Remote start, kiss my gas - a better way to warm up
Here in the Autoblog New England office, we've been experiencing a spell of weather where temps fail to break the 30's. It's not the most extreme in the country, but it's darn cold. The low temps are driving many folks to commit ritual torture to their cars. Being the comfort seekers we are, most people enjoy stepping in to a warm car. Nevermind that many cars have heated seats that can scorch your tukas in a jiffy, or that it's far more efficient to just start and go, remote starters are quite a popular option/retrofit in these parts. That popularity leads to vehicles idling for extended periods just to spare a few minutes of slight discomfort.Idling to warm up is murder on the engine. Condensation and acids build up in the oil, and an idling car attains zero miles per gallon. Squandering all that gasoline so you can avoid the five minutes it might take to start getting heat also spews out lots of CO2. That's great if you're trying to eradicate winter altogether in a few millennia, but it's mainly selfish and wasteful. We were reminded this morning that there is an alternative.
more after the jump
There is a better way to avoid the winter scrape, scrape routine, one that I'm hot to install in my fleet of Volvo S60s. Commonly available in Europe as factory options on many cars, and known as parking heaters, these little gasoline or diesel powered units are nothing new. Many of the old air-cooled Volkswagens had them, even here in the US. I seem to remember my grandfather manually lighting off some kind of heater in the cargo area of one his many Type 2s. The concept has been around for a while, and we wish it would catch on more.
Basically, the unit is plumbed into the cooling and fuel systems. Controlled manually, by remote fob, or by a timer, the units consume a tiny fraction of the fuel an idling engine would. The coolant is heated and circulated through the entire system by an integral pump. The interior fan is also interfaced with the unit, and it is run whilst the warmed coolant is being pumped around. The result is a cabin that's comfy cozy in the deepest of winter, windows that are easy to clear, an engine that thanks you, and drastically reduced fuel consumption.
The European makes don't offer them here in the US (that we know of) - and conjecture leads us to believe that the reason is a lack of faith in the common American's intelligence. Since they're powered by fuel, the units emit a certain amount of carbon monoxide, just like your car's engine. The fear is that Americans, dolts that we are, would run the heating units within a closed garage attached to the house. Perhaps a warning label and some instruction from the sales staff would avert that crisis? If your make/model of car is sold in Europe, it's a good bet you could turn up a part number for the OEM unit. It may take a while, and you may run into some trouble trying to actually get those part numbers here, too. There are retrofit units available here in the US. One of the biggest manufacturers of these units is Webasto, and they've got installers all over the place for their "Blue Heat" branded system. From what we've heard, the cost is about $2,000 installed, which sounds steep, but if you care about the environment and your car, it may be money well spent so you can sleep at night. You know you'll wake up in the morning to a toasty whip without running afoul of any "anti-idling" legislation, nor will the Eco Tribe roll up in their Prius-Panzers and assault you.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Howard Kerr 12:55PM (2/17/2007)
Wow, love that Blue Heat...especially the price tag. ONLY $1,700.00 or, at today's prices, 775 gallons of gas. Seems like a VERY hard sell.
Oh, I forgot to mention, adding this device to my car would just about DOUBLE its value
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Howard Kerr 12:56PM (2/17/2007)
Sorry, I have no idea how THAT happened.
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paul34 12:58PM (2/17/2007)
posts 1-17: delete
And, I agree with this article. Idling wastes fuel and produces needless emissions.
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Ken 1:07PM (2/17/2007)
I believe your enter key is sticking. lol
Personally letting the engine warm up for the amount of time it takes to clear the snow and ice off the vehicle is all I'll let my car idle. The heated seats combined with easy initial driving have me warm enough is no time.
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Arthur 1:22PM (2/17/2007)
That sounds like a pretty good idea. I know I would find that handy in the giant parking lot at school. However when I am at home (parked out side in the chilly Ottawa night) I use a block heater and an electric interior car warmer. The block heater came standard with the car and I installed the interior car warmer myself and it only cost $50. Pretty much does the same job for $1900 less, the only caveat is that I need to be parked near an electric outlet, thou the upside of that is that it doesn't burn any gasoline, and uses electricity when the is plenty of excess capacity in the grid.
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Michael 1:43PM (2/17/2007)
Well, there's more to it than just fuel savings. As the article explains, letting an engine warm up idling increases engine wear by a good amount and also shortens oil change intervals. Fuel can accumulate in the engine oil and as we all know, gasoline is not a terribly good lubricant. It can wash away the oil film and damage the engine bearings.
Another thing to keep in mind, the engine runs extremely rich during the warm-up phase (which is considerably longer for an idling engine) and the catalytic converter doesn't work either, so you're producing large amounts of carbon monoxide, which is pretty damn toxic.
Last but not least it's also bad for the exhaust system, cat and o2 sensors, since they will be exposed to more unburnt fuel, acids and water vapor/condensation.
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djjr50 1:53PM (2/17/2007)
Being more efficient doesnt mean its the best way to heat a vehicle. And I use my remote start for the summer (living in Fla produces outrageous in-car temps) so that my car will cool down! Give me an electric HVAC like those on a Prius so that I can start the HVAC and control it from my key fob. Zero emissions (besides what resources are burned to charge it) and it can be used in all climates.
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Michael 1:43PM (2/17/2007)
Forgot to add...security is a consideration, too. With an independent heater, you can still have a very secure immobilizer since the engine doesn't need to start without a proper key being present. With remote start systems that's usually not the case (=higher insurance premiums).
While I agree that $2k is pretty steep for private buyers, these systems could save a lot of fuel in commercial trucks which are often left idling for hours.
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WNG 2:12PM (2/17/2007)
As another poster already mentioned, if parked at home, a conventional AC block heating system is more economical. The cost-to-benefit ratio is why we don't see these fuel powered heaters in America, also the EPA may have a say on them. And they are no small task to integrate. I think an all-electric solution is possible for less money.
You can add an Optima deep discharge battery, battery isolator, electric block heater(s), battery heating pads, auxiliary water pump, and integrate the interior fan. All these items are off-the-shelf . Simply control it with a spare channel of your remote car alarm system. If you don't have one, buy a cheap remote door lock kit.
The battery can provide the amps needed for 30-60 minutes.
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Dan 6:04PM (2/17/2007)
Advice wanted, please. Dan writes; "Idling to warm up is murder on the engine." I thought I was actually doing a Good Thing when I start my wife's car every morning and let it warm up for a couple of minutes whenever the thermometer drops below 20 degrees, because she has a ONE-MILE commute to work.
My theory is that starting a car up, immediately driving one mile on local roads then turning it off is bad for the engine and exhaust system.
Given her unusually brief commute, do you still advise against warming up her car? (P.S. She seems pleased by the gesture.)
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Jaymez 2:42PM (2/17/2007)
I'll stick with my remote starter in my truck. I've been using one every winter since '92 and never had a problem with the engine in any of my vehicles.
I wrap my cab with a big blue tarp to keep from scraping windows, but, my own body heat will cause the windows to fog up without letting the engine warm first. I'm sticking with what works.
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Michael Karesh 2:44PM (2/17/2007)
I hadn't given remote start much thought till someone recently wrote me to say I should ask about remote start use on my site's fuel economy survey. (Thanks, Dennis.)
So I'll be adding a question about it to the survey soon.
[url="http://www.truedelta.com/fuel_economy.php"]Real-world fuel economy survey results[/url]
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Michael Karesh 2:47PM (2/17/2007)
Sometimes you realize an error a split second too late...
Oh, well, the link looks awful, but it should still work.
I should add that I asked about remote start use on a couple of forums (GMInsideNews and Saturnfans) to see if it might really be an issue. And many people do seem to let the engine run for 5-10 minutes on especially cold days. Much more common than I expected.
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david 3:21PM (2/17/2007)
chicago winter's, remote start, the only way to go. i'll be damned if i'm giving it up. for the five to ten minutes my car runs, it burns less than a pint of fuel. below zero, sorry, i aint goin out there til the cars warm.
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Jeremy 3:25PM (2/17/2007)
Sure, that's all fine and dandy when the temperature is just under 30 degrees, but what about regions where it is below zero for days at a time? Does the 5-10 minutes of warm up cause anymore wear and tear than just jumping in and driving?
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Mike G 3:49PM (2/17/2007)
Yes, and stop wasting precious oxygen by breathing, you troglodytes!
Muhahaha. Whatever hack wrote this article needs to lighten up. Idling your car is not so bad.
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Andy S 8:26PM (2/18/2007)
Does the 5-10 minutes of warm up cause anymore wear and tear than just jumping in and driving?
Yes it does, the car warms up in a matter of minutes once you begin driving but it takes three or four times longer to do so while idling, hence the extra wear and tear.
Great article!
PS-Folks in the Sunbelt do the opposite and remote start/idle their cars in summer with the a/c on. I'll be that causes even more W&T, not to mention pollution.
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JC3 4:08PM (2/17/2007)
Remote start is the best.If you don't offer remote start in your car line your behind the curve.
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Dustin 4:12PM (2/17/2007)
And what about places where it is not only below zero for days at a time, but colder yet?
Where I live in Canada, about 5 years ago there was a stretch of six consecutive weeks (!) with temperatures below -30 C (around -20 F).
I'd love to know how much wear would be put on an engine at that temperature by driving it immediately...
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SOhp101 4:11PM (2/17/2007)
I'm sorry but I don't even understand the logic in this post. AFAIK you can warm up the interior of a car much more quickly by driving almost immediately after starting the engine.
I've also "learned" that it's important to let your engine run for 10-30 sec before driving, but waiting any longer and it's just a waste of gas.
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