[Ztirffritz]

We're coming up on the season where battery range plummets. Given the large amount of space in over the hatch, it occurred to me that I could possibly heat the interior with a solar powered heater. Has anyone tried this? It wouldn't help overnight, but if your car sits in a parking lot all day, it would be nice to leave work and find your car if not warm, at least not frozen solid. I have some ideas for how to build something, but I also found some products that might be re-purposed for this use.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Solar-In...gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CJL5sqqK5NYCFUnNZAodXFkJEw

I think that this item would just about fit on a Volt Shelf. It has a small solar panel to operate a fan that moves air through a solar heater. I think it would probably do a nice job on a car interior. Kind of expensive though.

 

[firehawk72]

We're coming up on the season where battery range plummets. Given the large amount of space in over the hatch, it occurred to me that I could possibly heat the interior with a solar powered heater. Has anyone tried this? It wouldn't help overnight, but if your car sits in a parking lot all day, it would be nice to leave work and find your car if not warm, at least not frozen solid. I have some ideas for how to build something, but I also found some products that might be re-purposed for this use.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Solar-In...gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CJL5sqqK5NYCFUnNZAodXFkJEw

I think that this item would just about fit on a Volt Shelf. It has a small solar panel to operate a fan that moves air through a solar heater. I think it would probably do a nice job on a car interior. Kind of expensive though.

For the life of me, I can't think of a logical reason to use this. What would be the actual purpose for using this other than "trying to heat an area"

 

[Ztirffritz]

For the life of me, I can't think of a logical reason to use this. What would be the actual purpose for using this other than "trying to heat an area"

That's exactly the reason. You're heating the area inside your car.

It's capable of heating a room in an house, and that's it's original intended use. I'm thinking that it would work for a car too. When it's 20° outside and you burn 15 miles of range before you even leave the driveway you start to understand that it sure would be nice to have a way to heat the car without using the battery. I'm not suggesting that this product is the best solution, but it's one that I found that I think would work. But at $300 it's a bit expensive to experiment with. Solar heaters are extremely effective actually. They're pretty ingenious in their simplicity. The only moving part is the fan.

 

[Wooties]

I was all into this until i saw the price. I want to know if this works and keeps your car an okay temp in the winter, check back in if you get it!

I haven't experienced a winter in the Volt yet, but am anxious to see how I handle it.. am I going to drive around freezing so i win at the numbers? Or will I just drive like normal and see how that pans out? ... I'm just hoping this winter is more mellow than the last one here in Utah.

 

[Anker]

I can guarantee it doesn't work any better than doing nothing. The solar energy coming in through the window gets converted to heat when it hits the interior. Adding a solar panel does nothing.

I have seen other devices of the same sort, they belong in the same category as perpetual motion machines.

 

[Kvanhutton]

If there's enough sun to power this thing, wouldn't it be enough to keep the interior pretty warm as well?

 

[kunigit]

Wow, this is clearly a scam.

When placed in a window with Southern exposure, interior cool air is drawn through the lower air intakes by the solar powered fan. The collector cells are heated by infrared energy from the sun. Through convection, the air passes through the collectors and retains the barrier heat. The air then rises to the next collector and repeats the process, adding to the collected heat. The air temperature continues to rise as it passes through each collector.

It's a solar-powered fan that blows air over what's effectively a black sheet. Glass windows act as a greenhouse. The heat generated by sunlight hitting the car's interior is already trapped by windows, so this thing wouldn't contribute anything to the heat retained in the car. This is just a $300 solar fan.

Edit to add: Heat is blocked by glass. It's the visible and near infrared light from the sun that heats up a car's interior. If you have a black/dark interior, this device will do exactly nothing. If your interior happens to be very light, then this would heat up the interior slightly, but then it's just a $300 tiny black blanket. Just park facing the sun and cover your front seats with a cheap black blanket and you'll get far more solar heating.

 

[Mister Dave]

I can guarantee it doesn't work any better than doing nothing. The solar energy coming in through the window gets converted to heat when it hits the interior. Adding a solar panel does nothing.

I have seen other devices of the same sort, they belong in the same category as perpetual motion machines.

+1 .

 

[srmarti]

I don't think this will do any more than the sun coming in the windows.

 

[wizard_of-ahs]

I was all into this until i saw the price. I want to know if this works and keeps your car an okay temp in the winter, check back in if you get it!

I haven't experienced a winter in the Volt yet, but am anxious to see how I handle it.. am I going to drive around freezing so i win at the numbers? Or will I just drive like normal and see how that pans out? ... I'm just hoping this winter is more mellow than the last one here in Utah.

It will also be my first winter in the Volt. I KNOW, I will be using the heater/s and taking the hit on mpge's.....I'm old, crotchety and a creature of comfort

BUT, since I no longer commute...........who cares

 

[Barry]

I'm with those who say this will do essentially nothing to add heat to the car. However, just parking in the sun is very helpful in its self. So if that is available to you on cold days, you may be happy with that.

The only way this could improve heating is if you mounted it *outside* of the car in a way that it did not shade any car windows. Then it would serve to increase the total area that is collecting sunlight energy. But then you would have big problems to solve in terms of venting it through the car's exterior, the space it would occupy beside or behind the car, attaching and removing it each day, etc.