REFLECTOR: Cabin Heat - Really Alternative
William Walker
blwalker105 at sbcglobal.net
Thu Jan 19 20:29:38 CST 2012
I had my upholstery shop install inexpensive, aftermarket seat heaters in my front seats during my interior installation. They are Hi/Lo switched, have their own circuit breaker, and work wonderfully. As others have said, sealing the elevator push rod at the top of the keel, as best you can, is very important. My shop used rubberized 1/4" sheeting and made two 12" by 5" flaps that run along the top front of the keel. They simply velcroed them to my carpet pieces running up the sides of the keel where it meets my elevator push rod cutout. The flaps then go vertical, kind of forming around the push rod, but are not sealed at the top. They do, however, try to naturally straighten out and form a satisfactory quasi-seal around the push rod. It pushes the incoming air up, behind the panel, where it encounters warm avionics and feels much better than not having them there at all.
I also fabricated a block-off panel to seal out the air from the nose wheel area which mates to the leading edge of the canard with rubber gasket sheeting. Two screws through the forward Triax canard tabs hold it in position.
The seat heaters would not be too much of a pain to retrofit, and the cost-to-benefit ratio is outstanding. I have flown comfortably down to 18F/-8C with my cabin heat producing very little or no output (IO-550 cool running syndrome).
Bill Walker
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