DC space heater

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Heater no longer works in my beater and dont want to pay to get it fixed. I saw space heaters online that run off of m300 watts and plug into your car lighter. Anyone know how well these work?
 
300 watts is very little heat. The problem is that you can't get enough current at 12 volts from an "lighter" outlet to generate significant amounts of heat.

For example, we make equipment at work that uses a small fan which in some cases may blow on a worker using the equipment. We equip some of these units with a heater of about 300 watts. The purpose of the heater is to keep the unit from chilling the worker and that's about all it does. Heater off = chilly air flow. Heater on = you can't sense the air flow, but no real heat.

I had a "plug into the lighter" car heater like you describe many, many years ago and was disappointed with it.

Sorry about that.
 
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Anything that plugs into a cigarette lighter isn't going to give you enough heat to be close to comfortable unless temps are marginally uncomfortable to start.
 
You would have to have something around 2000 Watts of heat to do a decent job of heating the cab of a vehicle. You are not going to be able to pull that kind of power from your vehicles 12 volt system.

2000 Watts / 12 Volts = 166.66 Amps

So along with all the current you alternator has to supply to: recharge the battery after starting, power the engine ignition, (and fuel pump if it is electric, and fan if it is electric, and fuel metering system if it is electric, and engine computer if you vehicle has one (1996 or newer probably has one), and any other electric items such as lights, sound system, seats, windows, navigation) very few vehicles have an alternator with 166 Amps of unused capacity. Most have very little reserve after all the items of the vehicle are supplied power.
 
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