As the weather turns crisp and cold, warming up your vehicle to take on the day can be a painful task. Over the years, we have parked outside and the weather has not been so kind to our older model f-150. Since we moved into our current apartment/garage, we got to thinking... how can we keep our truck warm and melt snow off of our truck while it is parked? Check below the jump for our recommendations as to how we keep our and truck warm in the cold upper midwestern winters.
Quick Tips:
- Do not use anything but a UL certified fan forced space heater
- If you use an extension cord use a short and heavy duty one so you do not have to much electrical resistance on the circuit.
- Use common sense to prevent any problems or dangers
- Enjoy you warmer garage!
(Top image: flickr member StephenGroves licensed under Creative Commons)
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How long do you run it for? Overnight? In Texas, this isn't really a big concern, but there are days where it would be nice.
I live in Minnesota and have a detached garage, so I get where you're coming from.
Still, this seems like such an enormous waste of electricity for such a limited return. I'm trying to explain this concept to the other half of the world's families for whom just having a car or consistent electricity would be a big deal.
yeah i guess this just doesn't make sense to me. I lived in Michigan for most of my life, with both non heated garages and where my car was outdoors, and it doesn't really seem like something that is needed.
Heck here in indiana, we had a week of -15 (in the middle of the day) last year, and i still doesn't see it necessary. Just another energy suck.
Comming from a cold snowy region (quebec!) I don't really see the point of this, if your having issues starting your car in the cold because it's too old, you should get a block heater for your motor and put it on a timer.
I don't see why you would need to melt snow of your car, since it's been sitting in the garage there should not be any snow accumulation on it.
I have put a heater inside my car with an extension cord through a slit in a window and a simple clock-switch in the outlet on the wall. The heater was set to heat the car up to 20°C and the clock set to switch it on at about the same time my alarm clock goes off. When I go out to the car 30 minutes later, I've found that the car is warm and comfy on the inside and up to 1cm of snow has melted from the windows, the rest, if any, is loose and falls of by touch.
Instead of heating the gararge itself, a commercially made block heater might be a better choice. With the engine being warm, it will start quicker and it would have heat a lot quicker.
Andsetinn - could you let me know the type/brand/name of heater you used to heat up your car? I am a midwife and need to get to births quickly in middle of night. I need to have my car ready to go at a moment's notice in the winter. Your solution sounds like exactly what I need! Thanks!