Faster engine warmup

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

Just out of curiosity, what is the energy draw of each of those?

22 watts per pair for the gloves. I don't know what the draw is for the seat warmer. It doesn't matter to me - it's worth keeping my butt warm!

[Milwaukee]

Originally Posted by Thymeclock

In cold weather operation I run with a radiator block (see above), an auxiliary heated seat cushion and I wear a wired jacket that I plug in, accommodating heated 12V motorcycle gloves that I wear while driving. If your butt is warm and your hands are warm, that's what matters most. BTW, the heated gloves were the best $100 I ever spent.

Where you get heated gloves? We need that badly for Michigan's winter.

[roosterk0031]

Here's a write up I did when I made my electric vest a few years back.

Print Page - Home made electric vest

Glue it to a towel & sit on it, put a outlet plug and just plug & unplug when needed.

David

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Milwaukee

Where you get heated gloves? We need that badly for Michigan's winter.

Just Google: Gerbing's. There are other manufacturers of heated gloves but IMHO theirs are the best. Or do a search on eBay if you want used ones.

[Mpgian]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

Whenever I hear the furnace turn on at home, I just think how silly it is to heat thousands of cubic feet of air when less than 1ft is sufficient for comfort. If I didn't have roommates, I'd set the temp at 55.

You must not be married...


I keep the heat between off and 55-60... When my wife is away or at work... but when she is home... its $$$$ down the drain... and she dosent like to "have to have a sweater or coat on" when she is inside...

she can keep the heat on and I can have my guns (pick you battles)

Originally Posted by Thymeclock

Just Google: Gerbing's. There are other manufacturers of heated gloves but IMHO theirs are the best. Or do a search on eBay if you want used ones.

Nice!!!! you could put a 12v jack next to your seat belt and run the wires thru your jacket!!! I dig it!!!

[bestclimb]

Originally Posted by KITT222

Okay, first person to make an exhaust-heated car heating system wins... something. Go!

VW did it already. Any piston powered GA aircraft has this as well.

They cool off quickly, when gliding would provide heat for about 5 seconds before blowing cold air.

[Thymeclock]

Originally Posted by Mpgian

Nice!!!! you could put a 12v jack next to your seat belt and run the wires thru your jacket!!! I dig it!!!

Actually I use a splitter, because I also need power for my add-on seat heating pad that warms my butt in the driver's seat, as well as for the heated gloves.

You can make your own wired jacket (as I did, if you know how to do basic wiring and sew it into a jacket, using velcro to route and secure removable wiring into the arms) but you can't 'make' your own heated gloves (I tried!).

Buy a pair of heated leather gloves and plug 'em in. The aren't cheap but they are worth every penny paid for them.

[Joenavy85]

Originally Posted by Mpgian

You must not be married...


I keep the heat between off and 55-60... When my wife is away or at work... but when she is home... its $$$$ down the drain... and she dosent like to "have to have a sweater or coat on" when she is inside...

she can keep the heat on and I can have my guns (pick you battles)

yeah you always have to know what you can or can't win. my girlfriend is weird in this sense though, she'll complain about it being cold, but doesn't want to put her sweatshirt on, likewise she'll then complain about it being too warm but refuse to take the sweatshirt off. i just deal with it, my apartment is pretty good with heat/AC, my electric and gas bill combined is less than $60 a month for 1154 sq. ft.

[Daox]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

During this cold season, I have been turning off the car heater until I see normal operating temperatures from my coolant gauge (approx 4min). My theory is that this slightly reduces the time needed to warm the engine and enter closed-loop mode. Is there any benefit to my practice? If so, any guess as to how much of a benefit could be found?

The idea sprang from what I had learned about an over-heating car I used to drive in high school. Whenever the car would begin to over-heat, I would blast the heat on full to control engine coolant temps. Not fun when it's 100 degrees outside!

I dug this thread up while putting together the fast warm up compilation thread. But, I wanted to test your idea. So, I did.

I normally turn the heat on in the Civic when the coolant temp gets up to about 140F. So, I set the heat dial on the Civic to cold, and let it warm up to ~140F. Once I turned the dial to cold, I would see a drop in coolant temperature as the heater bypass valve opened up and dumped cold coolant from the heater core into the engine coolant circuit. This cold volume of coolant was enough to drop the coolant temperature down 5-8F degrees. I was quite surprised that it cooled it down that much.

[Frank Lee]

Still, I'm going to keep the valve on Hot from the get-go because usually I need the defroster ASAP since I don't do the idling thing. P.S. But I leave the blower "Off" until the temp gauge moves.