it generally used the resistance heater when preheating. But I was able to make it use the heat pump heater many times for preheating. On the other hand, ever try going 70 miles at 40mph with no heater on in subzero weather with a wife in an EV? I have, and it's not really that fun.

But I agree. Heating the glass is very important for safety reasons. The '85 Golf diesel I had was notorious for not being able to keep the glass clean around town. Driving around in blizzard conditions with fogged or frosty glass is a disaster waiting to happen. I hate driving around trying not to breath and holding a scraper in one hand so I can periodically scrape the frost off the inside of the windshield.

I wonder if I could change out my windshield wipers for windshield scrapers and put another set of automated windshield scrapers on the inside.

Quote:
Originally Posted by fusion210 View Post
Do any cars come with electric side window defrosters? I remember seeing one in a front window of a van and thought it was pretty neat. I imagine the window moving would make it very difficult.
That would be awesome! I can't even find the windshield version in the USA. Of course, they are probably illegal over here.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lemmy View Post
Squandering resources for the sake of comfort for lazy folk is going to become socially unacceptable and unsustainable. The whole point of ecomodding is to eke out dwindling resources, not waste them.

Put the car in a garage, or wear some appropriate cold weather clothing.
I agree. People look out for their comfort much more than preserving the planet we live on. It makes me upset that there are so many people around here where I live who are against things like mining but all drive full sized SUV's.

But where is the happy medium? Theoretically, if we all ditched motorized transportation, except for maybe emergency applications, the planet and even our health would be much better off, but living standards would be 1800's again. I'm absolutely positive I could stop using motorized vehicles and walk or bike everywhere I really need to go. But in today's society I also would probably end up as a divorced, friendless, uneducated and poor hermit if I did that.
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