Put a block heater on your car!

[diesel_bomber]

A good friend of mine is a serious MPG enthusiast. He bought a Scangauge to monitor the MPG and other performance aspects of his car more closely. He informs me that his Civic gets 45+mpg when full warmed up and cruising down the road, but closer to 12(yes, TWELVE)mpg under exactly the same conditions when cold. TWELVE miles per gallon out of a Civic! I would not have thought it possible without there being a leak in the fuel tank.

An electric block heater costs around $60 and can be installed in a radiator hose easily. There are many heating options, but I feel the radiator hose version is the best for in-situ retrofit. Put it on a timer so it turns on an hour or so before you have to leave for work, takes seconds to plug in and unplug(Darell can tell you how long it takes to plug in and unplug a vehicle. ), and makes it so your engine starts with a huge head start on warm-up. Even factoring in the cost of electricity(1.5kw block heater for an hour @ $0.124/kwh = $0.186 spent preheating engine), you are far ahead in terms of fuel consumption and pollution. My buddy the hyper miler uses his block heater even in the dead of summer for fuel economy reasons. The machinist in me likes the idea because engines are designed to run with proper tolerances at full operating temperature, and when cold they are running outside of proper tolerances, which is much more wear. The part I like best this time of year is getting heat out of the vents as soon as I start the vehicle. Currently 19 degrees F outside, with a high temp of 21 today. I also like being able to put my foot down as soon as I get out on the main road(oops, there goes the fuel economy), instead of waiting for the engine to heat up. You Prius drivers will have your engine run less to warm up, too.

The block heater is not sexy, it doesn't have any "Hey look at me" factor, but it works.



ETA:

Here is a site showing an install on a Mercedes.

Here is an Amazon search for a Kats radiator-hose block heater. Much cheaper than I thought. I have no experience with Kats and can not comment on their quality.

[idleprocess]

How long does it take the Civic to get up to temperature?

I know that my car (a Mazda 3) takes perhaps less than 5 minutes on average - 10 minutes at worst - to get up to temperature (per the gauge anyway). After running the engine for more than 10 minutes, I can stop it and come back up to about 15 minutes later and once started gets back to operating temperature in a minute or less.

[Brian McBlain]

As a person who was raised using block heaters to allow reliable winter startups, I proposed this idea to a professor whose students were looking for this sort of carbon footprint reduction. No idea if they worked up an anaylsis for outdoors, unheated garage, and heated garage.

The retrofit recommendation of a radiator hose heater is easier in modern engines, but a block heater is preferred. If buying a new car, it may be possible to order it with an in-block heater, as they are standard in northern climates, though it may be a challenge in the Sun Belt. The in-block heaters were easy to install in the large, mostly empty, engine bays of old, not so easy unless you have a larger vehicle, these days.

It is wise to make the power cord obvious so you don't drive off plugged-in. The repair or purchase of extension cords cuts into the savings significantly. A bright orange cord draped past the driver's door over the mirror is usually effective but can still be covered in ice and snow. It becomes routine in a couple of weeks for the usual driver(s) not so for the occasional ones.

Other related ideas, include an electrical heater on timer so the interior is warm and the windows are clear. Hospital stays and auto body repair are big carbon foorprint items and worth avoiding. Safety means clear vision. This would benefit the arthritic and height challenged that find the center of the windshield and back window difficult to clean and if you are running an extension cord with timer to the car anyway it is worth considering. A car cover can help too, but they are hard enough for the limber to deal with in good weather, and especially difficult when there's wind, rain, ice, or snow.

For those wanting to evaluate the effect before installing a true engine heater, a large wattage (100+) incandescent 'trouble light' (this is where the inefficient heat output is useful), or heat lamp placed under the hood where it can't melt anything, preferably with something like an old sleeping bag across the hood to increase the heat retention. This won't be quite as effective, though. It is the quick and dirty way to help a visitor without a block heater or substitute for one that is not working anymore, in cold climates. You could make the plugging-in part of your morning routine but I think a timer is essential and you may need to play with the amount of lead time needed. This is more work than just plugging a hose or in-block heater in, so you will need a reminder before you retire for the evening, like when you walk your dog or first thing in the morning before you get ready to go to work. You also don't want to start the engine without removing the light from beneath the hood. The hood blanket is an excellent memory aid to remind you to remove everything. However, a Post-it note is a prominent place, or tape over the ignition key slot, or a dummy blank key in the ignition will clue in the morning bleary-eyed and/or chronically unobservant. Take any teenagers through this. They can be remarkably dense about why there is a dummy key in the ignition or tape over it until they hear bad noises from under the hood on start-up. "Oooohhh...yeah...that can't be good."

Lastly, for those who do have a car outside in colder climes, they make blanket warmers for batteries that increase cranking power and reduce battery killing cold start draw down. I got another year out of batteries in Ottawa, Canada, where one winter it was not above -20F for a high or -40 for a low for two weeks and that was before the modern thin walled, higher capacity, longer lived, minimum maintenance batteries common now. If you have to plug the car in anyway it may be an idea for you. Though recyleable, and not too expensive to replace, it is a lead-acid battery. No idea about the carbon balance aspect. I suppose it reduces engine load recharging after start-up as well as increase the amortization of the carbon footprint of its manufacture and shipping.

All of this works well if you keep to a fixed schedule for most starts. If you are heating it all up for drives that don't happen but happen after it is off the timer and cold again, you get the worst of both. So, if you have a random pattern of vehicle use, unless you can train/organize yourself to plug the car in 20 to 30 minutes before you plan to leave, these ideas won't work for you.

Unfortunately, that's my current situation. Happy (and warmer) motoring!

[Darell]

Block heaters for the Prius are HUGE sellers. The Prius will get just 20 mpg when I start off cold. My overall average is 52 mpg, so that cold start is a big hit just like with the Honda above. I haven't bothered with a block heater since we only drive the gas car twice a month or so, and I don't know in advance when I'll need it... and don't have a regular "drive off" time. I'm not going to leave it sitting there staying warm the other 28 days! The EV, of course, will not benefit from a block heater. But just the same, I do plug it in.

Originally Posted by idleprocess

How long does it take the Civic to get up to temperature?

My guess would be five or ten minutes, just like your guess. I can't tell you how many people around here fire up their car for a two mile trip. Then another cold soak, and fire it again. So it is ALWAYS cold. You don't just get better gas mileage when warm... the cold start pollution that happens those first five minutes is significant! Block heaters are great. And a good training tool to get people used to plugging in.

[chimo]

Here's a helpful link to a PDF regarding optimal warm-up times for using a block heater.

http://www.hydro.mb.ca/your_home/hom...ck_heaters.pdf

Paul

[Brian McBlain]

Originally Posted by chimo

Here's a helpful link to a PDF regarding optimal warm-up times for using a block heater.

http://www.hydro.mb.ca/your_home/hom...ck_heaters.pdf

Paul

That's a wonderful resource. Note that the time to temperture chart has very similar curves for the top three starting temperatures. While it is an extrapolation beyond the data (by definition scientifically invalid), it would be a good guesstimate that whatever your garage temperature the same relative changes apply, and the same asymtotic approach to equilibrium.

It also means that if you know you WILL be driving in the next 5 hours or so, plugging in a block heater makes sense.

[rodfran]

My best friend's dad worked at a used car lot in our younger days. His first car was a 1968 Ford Mustang with a 302- 4bbl. It was originally owned by someone who lived in Alaska. It was equipped with a block heater and equal-lok rear end. The block heater was a handy device. We had many years of fun with that car.

[Brock]

I did quite extensive testing with pre-heating the engine and not preheating. Before we moved I had an 11 mile commute on a 35 mph road. Out VW TDI diesel would never get up to temp, even with 100% grill block. So I started testing.

I found just over a 5 mpg improvement in preheating the engine. A diesel it doesn't generate enough "waste" heat to heat the cabin either. I have a 1000w coolant heater that is mounted at the lowest point on the engine and the coolant circulates around. I found it took about 90 minutes when it was 0F outside to get to operating temp and for the heater to start cycling. Even with pre-warming once you start the car the coolant will start dropping as the rest of the engine warms up and it gets circulated through the radiator. Most of the time I would leave home with the engine coolant at 170F and the oil at 120F and get to work with the oil up to temp and the coolant about 140F.

I also found if you slid the fan selector over to defrost the coolant would eventually work it’s way in the cabin system and melt any snow on the windshield and warm the cabin a bit more. Although in doing this the coolant would never get up to temp at 0F becasue some of the heat was being dumped in to the cabin. But it sure was nice when it was -20F outside

And for those that claimed the energy consumed by the electric coolant heater was the same as the energy saved in fuel, it wasn't even close. It was about 4 times more efficient to "pre-heat" the engine rather then to let the diesel warm it up. There is also a pretty big emissions hit with a cold engine compared to a warm one.

Of course the colder it got the more of an advantage the electric coolant heater was. At about 30F the electrical energy consumed was about the same as the diesel saved, but at –20F it was significant.

But in the end as Brian mentioned it can come down to safety, being able to see where your going without frosting up windows is worth it.

I also have moved closer to work and now have an attached insulated garage that doesn’t fall below 30F, even when it’s –25F and windy outside.

[Darell]

Originally Posted by Brock

But in the end as Brian mentioned it can come down to safety, being able to see where your going without frosting up windows is worth it.

I agree! For the past couple of weeks we've been down in the 20's (note, that is REALLY cold for here!) and I've been riding my daughter to school on our tandem bicycle every morning (six miles). Lately I've had to leave my glasses at home since they would immediately fog up and leave me totally blind! Now my eyeballs freeze, and everybody's fuzzy, but at least I can see a little bit. Lately the water has gone back to being liquid, and I feel like I'm in CA again. Wearing my fingerless gloves and sometimes wearing only one jersey!

[Brian McBlain]

Originally Posted by Brock

I found just over a 5 mpg improvement in preheating the engine.

Our car has a fuel use/cummulative mileage read out that can be reset. The winter commute is 3-4 mpg less than the summer but it is in a garage (about 20 F above ambinet in winter, more if colder as furnace room waste heat warms garage) on one end and on the street at the other. Safety is not an issue nor is scraping windshields as the car is garaged at home, and on the street it is what it is. Though it has heated seats, my wife likes it warm, so that, and the fact she learned to drive using them, may make this easier for me to implement.

Originally Posted by Brock

A diesel it doesn't generate enough "waste" heat to heat the cabin either.

THAT brought back memories. An Alfa Romeo sedan is designed to dissipate heat at near max power and low speed screaming up Alpine hairpins. Canadian winters were not its thing. I added an electric fan to reduce cold air flow under the hood, blocked the radiator off, had a block heater and cabin heater on timers, hood blanket, AND a light under the hood turned on an hour before departure. Solved the cold run issue. The alloy cased transmission would shift reverse and first only until driven a block out of the development. Without the extra under hood light the steel cyclone separator for crankcase ventilation would freeze solid with moisture from combustion and the engine would stall. Took a while to figure that out the first time! The joys of -40 and lower in the morning!

Originally Posted by Brock

Of course the colder it got the more of an advantage the electric coolant heater was. At about 30F the electrical energy consumed was about the same as the diesel saved, but at –20F it was significant.

But in the end as Brian mentioned it can come down to safety, being able to see where your going without frosting up windows is worth it.

I also have moved closer to work and now have an attached insulated garage that doesn’t fall below 30F, even when it’s –25F and windy outside.

Your experience at 30 F, suggests the major hit in winter mileage is on the unheated homeward leg after the car sat on the street all day, although it is generally warmer in the evening than in the morning. The main gains may be in a toastier wife outbound, and a reduced carbon/pollution footprint. So a break-even on economics would be OK.

[diesel_bomber]

Another point, my Cummins diesels are extremely cold blooded. They take 40 minutes of idling to warm up at 50 degrees F. At 20F they will not warm up just idling, and at 0F, if parked after being brought up to full temperature and left idling, will drop their temperature to a damaging level. Too efficient for their own good, sometimes. To idle at those temperatures(for air, electrical, or hydraulic power), the auxiliary idle control and the exhaust brake need to be turned on.

The block heater gives me a good jump start on warm-up, and gives me access to my horsepower much sooner. That's good when I'm pulling a heavy load.

[Brock]

Originally Posted by Brian McBlain

Your experience at 30 F, suggests the major hit in winter mileage is on the unheated homeward leg after the car sat on the street all day, although it is generally warmer in the evening than in the morning. The main gains may be in a toastier wife outbound, and a reduced carbon/pollution footprint. So a break-even on economics would be OK.

Yes and unfortunately I often work late, as in 11 pm to 1 am. So it was very obvious comparing mpg on the way to work. Sometimes I left work at -20F and the engine temp never got above 140F (192F is normal operating temp) with 100% grill block. Without heated seats and heated jacket I froze!

[Brian McBlain]

Still you are doing better than the 'bad old days'.

When we married, we owned a 1968 MGB. It had a piece of masonite treated with undercoating to block the radiator. Married student appartment parking lots had no block heater plug-ins and we were often starting it in sub zero temperatures. It would crank the third or fouth cylinder to firing position and if it didn't fire on one of the last three, you were done. If the battery cables hadn't salted up, it would fire the second or third cylinder that came up for firing. Once it coughed to life at full choke, you had to idle it there for 30 seconds to a minute for the exhaust manifold to warm the intake manifold and carbs. Any reduction in choke at that point that gave a bit of stumbling, required full choke immediately to recover. If it died, it might not restart depending on how far you had depleted the battery getting it started the first time. Once you could back the choke off, you could then back it off to about 75%. It was possible to drive it then, but it was almost undriveable. So you sat another minute or two and reduced the choke to 1/3, then waited for the temp guage to hit minimum. This could be 5-10 minutes but usually was about 2. Once it hit that, you could launch it without revving it to death and slipping the clutch into smoke. The choke could come off at 25% up in the heat range. This could be as much as thirty minutes in severe cold but usually was 5-10. The heater put out no heat until the car was at operating temp which could be almost 100 miles but usually in 15-30, then it warmed your knees, while your feet froze the cabin would warm excpet for the foot wells in about an hour after it bagan to put out heat, just before we got to my parents'. Fortunately, what litte heat it could spare was fed to the defroster, or seeing out would have been impossible. Plugging in its block heater transformed it. It was like starting it in the spring or fall.

It weighed about 2200 pounds and was about 95 bhp modern method, and its best tank of premium ever, was 32 mpg US with very careful driving and few starts. Our 2 ton AWD Mercury Montego 200 bhp sedan has had a 32 mpg tank and it will get to 60 mph three seconds sooner, as well as out brake and out corner it. So it can be, and once was, worse!

The bright side of this was that it was as a theft deterrent. Somebody hot wired it, but ran the battery down because the last 25% of the choke pull was quite stiff at low temperatures, and it needed full choke to fire.

[Darell]

Ah, brings me back! My first car was a 1966 Volvo P1800. I remember the choke dance quite well! Of course mine had a similar theft deterrent. Imagine putting a young driver into one of those cars today. Choke? Manual Trans?

Heck if I had my way, I could still control the spark advance manually! (no, I'm not that old!)