In my part of the world, winter is starting right now.
As I have no basement, and my garage is not insulated, I find myself doing most of my work out in the cold.
I also have a homebuilt electric car, in which the heat isn't the greatest. On top of that, my wife's car has a heated driver's seat, which only makes me all the more jealous!
All of that together got me thinking.... What if there was some way to stay warm both outdoors and on the road?
The answer is the HEATED COAT!
Come along with me as I show you how anyone with basic sewing and electric skills can create inexpensive and WARM workwear for the thrifty Do-It-Yourselfer!.
You can check out my other DIY recycled projects at: http://ecoprojecteer.net/
All of my clean transportation projects (electric car and more) are at: http://300mpg.org/
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Signing UpStep 1: Tools and Materials
The two main components are a coat and an an appropriate electric heating element.
To start with, I went to my front closet and pulled out my work coat. This is a 3/4 length coat with a cotton duck exterior and "Thinsulate"-type insulated lining. It's a bit worn, as it is what I wear in the winter to shovel snow, work on cars, and do other physical and dirty work.
That also means I'm not afraid to cut it open and start modding the coat!
For the heating element, I pulled it from a heated back massaging chair cover I already purchased from the thrift store. Most of these devices are actually 12V DC, but they use a power adapter to run them from household AC electricity. Before buying I looked through several of these and chose one with the highest power rating, assuming that it was likely to have the most powerful heating feature. (Cost was $5.00)
Besides the coat and heater, we will also need both sewing items and electrical items. So, break-out BOTH your sewing kit and your electronics kit and have handy items such as:
To start with, I went to my front closet and pulled out my work coat. This is a 3/4 length coat with a cotton duck exterior and "Thinsulate"-type insulated lining. It's a bit worn, as it is what I wear in the winter to shovel snow, work on cars, and do other physical and dirty work.
That also means I'm not afraid to cut it open and start modding the coat!
For the heating element, I pulled it from a heated back massaging chair cover I already purchased from the thrift store. Most of these devices are actually 12V DC, but they use a power adapter to run them from household AC electricity. Before buying I looked through several of these and chose one with the highest power rating, assuming that it was likely to have the most powerful heating feature. (Cost was $5.00)
Besides the coat and heater, we will also need both sewing items and electrical items. So, break-out BOTH your sewing kit and your electronics kit and have handy items such as:
- Heavy needle and thread (denim or canvas weight)
- Pins
- Seam ripper / Scissors
- Soldering iron / solder
- Wire Strippers and side-cutter
- Shrink Tube
- Heat Gun
- Infrared thermometer
- Ruler / Tape measure
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One minor caution, just be careful with the lithium batteries! li-ion and especially li-polymer batteries should NEVER be discharged fully! your batteries may have low voltage protection, but cycling them below a ~2.8v per cell can damage the pack. anyways, just be careful :)
(if you're curious check out page 33 http://www.nfpa.org/assets/files/pdf/research/rflithiumionbatterieshazard.pdf)
How does the system of coat 200$
I am From iran
PS: excellent instructable!
Osprey
1) My recycling bin
2) Stuff that's in my garage already
3) The Thrift Store
Anything beyond that usually means actually spending money on a project.
For this one, I got the heating element, 12V wall power adapter, and power plug all as part of a Massaging Heated Seat cover for $5 at the thrift store. Those things aren't even designed for cars. They are for home use on a kitchen or living-room chair.
I repurposed/salvaged the car power plug from materials I already had.
It would be the exact same amount of heat, just more spread out. Should work fine though.
This is the first time I've ever combined sewing and power cords, so I was just trying to keep it simple.
To really do something up nice, I'd recommend sewing the heater and wiring to a removable liner.
Attaching it with velcro might be a good alternative as well. Just pull out the heater before washing.
2. Maybe some kind of reflective fabric layer (metallic mylar space blanket) on the outside would reflect more heat or have a bean/rice pouch act as a heat sink for the heater coil for better heat.
3. Check into the dangers of using a Lithium-ion powerpack through a straight discharge on the heating coils. I think you need some control circuitry to prevent it from becoming the exploding laptop battery problem.
I like the bean/rice concept! Do a bit of thermal flywheel effect in there.
I DID check the manual for this particular battery. The battery has built-in circuitry for limiting both amperage and temperature. In the one photo of the battery, you can see the terminals, including the ones for charging. Next to those is one marked "T" where the charger interfaces with the temperature control inside the battery. In general, lithium batteries have a lot more "smarts" inside them than NiMH or lead-acid ever did.