Take your hot water with you, vehicle heating idea.

Ryland · 12-14-10, 03:33 PM

I don't know if anyone else hear reads Farm Show Magazine but it has projects that people did around their farm.
Anyway, I bring this up because a few years back they had a short article about heating up your vehicle that has been parked for days, one person had a ground loop of pex full of anti-freeze with a small pump and quick connect fittings on either end, the tractor or truck then had the same kind of connections hooked up to the engine so you could pump 50 degree fluid from below the frost line in to the engine.
Another person had more or less an on demand hot water heater on a cart that they would haul out and connect up in the same way.
Now yesterday I was talking to the President of Bubbling Springs Solar (maker of solar hot water panels) and he was telling me about a trucking company that wanted to use solar hot water panels to keep their trucks warm in the winter.
Now I got to thinking, what if you had a heat exchanger on your hot water heater that went to your garage and had anti-freeze in it (maybe use the food safe type) so when you get home you dump the heat from your vehicle in to your house, then use that heat in the form of preheated water while you are home, next day when you leave the house take that heat with you again by pumping that hot water in to your vehicle.

I'm not personally ready for a project like this, but I would like to try it at some point, assuming that I don't move to only having an electric car.

12-14-10, 03:33 PM	#1
Ryland Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Western Wisconsin. Posts: 913 Thanks: 127 Thanked 82 Times in 71 Posts	Take your hot water with you, vehicle heating idea. I don't know if anyone else hear reads Farm Show Magazine but it has projects that people did around their farm. Anyway, I bring this up because a few years back they had a short article about heating up your vehicle that has been parked for days, one person had a ground loop of pex full of anti-freeze with a small pump and quick connect fittings on either end, the tractor or truck then had the same kind of connections hooked up to the engine so you could pump 50 degree fluid from below the frost line in to the engine. Another person had more or less an on demand hot water heater on a cart that they would haul out and connect up in the same way. Now yesterday I was talking to the President of Bubbling Springs Solar (maker of solar hot water panels) and he was telling me about a trucking company that wanted to use solar hot water panels to keep their trucks warm in the winter. Now I got to thinking, what if you had a heat exchanger on your hot water heater that went to your garage and had anti-freeze in it (maybe use the food safe type) so when you get home you dump the heat from your vehicle in to your house, then use that heat in the form of preheated water while you are home, next day when you leave the house take that heat with you again by pumping that hot water in to your vehicle. I'm not personally ready for a project like this, but I would like to try it at some point, assuming that I don't move to only having an electric car.