Well, after a 2 year delay, I'm finally starting on this project. I certainly got my plate full for the next 2 months with this, additional soundproofing, windshield replacement, general maintenance, and of course the prototype new instrument cluster.
General Design -
I am proceeding with a basic design using resistive heating pads, and forced air through channels in the seat foam. Seat cover will be a non-standard DMC perforated seat cover, in all grey instead of two tone.
Seat Cover - This was a custom order I placed through DMC. I had asked if I could get a perforated seat cover in all grey instead of two tone. They said they could, but I would have to wait until their next production run. No problem I thought. At the time I placed the order (summer 2009) they anticipated their next run was going to be around September. Well this was around the time the recession was really taking a toll on folks. And wouldn't you know it, but sales of certain non-essentials, like seat covers, dropped dramatically. As a result, the next production run kept getting pushed off again and again as DMC was not selling out as quickly as they thought. All of this I completely understood and happily waited for the day when they would be made. This finally happened in late spring of 2010, and thanks to the effort of James and Dave, I was able to pick up my box of new covers at DCS '10. The box was then my companion on my drive home.
Heating pads - I've looked at a lot of different styles and designs. And as it would be, the cheapest one will work out best for me. I'm ordering pads which are 11" by 18", have criss-cross carbon elements, and have two heating settings...
http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/pecafidutewa.html
One thing to note about heating elements, is you do NOT want them constantly bending. The width of these elements has the potential for that issue given the width of the seat's bucket. I plan to alleviate the issue by channeling the outer sides of the pad within the seat's side bolsters. Also note this is a solid pad, which would not allow airflow for seat cooling. I plan to modify them myself by punching small holes in the material between each carbon element. This will essentially make it a perforated pad. The only other heating pads I've found which were built to allow airflow just had 3 large slots. Not what I wanted.
Cooling - Cooling is going to occur by forced air. Fans will blow air into the seat, and it will exit through the perforated leather. I've done TONS of research on different ways to cool seats. A very effective but complicated method is by a by a water loop. I opted not to go with that route as I had already purchased the perforated covers and didn't want two additional glycol loops in the car. The forced air option leave the ability to blow in cabin air, ducted AC air, or cold-plate conditioned air. I'm going to build them initially with just cabin air, but the design will allow changing to AC or cold-plate design if I desire. They will be taking in air from the very bottom of the passenger cabin, which since cool air sinks, can actually get quite cold from a constantly running AC system trying to cool the whole cabin. So while they will not provide instant relief after getting in a hot car, they should still provide a significant increase in comfort on a long hot drive (Minneapolis to Orlando anyone?!?)
More Cooling - Instead of buying what seems to be the only kit available to cool an automotive seat, I've decided to build my own. I was not satisfied with what I saw of the kit. I've seen many people use a standard 80x80mm computer case fan, usually two per seating section, blowing strait through a cut hole in the foam and onto the passenger. I've decided to go with a completely different design. Instead I will use a 120mm blower fan, designed for high static pressure and moderate airflow.
http://search.digikey.com/us/en/prod...383-ND/2560507
The blower style gives a significant boost in the available static pressure, allowing the air to be forced through small openings better. This is very important in an application like a seat where the weight of the occupant will be fighting against what your trying to do. There will be one fan per seating section, blowing in a duct which will direct it towards the rear/bottom, then channels/tubing will assist the air past the heaviest weighted part towards the least weighted front/top where the majority of the air will exit. For the material to be placed above the channels/tubes I'm considering this material...
This material seems like it would allow airflow even when weighted upon, due to the distributed nature of one's ass. This is the one component which I'm still not 100% on. The other option would be to find some kind of firm articulated foam.
Controls - For right now, given the lack of time and my other projects, there will be no permanent wiring/controls put in place for it. I'll leave the switches for the heater alone and wire up a generic extra switch for the cooling fans. Probably this fall, the permanent controls will be put into place. There will be one window switch per seat controlling both the heating and cooling. One arrow will be blue, to activate the cooling on high, another push will activate low, and another push again will put it on high again. To turn it off of cooling push the other arrow, the red one. The red will control the heat in the same manner, first push high, second push low, third push high again, and blue (cooling) will turn it off. They will be placed in the outermost portions of the center console where the dummy switches are.
Pictures and diagrams to follow as I start the install process.
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lol
Originally Posted by dmc6960
