Could one use...

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=36275

To improvise a heated rear window?

If one was to make it up with thin tracks a few at a time, taking a resistance across the screen each time until one got down to a relatively cuddly number of amps, working on the I = V/R, in this case taking V to be 12, and R to be whatever the multimeter declares it to be, unless I have something horribly wrong.

Many thanks for any thoughts on the issue.

(I am aware you can buy heated glass, but it almost seems like cheating)

Sorry to hi-jack your thread But on a similar topic......

You can(or could)buy a windscreen for a Mini, which had a heating-element fitted. I'd love to have a heated windscreen on my 2cv (To be honest, I'd love one fitted to my Fabia too ).

Hi terpineol.

I'm not sure... However, I suspect you'll have problems doing what you suggest.

Heated rear window elements have, I think, a fairly noticeable resistance - much greater than normal wire for example. If they didn't, they would conduct electrickery too well, draw too much current, and spontaneously combust... I would guess that each 'element' would have to be, ooh, 6+ ohms? That, for example, would draw 2 Amps, so 6 of them (typical number?) would pull 12Amps. That kind of ballpark.

From the description of the conductive paint, I assume it has a very low resistance - similar to wire. That would make the resistance of a single element made from this stuff a fraction of one ohm - a one-hundredth-ish? (guessing there). If so, that element would try and sap 1,200A from your battery

If you want to pursue this, I'd ask the manufacturers what the rough resistance of, say, a 2mm-wide, 1 metre long line would be. Based on this, you should be able to work out whether drawing the heating element lines as a single unbroken line would give you a high enough resistance - you are looking at achieving a total resistance of 1.2 ohms if you want the circuit to draw 10 Amps - which is around what I suspect production heaters do.

Then there is the possibility that it might not 'behave' like a heating element at all! Tho' I suspect if you get it to that kind of resistance and that kind of current, it will.

Then there is the problem of making it look good...!

Make the lines too wide and the resistance will lower.

As Adv states, this silvered paint is very conductive, the solution might be that of designing a grid with a single zigzaging track.

The power for defrosting a 2cv window will be around 150 watts. So probably with a 1-ohm and 4-meter-long track.......and that is if that silvered thread does not blow out

Waiting for your tests.

I'm not quite sure where he got it, or if they could make them in other sizes, but my dad's just fitted a heated windscreen to his Series IIA Land Rover, so such things are definitely still available.

You certainly used to be able to - in the old days - get a heater window kit which was an element on a plastic sheet. Stick it over the glass, press down firmly, peel off plastic film leaving the element wires behind and wire it up.

Worked well - for a few weeks. It then became part of a pre-journey check to press down all the 'lifting' sections...