You could have instant heat using old technology but there is a safety factor that precludes it’s use in cars. single engine air-cooled aircraft use a heating system that runs the exhaust pipe through a chamber fed by outside air. Twin engine aircraft usually use a gasoline fed forced-air heater. Both exist in an environment of yearly inspections.
No, a five year-old Rabbit. (The one year, since the '80s, that they called it a Rabbit instead of a Golf.)
I had a new Escort with a defective thermostat. Replaced it and it poured out heat within a mile of travel.
BTW, as for electric cars, the Nissan Leaf does have an electric heater. Apparently it really reduces the range to use it a lot, and they are putting in a more efficient heater for 2013. This article claims it’s a 5KW heater, which would be significant, given a 24 kWH battery:
Air cooled VW’s used a similar heater system to a small aircraft and at least in my recollection they didn’t warm up noticeably faster than a water-cooled car. Gas heaters were available as aftermarket additions and they definitely provided tons of instant heat!
Incidentally, the real weakness of the VW heater wasn’t the funky exhaust heat exchanger, but the fact that the system was driven by the engine cooling fan instead of a separate blower motor-- at idle the thing just didn’t circulate enough air. When you were cruising around, they were more than adequate for heating a bug and even a van in most climates, provided the paper air tubes were intact and the muffler/heater boxes weren’t rusted out. Some of the later models did come with an electric blower motor and they work awesome. You can also fit a computer case fan (which, coincidentally, are also 12 volts DC) in the heater tubes of an older VW.
If it’s a Prius, the coolant is actually kept in a vacuum flask to be kept hot for extended periods of time for fuel efficiency and emissions reasons, so having heat right away is a side benefit.
I find this statement ironic, since an electric heater can’t be made more efficient than it already is (i.e 100%). Of course, the article says they are focusing more on heating the surfaces than the air, which reduces power draw and is more “efficient” in terms of comfort/power.
I always felt that in a pure electric vehicle, seat warmers and window defoggers are the only things worth doing. anything else wastes a ton of power when there’s not much to spare.
The bug suffered from the distance between the engine and the passenger compartment. In a plane it’s literally inches from your foot.
but I forgot about the Bug. I suppose it’s possible to scavenge heat from the exhaust without getting sued into the ground for carbon monoxide poisoning. The most efficient method of course is the heated seat and electric windshield but that was something of a gold plated failure in the Lincolns.
if it wasn’t, nobody would sell furnaces.
I believe one day cars will have 48 VDC systems. It is very logical.
it’s been talked about for quite a while now. it has a number of advantages, but also a number of disadvantages. most of them are safety related. 12 volts can’t strike or sustain an arc of any consequence. 42/48 volts can. Working on a car’s 12 volt system, the most immediate hazard is if you’re wearing something metal (e.g. a ring, watch, or bracelet) and bridge a connection which will cause your metal jewelry to heat up and burn the shit out of you. 48V is enough to actually deliver a shock.
The fresh air engines took time for the heat exchangers to warm up. But the old 36 hp engines would be pumping out hot air in about 1 minute. The amount would depend on the speed of the engine. On weekends I would take my girlfriend (now wife) back to SF. She would fall asleep. But when I came to the 17 280 interchange I would have to down shift to 2nd gear to make the loop. The engine would pump out so much heat that she would wake up and turn the heat off. I learned tothurn the heat off as I down shifted and then turn it back on after I got backin 4th gear.
I did purchase a 67 VW camper with one of the gasoline fired heaters. That thing could really pump out the heat.
I don’t understand how people talk about original air cooled VWs like it was a normal thing for people in 2013 to be still driving them. Those things are from the 1960s . People who were alive in the 1960s are like a hundred years old today. I have a car from 1992 and people refer to me as that weird old guy with the ancient Nazi staff car.
furnaces don’t drive through salt water. Well not unless you live in NY.
I am not in my 100s.
I’m 52, barely half a hundred.
Wha…? NO WAY!:eek:
My brother-in-law had the diesel VW SUV (Touareg, I think) a few years ago. It had a diesel burner as a heater that kicked in while the engine was cold, then cut off once the normal heating was up to temp.
I doubt you could do the same with petrol, though.
Si
I had a Citroen GS with an air cooled flat 4 in the front rather than the VW engine in the rear.
The heater, and general ventilation system, was quite amazing once it was properly sealed.
I currently have a Citroen C5 diesel. The HDi engine is exceptionally efficient and on it’s own would never get warm enough to heat the cabin in less than around forty miles of quickish travel.
To alleviate this it has a supplementary heater in the cooling system, powered by a couple of glow plugs and heats the car up almost as fast as a petrol engine would.
I worked as a VW mechanic in the 60s and 70s and I ain’t no hundred year old person.