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Keep the canopy and engine warm this winter

schaplerrh

Well Known Member
Sponsor
Has anyone tried using electric mattress heaters (similar to an electric blanket but it goes between the mattress and the bottom sheet) to keep the engine and/or canopy plexi warm on cold winter nights? Some folks recommend strategically placed, thermostatically controlled, electric heater, but I've not seen/heard of anyone using thermostatically controlled mattress heaters (or electric blankets for that matter). I'm thinking of placing one over the Bruce engine and canopy cover, then covering the heater with a blanket to retain heat. My plane is hangered so I have ready access to 110Vs, and rain is not an issue.

I'd appreciate your thoughts and/or experiences.

Robert
 
Heating the canopy might be a real bad idea, many years ago, a new owner of an RV4 pulled the aircraft out of a heated hanger into a below zero day and the canopy cracked in about four different places. He was still a thousand miles from home so we spent hours with tie wire and duct tape to make it secure....
 
Interesting idea but I don't think it would work very well. The mattress heater would heat the cowl, which would eventually heat the air inside the cowl, which would eventually heat the engine from the outside in. Given enough watts of power and enough time it could work, but would take a long, long time for the heat to make it to the innards of the engine where it is really needed. Also, a heater of sufficient power to accomplish this might risk damaging the cowl in the process.

I think you'd be much better off with a commercially available electric engine heater system. I recently installed a Reiff system which uses a heating pad on the oil sump and heating bands around the base of each cylinder. I'm very happy with it so far.
 
I have an unheated hangar. I put a lamp with a 20 watt bulb in the pilot footwell and a moving blanket over the canopy.
 
Sounds like Jeff is right on base. Theoretically the engine would be warmed. But once you calculate heat transfer and convective coefficients, the rate of heat getting to the engine is insignificant. Consider that the honeycomb cowl itself is probably a better insulator than the blanket that is placed on top of the heater.

Heating the canopy sounds like asking for problems.

-Roger.
 
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