REFLECTOR: Cabin Heating

[Chuck Jensen]

Dave,

Your point of locating it in the cabin is certainly appealing as it's quite
simple and effective and only needs to heat already heated air.  I can
assure you I'm not concerned about fresh air turn over in the cabin.  I've
worked at plugging everything up but I can feel the cold air pour into the
cabin from the nose gear/keel area.

My plan (my planning is always good, it's just the execution that comes up
short) was to install the second cooler in series (up stream of the primary
cooler).  During the summer months, I'd just take it out of service by
jumpering around it.  I suppose a three-way valve could be put in line to
by-pass the cooler but that would require an extra tee in the return line
from the cabin cooler to the primary cooler.  More hardware but less mess
than hooking/unhooking oil lines.

In a parallel installation, what would you think is the best way of
controlling relative flow between the two coolers?  A single three way valve
on the feed line that directs the flow to either cooler or a fractional flow
to one or the other, depending on valve position?  The more I think about
your parallel installation idea, the better it looks!

Chuck


Chuck,

> Bottom line; I'm going to try a second oil cooler, in series with the
front
> cooler, that's dedicated solely to cabin heat.

If you put the second cooler INSIDE the cabin, and use a small fan to
recirculate the air, you'll have all the heat you could ever want. As you
have
demonstrated, the Nose Cooler can heat the air only a certain number of
degrees above OAT, since it's always working with fresh, cold air. The
interior recirculating cooler, however, can theoretically bring cabin
temperatures to temperatures approaching that of the oil.

I'm not certain I'd run the coolers in series. In winter, the oil is apt to
be
very cool before returning to the engine. And in summer, you'll still have
some leakage of heat into the cabin even without the blower running. I
prefer
plumbing the coolers in parallel. This way you can independently choose how
much oil flows through each cooler. 

Dave Black
Shortwing RG
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