Re: Heated Batteries

[cordeiro@adi.com (Alan Cordeiro)]

>From Steve Buchholz and others with cold batteries....


>I've seen people mention some sort of inductive heaters for heating 
>engine blocks ... these would probably be more appropriate.  I don't 
>know if they are simply resistive heating elements that conduct heat 
>to the block, or if they use an alternating magnetic field to create 
>eddy currents and heat.  

I have heard of a recommendation to turn headlights on for a few
minutes on really cold mornings ( evenings, nights ) and then turn
them off for a few more before trying to start your car. The
theory behind is that the 20 amps or so flowing through the 
battery will warm it up a bit, perhaps five or ten degrees. The
short gap allows the battery to recover, and the heat to
evenly spread all over it.

Now, what if someone decided to put this ( wasted in the
headlights ) energy to better use, such as heating the
oil in the engine sump with a small ( 200 watt ? ) heating
element right in the base of the sump ?

Else you could switch on your seat heaters on for five
minutes ( have to rewire them to bypass the ignition switch )
to keep your fanny warm.

Alan Cordeiro