12v cabin heater/defroster?

[Ryland]

An electric heater heats up faster then the gas engine can heat the coolant allowing you to drive within seconds of starting the car (I often coast down the driveway and pop my clutch) instead of wasting gas to let it warm up in that warm up time I could get to work, if I could see but even after scraping the windshild from the inside it still frosts over within 8 blocks.
I also want to find out what works well so once I get my electric vehicles working well enough to use them in the winter I can use this knollage to keep them warm and use them instead of gas, for that I was thinking of installing a small 3 gallon under sink hot water heater that plugs in with the charger and a timer the use a heater core that is designed for kit cars.

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Quite aside from that, a lot of this discussion puzzles me. This board is supposed to be about using less energy, no? So how much excess electricity would go into running an electric cabin heater? Or even a block heater, if it's left on for long periods?

[Daveedo]

Originally Posted by The Atomic Ass

One wouldn't want to leave a block heater on for long periods anyway. Or a cabin heater, for that matter. Fire hazard and all. We're talking about the kind of setup where it's either on a timer, or plugged in by hand in the morning.

As for energy, I've heard of block heaters as heavy duty as 1,000w, which would naturally use 1kwh for each hour of operation. If I could start my Burgman at full operating temperature each and every trip, my fuel consumption would be much closer to 65mpg. Right now it's hovering around 53-54. The fuel saved there would more than make up for 1kwh of electricity.

The factory block heater on my ford diesel is 750watts. However, I did find an inline water heater in the lower radiator hose on an eagle talon I had last year. It had been in alaska before i got it. Don't know the watts on that but that might be an option instead of a block heater (same effect basically).

as for the small cig plug in heaters. I now recall I bought one from harbor freight about 10 years ago. Took it back cause it didn't do much and made lots of noise. The new ones look different, maybe they are better and you could put one at each duct below the windshield or plumb them into your duct work somehow.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Ryland

An electric heater heats up faster then the gas engine can heat the coolant allowing you to drive within seconds of starting the car...

I drive within one or two seconds of starting the car without block heaters or anything of the sort. The best way to warm the engine is under load, not idling.

Hi guys, thank you very much for all your suggestions.

[DonR]

As a driver of one of the draftiest vehicles on the planet I suggest a fleece blanket & to stop talking. Also, I don't know if RainX antifog works when real cold or not. You may want to try that.