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In areas where temperatures often drop below ‒20 °C (‒4 °F), such as the northern US and Canada, cars have trouble starting up. At temperatures below 0 °C, the oil is thicker and denser than usual and increases friction wearing down the engine parts. This created the market for oil heating devices that warm up the oil pan in an engine using electricity. A standard oil pan heater is usually left on overnight and consumes several kWh of electricity, also overheating the engine oil. We plan to replace the energy-inefficient block heaters with novel materials that store and release heat in response to changing environment. Our composites of phase-change materials and light-responsive molecules absorb the waste heat generated from a running engine, store the heat overnight, and release the heat instantly to warm up the engine once triggered by LED light. We plan to develop an optimized and custom-designed oil heater, which provides an instant source of heat at almost zero cost by recycling the heat generated from a running engine.