Just melt the ice with some of that liquid that is found throughout your country - whisky.

In cold areas you have to put some antifreeze in the wiper fluid. As you may risk that the container crack then it is cold and the content freeze. It is also hard to wash your windows with a solid block of ice. For this alcohol or isopropanol are used. No need to use whisky. Something tell me you have never seen snow in real life

 

I have 3 things to say:
1. Wow
2. WTF
3. Yeah, but you still need the car running.

thanks for replying and yes wow and wtf both came immediately to mind as i first read this lol, personally think this quote is great inspiration for me to discover an alternative solution,

"(An) ice surface has an enormously high electric charge," Petrenko said.
As a result, ice doesn't simply cake onto surfaces--it bonds to them in three ways: via the hydrogen atoms themselves, via an electrostatic bond caused by the current, and via comparatively weak van der Waals forces."

Thanks again for replying

 

Thanks t06afre for your input, yes snow and especially deep snow would require manual removal not sure if a system even operating the vehicles air conditioning unit would clear thick snow in a time that would be realistically benifical.

I do understand there are many applications that this product would have no use at all in however, the most common problem i face within this subject area is a thin layer of frost/ice forming on the windscreen and the difficulty removing it ( snapped several bank cards lol ) . I personally think this system will have a very limited use around the globe but if it can be made safely and cheaply i do feel it would be of great use to some motorists.

Thanks again everyone who is taking part in this discussion my fellow students are creating robots or guitar amplifiers and relating my project to any of theirs has been very difficult.

 

Found this quite interesting and may send me off on a tangent..

" water molecules align themselves so that their positive ends face one way and their negative ends face the other. That directional quality can actually stay in the water as it freezes, so a frozen icicle can have one end with only the positive hydrogen ends of the water sticking outwards and one end with only the negative oxygen ends sticking outwards. "
http://io9.com/5886809/something-strange-happens-when-you-add-electricity-to-an-icicle

 

has the discussion ended? lol

 

Understanding the crystal structure of ice, while interesting, has little to offer in solving the basic problem: Melting ice requires a lot of energy, and you don't want to remove all that energy from the starting battery. You cannot violate the laws of thermodynamics, so your project is difficult from the beginning.

The only solution I can see is to have a separate store of energy (separate from the starting battery) to draw on. There are only two sources of stored energy normally available in an idle car; the battery and the gas in the tank. We've ruled out the battery. Using the gas is possible but would require a substantial installation process.

There are more options if you require the user to maintain a store of energy. I suggested one possibility, the super-saturated solution that crystallizes when catalyzed by a clicker. Another option would be a liquid fuel, such as the catalytic heaters used by campers. It would be easy to control remotely. Another approach is a second battery. Boaters use a second (deep cycle) battery for such things. This again would be an installation problem but maybe not too bad. It could sit in the trunk and be wired to not require any further input from the user.

 

The only solution I can see is to have a separate store of energy (separate from the starting battery) to draw on. There are only two sources of stored energy normally available in an idle car; the battery and the gas in the tank. We've ruled out the battery. Using the gas is possible but would require a substantial installation process.

There are more options if you require the user to maintain a store of energy. I suggested one possibility, the super-saturated solution that crystallizes when catalyzed by a clicker. Another option would be a liquid fuel, such as the catalytic heaters used by campers. It would be easy to control remotely [...]

Am I the only one who saw this thought exercise ending in liquid burning fuel being jetted at the windshield like a flamethrower?

 

Am I the only one who saw this thought exercise ending in liquid burning fuel being jetted at the windshield like a flamethrower?

Well at least in the end you will get rid of the snow(hopefully)

 

I hesitated to write about the catalytic heater, because of the obvious hazards, but people sleep with these things in their tents. (Not me, no way!) They must not be too bad. Of course a tent probably leaks more fresh air than a sealed car.