Team-BHP - Insulating car from external heat

- - Insulating car from external heat (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/technical-stuff/41718-insulating-car-external-heat.html)

hi friends i own a maruti 800 and retrofited an ac . the cooling of ac is good as this can be felt by placing your hand in front of the blower . but as i think the car is not properly insulated from external heat so what material should be used to insulate car from external heat.

can i use thermocol or apply aluminium foil over door panel and on the floor. will this help or not.i already have tinted glasses. are there some another materials which can be used . i want the cheapest material as i am going to buy another car in few days .

Harry, the main problem is the poor insulation of the roof panel. Get some thermocole or heatlon put in there. That alone should help quite a lot.

Get the car a padding of Heatlon, it cheap and work will [to an extant ].... and gat a good quality film on the windows... heatlon should be put on the roof also to get the thermal insulation your looking for.

Apart from the roof the front windshield also brings in a lot of heat.

If you cannot do more to the roof, get tints for your WS.

Buddy, try out the front WS tints IMO they make a very perceptible difference(reduces oncoming glare at night as well). Expensive though as a decent one costs around 2.5K.

Quote:

Originally Posted by harry2223 (Post 884478)

roof already a fibre one

I did not get this..... do mean the molded roof, which is available? or some thing else. The material ranges from around 4mm - 10mm and can be compressed, so even if you have molded roof, you should be able to squeeze in thin layer of this,between the roof [metal] and the inner panel. Roof is tha main part that absorb the heat so insulating this is very important.

If you are going to buy a new car in a few days, are you going to continue to have the car ?

And importantly, the steps followed when using the a/c :
1. Switch on fan at full - with windows open. THis will expel most of the hot air from inside the car.
2. Leave the windows open for atleast 2 minutes. In your case, since you dont have rear blowers / vents, you could leave the rear windows open while keeping front windows closed.
2. A/c compressor can be switched on now, if not already done.
3. Close windows now.

So the window glasses are already tinted.
Yet cooling is poor?
Hope you are using blower in 'recirculation' mode and not fresh air.

Heat sources & insulation of them:
1. Glass area: tint them (you did it already)
2. Roof: take out liner do a layer of thermocol or any foam and refix roof liner, can be done by a normal body mechanic.
3.FIREWALL: the panel between, engine room & passenger compartment. Insulate with the sheet of heat resistant PU foam(very cheap material & do not catch fire), simply paste the sheet on engine side i.e. from bonnet side & cover it with thick alu-foil. If its not possible to fix from bonnet side, fix it on passenger side & dont use alu foil.

We are using ceramic wool, also called as thermo ceramic, in our extruder, to minimise heat loss, it helps a lot and insulates heat..it is almost like surgical cotton, around an inch thick, but it is capable to insulate heat upto 1200 degree , can also try asbestos , but its unhealthy.

Am goinf to try the thermal blanket for my bonnet, to insulate from engine heat and better AC efficiency.

you can get that thermal blanket from industrial shop which sells thermocouples, heaters for extruders etc...and its cheap

I suggest you check the efficiency of the AC first. Even if the air feels cool when you place your hand on the vent, it may not be adequate to cool the cabin. Check the grill temperature with a thermometer, it should go below 7 deg in order to cool the cabin effectively. If it does not, check the refrigerant gas level, check if the AC cooling fins are clean and not clogged.

If you find that the AC is cooling properly, only then you should move on to Heatlon, Sunfilm and other additional methods to further improve the cooling effect.