Warming up your car (Fairbanks: credit, how much, shopping center)

[User 2]

Twenty below last night and my car was just as warm after 6 miles of driving as it always is.

I don't plug it in, and I don't warm it up.

I start it, let the oil circulate for a minute or two and go.

No problems if the car is well tuned, battery maintained, thermostat adequate for the task and interior air/heat/AC properly designed.

No waste of gas waiting around for the car to warm up.

Try it, there will be less pollution and less wasted fuel.
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[Arcticthaw]

Your cold start at - 20 below produces more polution than mine plugged in and warmed up for several minutes. Check the bourough websites.

Personally I appreciate when everyone else freezes their but to save a gallon of fuel, because here in Fairbanks we are burning all we can to stay warm at -40. That is what it was as I pulled out of the drive today. Supposed to be -45 tonight too!

[Alaskan_Adventurer]

I hear ya Arctic. I have a house out in North Pole and it was -45. On the road to Anchorage we were hitting -60 around Healy. I was driving a diesel and didn't even turn my truck off when I was inside eating dinner, lol.

[Reener45]

Ummmmmmmm, park it in the garage?? After -40 it doesn't matter anyhow....."When its springtime in Alaska..........."

[Arcticthaw]

Originally Posted by Reener45

Ummmmmmmm, park it in the garage?? After -40 it doesn't matter anyhow....."When its springtime in Alaska..........."

Garage, Alaskan style: Mine has two bikes, the lake boat, 4 wheeler for plowing the yard. the lean too on the side has the sail boat to keep snow off the mast and hull. Riverboat is aluminum and doesn't care if a little snow is on it. So truck stays in the drive plugged in on a timer. Auto start for the truck in the pocket. Good to go!

[Rance]

Auto start...the greatest invention since toilet paper!

[warptman]

Auto start..."hey honey, can you start the car please." Wait, I don't have a honey...lol.

[rotorhead]

Hey wait, I AM the autostart... She says "go out and start the car" and after a considerable bit of grumbling and stalling it eventually works. Actually, we do technically have one in the jeep but it doesn't work. We don't drive the big truck for just around town anymore since the jeep is so much more manuverable, but on a recent trip to Whitehorse the Cummins started right up at negative twenty F with no preheat. For a town with so much cold weather, how can they have so few plug-ins that actually work? The only ones downtown that haven't been creamed by the snowplows all had employees cars hooked up to them, none left for visitors.



Actually, what we REALLY need is an auto-shovel... Got almost the whole thing cleared off the other day and then this next storm, this is about an hours worth.

[User 2]

Originally Posted by Arcticthaw

Your cold start at - 20 below produces more polution than mine plugged in and warmed up for several minutes.

Hmmmm, a believer in hypotheses, eh, Arctic?

Your 'supposition' is naught but a starting point to explore beliefs based on theoretical factors.

Do all cars perform according to the 'study' you cite?

Does the study factor in all possible real world variables?

After testing all the variables, does the hypothetical situation 'tested' match real world practice?

Are the popular beliefs commonly applied to situations which do not match the 'test' situations, (or is the 'borough web site'), always true?

Nope, not always true, too many variables not accounted for in the hypothesis.......

An idling car produces twice the emissions of a vehicle immediately after 'cold start'.

...if your electricity consumed did not add to air pollution, then one might have a better case if you did not allow your car to idle after being plugged in. But here in Alaska where your electricity consumption adds to air pollution, that's a trade off, that variable is not factored in.

Has one quantified the addition of emissions using electricity, then added the emissions produced by letting one's car idle for longer than is necessary, or should one just go start the car and drive off.

My cold start and quickly driving off, emits less pollution than the typical vehicle which is plugged in, and then allowed to idle for an extended time to 'warm up' the car.

The components in question are the emissions control equipment which your automobile is equipped with.

Emissions control systems are more efficient at higher operating temperatures.

Key, is whether your emissions control systems are operating within the highest possible efficiency limits, is that efficient range of operation reached more quickly in one practice as opposed to another.

That high temperature operating range is reached on my vehicle well before a typical plugged in car, which is typically then started, and allowed to sit at idle for extended time before it is ever driven.

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For some Fairbanks specific, in depth, discussion of the science behind popular theory, compared to real world realities of cold start emissions, you might wish to read a report by the National Research Council:

"Committee on Carbon Monoxide Episodes in Meteorological and Topographical Problem Areas; Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology; Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate; Division on Earth and Life Sciences; Transportation Research Board."

For some quick facts which counter baseless popular myths, read this:

Idling Myths & Facts (broken link)

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[Xa'at]

Originally Posted by User 2

But here in Alaska where your electricity consumption adds to air pollution, that's a trade off, that variable is not factored in.

That is a generalization. Many areas in Alaska get their electricity from hydroelectric dams.