Luxury E.V. Heating system for $10!

[bennelson]

Hmm. I sense the cold season approaching.

That's why I started work on my luxurious new EV heating system.

A trip to the thrift store netted me both a heated steering wheel cover (12VDC electric) AND a heated back-massaging seat cover! Those are designed for household use, but they actually just have an AC to DC power adapter and REALLY run on 12V DC! An easy wiring mod will let me run this as a heated seat in my Electro-Metro!

More details on my blog. http://300mpg.org/2012/10/02/ev-heat-on-the-cheap/

[Daox]

Very cool Ben. How would you say the heated seat cover compares to the heated seat in the Prius?

[bennelson]

It's not as hot. The one in the Prius will make you sweat if you leave it on high!

There's also a "safety" switch in the heated massaging cover that prevents the heat from happening if you aren't sitting on it. I might remove that.

[roosterk0031]

Making a heated cover, jacket liner shirt is really easy, simple V=IR & P=IV. If want 40 watts of heat, 40/12 = 3.33 amps, 12/3.33 = 3.60 so need a resistance of 3.6 ohms, find some 28 gauge wire or close to that size and figure the length of wire to get the resistance you want then weave it into a seat cover or glue gun it to a towel to lay on the seat. Do 2 circuits if you want, and cause don't really know how much heat you will need, double the wire length and have a 20 watt circuit and 40 watt. or maybe 10 and 30. Thicker the wire least resistance so more is needed, but not as hot in any one place, thinner wire will use less and get higher surface temperature. Spent a little more the $10 on the wire and connector.

I've wired up my motorycle jacket liner, used a flat 4 trailer connector to plug it in and a shirt for my son for sitting in the woods when really cold, carrying that motorycle battery with me.

[Cobb]

What I do is use those recharagable heaters used for out doors men. You boil it in hot water til the crystals melt, then when you want heat flick the corner of the disk and it will go from a liquid to a solid and make a hell of a lot of heat.

Of course I got the Enginer kit to supplement my heat in the winter. I just route the "exhaust" from it and the IMA system to blow inside the cabin vs outside the rear bumper.

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by Cobb

You boil it in hot water til the crystals melt, then when you want heat flick the corner of the disk and it will go from a liquid to a solid and make a hell of a lot of heat.

I had almost forgot about those phase-change heaters. Those things are great! I was talking with somebody earlier this summer about some sort of heat system for hybrids that would do something like that, but automated for car heating and cooling systems.

I'll have to look into that a bit more.....