Mornings getting colder

Norwegian here. Got a DEFA block heater and cabin heater in my Prius Plug-In as well as in my Lexus (and had it in my Corolla too).
The block heater (sits in a freeze-plug spot) warms the block pretty good. You can "feel the heat" with your hands on your block even on cold cold days.
The cabin heater is the best part though (and the most important part since I'm plug-in and don't wanna run the engine). It heats the interior to comfy temperatures (+20'C/68'F) within a few hours and melts all ice on all windows. Another plus is that it seems the battery pack "likes it", giving me more EV charge when being charged at "room temperature" rather than several degrees below freezing.
Here's my 1900W heater installed.

There's a T-joint near the block heater where the two heaters are joined, and a female plug mounted in the front bumper where I connect the power lead to the outlet (has a timer) on my house wall.

To the guy suggesting the plug-in next time to preheat the interior, that's not how it works. There's no electric heater in the stock PiP. You CAN pre-cool the car with AC, but only through the remote right before you get to your car. It also doesn't require being plugged in to do that.

 

Californian here. We have a different definition of "cold."

 

i wonder how much the new prime heat pump would cost as a part.

 

Where can I buy the heater in your photo?

 

DEFA is a Norwegian company, but I see they have a North America-office in Toronto, lol

This is the heater in question: DEFA / Interior heaters

You can find it on eBay (1400W will also do very very nicely) too, but I'm not sure if it will work with 110-130V power (Europe uses 220-240V in all household sockets).
I'm sure there are plenty of alternatives to DEFA though. Especially in Canada, where they might use 110V and/or ship to the US.
I really can't imagine the Nordic countries are the only ones using engine or cabin heaters.

 

I used a dipstick engine oil heater for many years in northern Illinois. It was a dead simple resistance coil in the dipstick , and directly heated the engine oil. That slightly higher temperature seemed to facilitate starts when ambient air temps were below 20 degrees Fahrenheit . This link appears to be a modern version:
Kat's Heaters Engine Oil Dipstick Heater Kats Heaters Vehicle Heaters KH15200

 

60 watt or so trouble light put under the hood , on all night , worked well for me

 

I doubt it would have anywhere near the efficacy of the kosher block heater (400 watt coolant heater), but it's gotta help, and has a cool McGiver factor.

Except: where the hell can you buy incandescent bulbs these days. I was in Home Despot yesterday getting a furnace filter, looked for regular bulbs, in vain.

They had a few 50 watt extreme duty or something.

 

I was just laughing here; it seems that Toyota engineers cannot imagine anyone driving their cars in this cold. The temperature meter just doesn't show temperatures below -30C
(Not a Prius in the pic but my other car Corolla Verso)

 

"Nougatti, Did you run power through the firewall into the cabin by way of that rubber grommet on the right side of the bulkhead, like in the PDF?

 

The one in my Prius was installed by Toyota (they had a sale on these systems incl.. installation a while back), but that is how you do it, yeah. Pull the cable through the grommet, just like here (shown on my Lexus, which I did myself):

 

For anyone researching this subject, here's a little rundown of a typical block+interior heater system as used in my Lexus (but also my Prius):




(the socket not yet fastened there)