Warming your Car Seats in Winter

Posted January 31, 2003

Warming your Car Seats in Winter By Pop

My automobile is parked in a carport. I have installed an X10 receptacle in the carport wall, close by the car. When parking for the night, I plug a heating pad - the kind I use when I need some heat on my sore muscles - into the controlled outlet. The heating pad is positioned inside the car on the steering wheel or on the driver's seat while the cord is fished out the side nearest the outlet [ squeezing the cord with the soft neoprene weather-stripping around the door does it no harm].

I have set my clock X10 Mini Timer to click 'ON' the outlet about an hour before I intend to drive out in the morning so that the seat and wheel are pre-warmed - a real comfort on these cold winter mornings.

At other times, temperatures down close to zero call for a more aggressive approach so I sometimes use the same setup to power a heater under the hood. Usually I just use a light bulb, although the outlet can handle much more powerful heaters and, if you want to get very serious about this, you can purchase and use an electric 'dip-stick' heater for the engine.

In any event, don't forget to unplug before driving away!

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