Electric car heaters - will we be warm enough?

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Sun 27 Jun 2010 20:04
Electric car heaters - will we be warm enough? - John F

There's lots of stuff in the press lately about electric cars, some with fuel engines to charge them up or drive a generator, some without. I've never seen any mention of the heater, though - which for oldish thin me is the most important thing of all for most of the year.

A 1000 watt electric motor is quite powerful when it's actually using all thousand of the watts. However, in winter one really needs at least the equivalent of a 1000 watt blow heater for at least the first ten minutes of the journey. What's that going to do for the range? Or are they all going to be fitted with separate paraffin heaters?

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Sun 27 Jun 2010 23:06
Electric car heaters - will we be warm enough? - madf

Buy a rug, a muffler and wear longjohns...

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Mon 28 Jun 2010 07:59
Electric car heaters - will we be warm enough? - oilrag

Hi John,

Your description of feeling the cold sounds very like me!

My problem, in particular is cold hands when driving and I often have the centre vent heat angled straight onto them. A heated steering wheel might be one option perhaps, for older people who feel the cold - it might allow a lower cab temperature to be tolerated for short drives.

The other thought I had was along the line of domestic electric storage heaters. A substance in the car taking mains power during charge - then releasing heat with just a fan blowing over the heated core.

Whatever - i don`t relish the idea of cold cars again. Do you remember your breath freezing on the inside of cars without heaters in days gone by?

Brrrr

oilrag

Edited by oilrag on 28/06/2010 at 08:01

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Mon 28 Jun 2010 21:24
Electric car heaters - will we be warm enough? - John F
[Gosh - you're up early, oilrag!] No - I'm not old enough to ever have had a car without a heater.
Not sure about your idea of a storage heater - the 'substance' you refer to is usually a pile of bricks! That, plus the battery, would be a huge weight on top of a 'normal' car weight.

I have an old u/s two bar wide-slice toaster [one bar doesn't work so only half power] strapped to the front of the driver's seat. Power cable threaded back through car, out through boot lid to socket on a time switch set to provide an hour's power just before my departure time. [Car lives outside]. Half a concrete 'rosemary' roof tile is the 'toast'. I bypassed the pop-up thermostat so it's permanently on - a miniature storage heater!
On a frosty winter morning the drivers side windscreen is clear and the steering wheel is warm, as is the whole interior of the car. It continues to emit heat to the underside of one's legs for the first mile or two.

Hmmm!

H Robinson
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Mon 28 Jun 2010 22:32
Electric car heaters - will we be warm enough? - Old Navy

Try a search for "Positive Temperature Coefficient" heaters, some cars already have them. Usually diesels, for almost instant windscreen demisting / deicing and people heating.

Edited by The Driver on 28/06/2010 at 22:44

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Tue 29 Jun 2010 08:27
Electric car heaters - will we be warm enough? - oilrag

Very ingenious, John. ;-)

About the weight. I was thinking that, what with many urban cars weighing in at around two tons. Why not another 100lbs or so of heating bricks built into insulated sill interiors?

The heater fan would then just blow through, taking little battery power.

On the other hand - maybe sub 700kg cars are the way to go. With heated underpants plugged iinto the fag lighter socket.....

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Tue 29 Jun 2010 12:34
Electric car heaters - will we be warm enough? - veryoldbear

Those of us with diesel cars have to put up with this for the first five miles ....

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Tue 29 Jun 2010 13:02
Electric car heaters - will we be warm enough? - Graham567

Those of us with diesel cars have to put up with this for the first five miles ....

Not unless you drive a new diesel Mondeo.It has electric heating to blow warm air out of the vents within 20 seconds of starting and the engine is the fastest i've ever known for getting up to temp.It takes approx 2 miles to reach full temperature.Heated front windscreen aswell.All this makes winter mornings painless.

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Tue 29 Jun 2010 15:04
Electric car heaters - will we be warm enough? - Old Navy
My diesel Ceed has PTC heaters as well, instant heat on cold mornings.
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Tue 29 Jun 2010 22:36
Electric car heaters - will we be warm enough? - John F
My diesel Ceed has PTC heaters as well, instant heat on cold mornings.

What's 'PCT'? I have never seen this info about diesels with electric heaters; the lack of early heat from diesels is one of the main reasons I would never buy one. P'raps they ought to publicise this more. I suppose most motoring journalists are young and don't feel the cold!

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Tue 29 Jun 2010 22:40
Electric car heaters - will we be warm enough? - Old Navy
My diesel Ceed has PTC heaters as well, instant heat on cold mornings.

What's 'PCT'?

Positive Temperature Coeffecient Heater. A solid state self regulating device, plenty of information in Google.

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Fri 9 Jul 2010 23:29
Electric car heaters - will we be warm enough? - kithmo

Electric car motors, batteries and inverters generate heat. The prius high voltage system has a second cooling system that takes heat from the motor and inverter (not the battery as that is air cooled) and uses this heat to help warm up the cabin and the petrol engine.

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Sat 10 Jul 2010 12:03
Electric car heaters - will we be warm enough? - jc2

Some car heaters-not electric-have an output approaching four THOuSAND watts(4Kw.).

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If you cover no more than 100 miles per day and have easy access to a charging point at home or work, then an EV is ideal for you.

Is an electric car right for me?