Using a 500W Halogen worklight to keep ice off my car

So at my apartment, my car is about 20 feet outside my front door.

It's been getting pretty cold in the morning, but nothing insane. ~28-30F.

I've had ice on my car every morning this week. Today it was kind of thick. I had to go back inside and get a pan of cold water and then scrape the ice off.

Today I came up with a possible solution.

I bought a 500W Halogon worklight at home depot for $5.

I'm going to run an extension cord to my car with the light in it.

The light will be on a timer and will be set to turn on 20-30 minutes before I head out to work.

So the question is, do you think it will work, and do you think it will melt the ice in this amount of time, and keep my car warm?

Will someone steal the light?

No, it will be locked in my car on the passengers seat.

Hmm Heating glass that quickly could cause it to crack but im no expert since its not very much of a problem around here...

I have one of those 500W halogen worklights too. It does indeed produce a lot of heat, however is a radiant heat and will heat objects that it is directed at. I would recommend against leaving the light inside your car as the metal bodies and glass lenses on these worklights become extremely hot.

jasonck08 said:

No, it will be locked in my car on the passengers seat.

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I misinterpreted what you wrote

Get an old beach towel or bed sheet and put that over your car windshield each night. Make sure the towel and your shield are dry. Hold it in place by closing the doors on it. If it's windy use some tape. In the morning you just walk out, lift off the towel and bingo, ice free windshield. Won't cost anything to run either.

It may work to melt the ice but I would worry more about it shifting and falling over. That could start your seats on fire.

They may be hard to find in California but a car warmer (120V forced air heater) may be best. I used to have one that had a high and low setting. It was great because on low I could also have my block heater plugged in so not only would my car be frost free in the morning, but it would start (at -30 or -40 degrees).

I looked on Amazon but they only seem to carry 12V ones. Not quite what you need.

Greg

The whole point of the expiriment would be to do things cheaply.

The light has a stand that keeps it off the ground 4-5" and it also has a cage around the glass lens, so I don't the heat is going to damge the seat.

I'll definitly test things before I let the light run for 30 minutes straight. I'll check temps after 5 minutes then 10, then 20 then 30 to make sure its not going to set my seats on fire or anything like that.

Also sure I could put a sheat or whatever over my car and then pull it off, but thats only 1/2 of the problem. The other 1/2 of the problem is how stinking cold it is in my car. I'd much rather hop into a warm car then an ice cold one at 7am.

I suggest that you find another method - the reason is that I know people who have burned down their garage with a 100 watt trouble light - it got too close to some stuff.

When I lived in IA, I installed a small 110V heater in the heater line which helped keep the coolant warm. It will help keep your engine and coolant warm - rapidly melting the windshield ice.

Another path - more passive - is to just cover the windshield. I sometimes use one of those aluminized windshield solar reflectors on the outside to keep it clear.

Not to go off topic but I live in central Canada and when I wake up in the afternoon(semi-retired) it is 60 degrees or warmer!God bless global warming.

Yeah I know-Rush Limbaugh says global warming is an invention of the left wing-but it's 60 freaking degrees everyday when it was 20 degrees this time of year when I was a child.

I haven't had trouble with windshield frosting yet but I have remote start and my car is nice and warm when I go outside.

When I was a kid in school, they told me another ice age was coming in the future so all we really have to do is wait on it to get here lol.

A small forced air electric heater in the front seat will probably work better than the 500w light and be much safer too.

If the light did not melt something or cause a fire, a car with iced up windows will certainly look like a fire inside the car.

I have an electric baseboard heater that I leave in my work van when it get really cold and it sure is nice in the mornings.

Having a heater hooked in the cooling system would be something I would check into if I lived where it really gets cold.

+

jasonck08,...clearly you must be kidding

500W is all you need to start a car fire!

all you need to do is cover up the car if you can.....that should keep the ice off.

if not, try warming up your car with the windshield defroster on the warmest setting with the fan on the middle setting.........air moving too fast can't warm up as much as air not moving so fast......make sure you set it so that the air inside the car is circulating........no outside air! 5-10 minutes later your car will be warm and cozy.....windsheild free of ice.

if that doesn't work.....try your windshield washers......unless you use pure water, that stuff doesn't freeze at all.

good luck!

I really hope this is a joke...:tinfoil:

500W work light + fan in the car would heat it up pretty nicely, but theres a layer of insulation between the interior and the outer shell...I doubt you would be able to help much from heating the car from the inside.

now if your car's a black color, face the light down on an area that you've scraped the ice off should be able to heat the entire panel to melt ice, but I can't see how the efficiency would make it practical, and unless you can heat the side panels simultaneously ice will travel and refreeze on the side panels

Not a joke. I was thinking about using a 500-700W heater, but for those they recommend not butting it within 3feet of furniture, so that would be more dangerous in a car, then a spotlight on a stand pointed up towards the roof of the car. Still need to get a long enough extension cord to run to my car.

And duh, I could let my car idle for 10 minutes with the heater on, but that would use up a lot of gas doing that every single day. I drive to get the best MPG possible, and hate wasting fuel.

My parents are elderly and use a remote start, works very well. I think using a worklight is very dangerous, the ones I have get very hot very quickly. Not worth a fire or melting your seats etc. My car has a carb, so I just have to be cold and scrape, not the end of the world really...............

Walmart sells defroster in a can; buy that. Prestone brand is good and melts the windshield frost on contact. I picked up bunch of them on clearance at the end of the last winter season.

Putting the 500W on the driver seat is insanely stupid idea. I sure hope you were joking.

- Vikas

MarNav1 said:

My parents are elderly and use a remote start, works very well. I think using a worklight is very dangerous, the ones I have get very hot very quickly. Not worth a fire or melting your seats etc. My car has a carb, so I just have to be cold and scrape, not the end of the world really...............

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You can install a remote starter on a carburated (spelling?) car it only requires the installtion of an actuator on the throttle. Unless the car is REALLY difficult to start when cold.