Electric Seat Heat

[Berchmans]

I am planning on installing electric seat heat in both seats of the RV8 I am building. I am using the heating elements sold by flyboys. I am currently thinking of installing the seat operating switch in the right side arm rests of the front and rear positions. I am also thinking of putting individual push,pull beakers in each arm rest for the switch ahead of the heater control. My question to the group is what have you done for both the control switch and the breakers? The elements came with inline auto style fuses but I don't think I am going to use those. Photos would be greatly appreciated...

[AltonD]

In the 7A, I could not find a good place for the Hi-Off-Low switch without rebuilding the entire wire harness. I switched it to HI and stuck it under the seat pan to never be operated again. I ditched the fuse and installed a on-off breaker switch on the panel. The wife is extremely happy. I seldom ever turn it on.

[Mike S]

I ran the factory inline fuse, and another fuse in a fuse block installed as a sub-panel distribution center for cockpit accessories. Two red wires upper left.



The heat in the pilot seat is out, and I will be replacing the fuse now during my "annual". I will also be deleting the factory inline fuse, as it is too hard to get to, inside my tunnel.

I have to remove the seats to get the top off of the tunnel, lots of work just to replace a fuse.

[Transporter]

I installed the Flyboys seat heat in the rear seat only.

I mounted all seat heat components inside the removable side panel under the right armrest, including the hi-lo-off switch (about 2" aft of the leading edge of this panel). Wiring, relay, etc. were mounted with adel clamps. I used stainless screws (for appearance) since the screw heads are visible inside the cockpit.

The connectors to the seatback and bottom cushion exit the panel through a rubber grommet under the right seat belt attach bracket.

I connected tefzel wire from the main bus to the kit harness inside this same panel, so only a few inches of the original kit power supply harness were used. Power and ground wires were routed through the floor using a rubber grommet in the space enclosed by the side panel.

There's plenty of room behind this side panel; I also mounted a TCW Safety Trim module there.

Good luck,
Mike

[N941WR]

When I was building, I thought about putting these in my RV but some member of this forum posted that his Volvo had just caught fire due to a short in the seat heaters and that he almost didn't get stopped in time.

While I like the thought of seat heaters, I don't like the thought of a possible in flight fire.

Just something to think about.

[FORANE]

I run these and love em:
http://www.amazon.com/Powerlet-rapid.../dp/B004MGBSTU

[vfrazier]

his Volvo had just caught fire due to a short in the seat heaters

Why didn't his circuit breaker or fuse catch the short? It sounds like there were extenuating circumstances in the Volvo.

[islandmonkey]

Can anyone running electric seat heaters post the current consumption please. Also do you have any control on the amount of heat being produced? Thanks in advance.

[Bavafa]

I love my heated seat, it keeps my wife very warm and we hardly ever need to use our heater from engine.

I have installed a circuit breaker for the main power and have two inline fuse for each of the seats. The on/off switches are installed between the seats and have two settings low/high.


IMGP6610 by bavafa1, on Flickr

[Ironflight]

Looks from Mehrdad's switch pictures that we out the same device in our new RV-3. I can check the current consumption next week when we are in the hangar, but if I recall correctly, it's somewhere between three and five amps.

I have used the heater sitting in the hangar on a cool Houston day (40 degrees) setting up avionics (with external power on the airplane), and it is quite toasty!