Here a photo of my defrost-a-foot™. it uses 4A @ 28 V initially, but as the pad gets warmer, this tapers off to about half this value.
I’ll do some testing tomorrow and report back.
it requires no modification if plugged into the cigarette lighter, so I suppose anyone with a 28 volt aircraft and 4 amps to spare could legally use it?
AeroPlus wrote:
I also fly sometimes the DA42 and due to the design with the engines not in front but to the sides on the wings, I have trouble keeping warm inside at low outside temperatures.
I have to put on jacket in winter time while my passengers are covered with blankets 
Anything colder than -10°C the heating is not sufficient.
In private flying, there are no regs on what is plugged into a power outlet. You just want to make sure it isn’t going to catch fire
100W is quite a lot of power.
Another thing to consider is heated seats. They don’t need much power, and they are common in cars. And they do work well – with leather seats only I think.
Heated seat doesn’t seem useful to me. I’ve had one in a car but never used it.
The Jodel had a draught from the clamshell doors, down the middle. A wonderful foresight feature to isolate the occupants for Covid-19, but needing a lot of insulating clothing on upper body, and a cap. I never noticed my legs getting cold, but wore thick socks for my feet in cold weather.
Galatea has 4 heated seats. They are extremely useful, but my €500 certified stepdown power supply (28 to 12 volt) only worked intermittently.
IIRC the seat heating mats use 70 watts max per seat. Thus is more than enough and really does wonders when the cabin is cold.
Are there any portable seat heating mats?
My floor heaters only use 100 watts at startup, Peter. So if you switch them on one at a time, the max draw will be 7 A, tapering to 5…
Can’t say for other aircraft, but it is a non-event in Galatea, unlike the air conditionner which causes a spectacular pitch jump when engaging!
Now that everyone else is reporting on their heating woes, it motivates me to address this as a nice « total solution » challenge!
For example, I wonder if a car booster battery could provide enough energy for fully autonomous floor or seat heating pads?
Edit: Just checked, these things offer around 280Wh of power, so 2 hours of full power seat heating in a 2 seater plane…
It might, but do you want to carry a big lithium battery?
I would not in a pressurized plane, but if it is your only solution due to lack of alternator power and you have the option of throwing it out in case of emergency, I think I would , no?
Frankly I rate the Janitrol solution worse in terms of safety.
Latest news on testing the cockpit heating mats:
Both connected in parallel and under carpet.
Initial current draw @ 28 volts: 8.5 A , tapers within seconds to below 8 A . After 2 minutes 3.75 A total and carpet temp around 45 C. Warm but harmless. It’s a keeper !
I’ve just come across this Tanis cabin heater. It’s amazingly cheap… is this if any relevance?
They say it is for a Cirrus but the voltage says 115V or 230V.
I think Tanis do ground-ops pre heaters, not meant for use in flight, no?
It is a preheat system for the cabin, something you install and turn on with a SMS or some other remote means, at the same time when you start preheating the firewall forward side of things.
