Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
I recently had the great pleasure of going back for a week to Alaska, where I’ve spent many exhilarating summers. I was reminded of the winter cold by seeing all of the electrical outlets by the parking meters in Fairbanks. Every car that is parked there in the winter plugs in their “block heater”. This is an electrical heating element that keeps the engine block of the car from getting so cold that the engine refuses to start.
Figure 1. Fairbanks monthly temperatures, averaged by decade. You can see the huge change in these sub-Arctic temperature over the last eighty years … or not …
That started me thinking about how much energy it might take to heat a car in Fairbanks, versus the energy to drive it around. Here’s how I would do a back of the envelope calculation for a place like Fairbanks, just below the Arctic Circle.
Block heaters run from about 500 watts to a high of 4,000 watts. Most seem to be in the range of one thousand watts, a kilowatt (kW).
In Fairbanks, the average temperature is below freezing for seven months out of the year. So to calculate total use, we could estimate that heater usage will average out to say four months of the year, fulltime. So the car will be drawing a kilowatt at all times except when it is being driven. Call it 23 hours a day.
So 23 hours / day times 1/3 year times 365.25 days / year times 1 kilowatt = 2,800 kilowatt-hours (kW-h) per year.
The price of residential electrical energy in Fairbanks is about 19 cents per kW-h. So that’s about $500 worth of electricity per year …
Gas (petrol) prices in Fairbanks were about US$3.80 per gallon when I was there. Assume 10,000 miles driven per year, and say 25 miles per gallon fuel efficiency for the car. That’s 400 gallons of gas, worth about $1,500.
My envelope tells me that the Fairbanks car might have a total energy cost of say $2,000 per year.
So car-owners of Fairbanks, when the EPA Police want to arrest you because you haven’t kicked your evil fossil fuel habit, tell them they’re too late — a quarter of the energy to run Fairbanks cars is already electrical, you are already so green it hurts.
(Don’t tell them that due to local conditions and US opposition to nuclear power, Fairbanks electricity all comes from fossil fuels … those kind of folks need their illusions.
w.
PS—Before anyone accuses me of being paranoid about the EPA Police, consider this:
I think Phillip Bradley’s point has been missed when he says EVs have _an_ advantage over petrol vehicles in cold climates, such as Fairbanks, AK.
As others have suggested, Li Ion batteries do indeed suffer a temporary performance degradation in range delivered of some ~30% at ~-30C, but they will not completely fail to “work”. I suspect this is misconception carried over from a similar partial degradation in the common small starter battery at cold temperatures, which when delivering less than full power do completely fail to start the vehicle.
Some EV’s have a bit of battery thermal management (e.g. the Volt) to mitigate the loss; notably the Nissan Leaf has none. Otherwise however, with respect to cold temperatures a system based on an electric motor must be more reliable than one based than an internal combustion engine with its numerous cold temperature sensitivities: liquid cooling, block temperature, high power starter, fuel (esp. diesel), etc. With these several complete failure modes it should be no surprise to learn that some in Fairbanks “never turn off” their petro vehicles. The EV’s range may restrict it to the niche, close to town applications for some years but I have little doubt it will prove more reliable in the cold.
Fun calculation …. great nerdy entertainment :))
Philip Bradley says:
October 2, 2011 at 5:27 pm
“Very cold climates are one of the places electric cars have an advantage over petrol vehicles, precisely because they can start in very cold temperatures.
There have always been niches where electric vehicles made sense. More than 50 years ago in the UK, our and everyone else’s milk was delivered by an electric vehicle that drove the same fixed route every day, with a large number of stops and starts.”
As an ex Pat Brit living in a very climate area of the US I believe that you that you are drawing conclusions based on little, or possibly no, experience. There is no comparison between what would be considered cold weather in the UK and cold in the continental US. And I am not including Alaska as part of the lower 48. None, nada, zip.
I sold a car that was giving me unreliability issues, it was a late model Chrysler, because you can literally die up here if your vehicle lets you down. And if it does and you decide to walk to that light you see in the distance, good luck. It’s better to stay in your vehicle, run the engine at least occasionally and wait for rescue.
Never had to think of that in most places in the UK, relatively temperate and a small place where houses and help are relatively nearby.
Here I carry an emergency survival kit everywhere I go in the Winter months. Thermal blankets, extra clothing, booster cables, tow rope, water proof matches, candles, dishes for melting snow, plug in air compressor etc etc etc…..
Until you feel the cold of a Continental US winter you have no idea what it’s all about. And by the way I love it here, the summers and fall are amazing.
On and I love the winters too, you have to dress properly for it and carry emergency supplies but it’s bracing to say the least.
juanslayton,
When I lived in the USA 30 years ago, the only roundabouts I encountered were north of Boston. Clearly, many drivers had an unfamiliarity problem with them. That would quickly dissapear if they encountered them on a regular basis.
Hence my point about a role for governments in promoting their use.
A few TV ads explaining their advantages would win many people over.
What’s not to like about a change that shortens journey times, saves money, and reduces accidents.
Really!!??
Care to cite a physics text on that one? (WHICH law of thermodynamics?)
(Full disclose: Owner of a 5-cylinder Mercedes with a working BLOCK heater here.)
.
“”””” juanslayton says:
October 2, 2011 at 6:56 pm
George E Smith: In some countries, they have some quite crazy pedestrian control ideas: such as “either cars move, or pedestrians move; but never both at the same time.” Well then you can let the pedestrians all go in four directions at once (actually it is a total of 12 directions at once) so you get everyone to their destination in a single pedestrian period, and nO cars move in ANY direction at that time; and now there is only one pedestrian period instead of two or four, or even 12, depending on who pushed the button.
Pomona set up a system like this back in the 50s. Got the idea from a fellow named Barnes (traffic engineer for Denver, I think). Called it the ‘Barnes dance.’ It was a great novelty at the time, but like many other ‘improvements’ to downtown Pomona, couldn’t save the area from shopping center competition. “””””
Well you can do the Barnes Dance any time you want in Auckland NZ, and I’m sure most other places there. You can even stop in the middle of the intersection and snap pictures of all the fellow stampeding animals.
Half of all pedestrians killed on the road in the USA are killed on pedestrian crossings with the light in their favor. Simple problem of cars moving at the same time as pedestrians. And don’t give me that well everyone’s crossing there so naturally they get killed there. The losses should be zero; not 50%
Middle of the block is infinitely safer, than at intersections. In California, you aren’t allowed to go on a green light, or after stopping at a red light or stop sign, with right turn on red option, UNTIL the intersection is clear of all previous traffic, and that includes any pedestrians that are on the crossing; no matter where on the crossing they are. Californians routinely run the red light for a right turn, and pay no heed to pedestrians on the crosswalk. The running right turn on red is the biggest source of red light runner tickets in California by far.; and that is an expensive ticket. The cops like right turn red light runners; sitting ducks.
True story; In Michigan growing up, Dad bought a used 1962 VW as a ‘to and from work’ car equipped with a gasoline-fueled heater … don’t know when or how it was installed prior to our buying it, but, it was on the vehicle when we bought it (installed up front under the trunk/bonnet with a vent into the passenger compartment).
Observation: Those puny air-cooled pancake-4 engines in those bugs produced little to no useful heat in the dead of winter I am here to tell ya …
.
Philip Bradley-
Thanks for the clarification. The EV’s down in the Antarctic rely have “a maximum speed of 25 mph under “normal” driving conditions and uses an array of lead-acid batteries. For deployment to Antarctica, the EVs were outfitted with insulation for the batteries as well as battery heaters.”
We’ll see if a LiFePO4 battery chemistry ever shows up down there. The only Lithium-based battery technology I know of that can handle -40 C or below are primary non-rechargeable cells based on Lithium Thionyl Chloride.
As you say, there will probably be niches where EV’s make sense. Hollywood and Santa Barbara come to mind at the moment.
Yea – haw! They have come to Texas!
http://www.texite.org/meetings/getfile.php?name=W101B2.pdf
Pg 6 of the document details 11 cities with roundabouts in TX! (Including on in my town!)
.
Most of the Cars in Canada are already electric. We plug them in during the winter which pretty much keeps them running year round. We also have a lot of renewable energy cars. During the winter when you can’t plug them in, all it takes is a small charcoal fire under the oil pan to warm them up a bit and get them running.
In the north of Canada, where wood and electricity are hard to find, we use perpetual motion cars and trucks. You never shut them off during winter, otherwise they won’t start until late spring when there is enough solar power to get them going again. Once started they seem to run fine until the next winter.
It should be noted that not all cars in Canada are electric. Out on the west coast of Canada in Lotus Land where Suzuki lives, the cars there are all pretty much solar powered. Except for the very rich who can afford Whistler, the cars all pretty much run all year round even if you don’t plug them in.
Recently this has begun to change, led by Suzuki himself who was spotted this summer with an all electric Prius. With a long enough extension cord he can reportedly drive it all the way from Kits to Downtown. No word yet on what sort of mileage the heater gets.
Pablo an ex Pat,
It happens I lived in Canada for 10 years and another year in upstate New York.
I eventually moved to Australia, because I’d had enough of cold, snow and ice.
Andrew Harding says:
October 2, 2011 at 5:09 pm
When you have excess inexpensive energy, you can get sloppy with it, and can afford to do things you otherwise could not do. The answer is nuclear power. And enough already with whining about failed technology from the 60s in Japan. Centuries of safe inexpensive reliable power await us making the right choice, the only choice, if humans want to keep living as we do in the West now (or better) beyond 2050.
Electric cars need nuclear energy, otherwise, they are indeed stewpid. And if we don’t consume large quantities of energy per capita, we won’t be able to support the current large (and growing) world population. Sorry, Greens, there’s no going back unless you are planning to kill a few billion of us to get there. Whoever is left after the green revolution will live equally in squalor, except naturally, some are more equal than others on the Farm.
Aren’t the ‘internets’ [sic] great!
A short search turned up a picture of a gas (gasoline) fueled heater mounted in a 1963 VW bug as can be seen here a little more than halfway down this page:
http://www.oldbug.com/stubble.htm
Fuel mileage must have been cut in HALF on a 40 HP bug with that baby fired up!
.
Are you ‘series’?
The Mercedes diesel block heater, non-thermostatic controlled, puts out north of 300 W from nominal US AC main voltage (120 VAC RMS) … after five or six hours I can hear ‘steam bubbles’ being generated in the vicinity of the top of the block where that thing is bolted into said block (WHICH is also water filled), and YOU’RE telling us you would rather see it immersed in the oil (or bolted to the oil pan)?
Please, do get ‘series’ … there is not enough ‘thermal mass’ down there.
BTW, car shows not much below normal operating temperature on the temp gauge after five or six hours of heater operation in 40 deg F. wx (this was before I figured out a timer really should be used to bring the heater on line just a few hours before engine starting! Caveat: First time diesel owner here …)
.
Here in Finland all cars are equipped with engine block heaters.Using winter grade oil is equally important, too heavy oil starts lubricating too slowly and the engine wears out fast.
A cold engine uses up to double the amount of fuel per mile until warm.Carbureted even more, so it is economical to pre-heat an engine when the temperature is cold.The savings are substantial, far exeeding the cost of electricity used.Of course, if the heater has no thermostat and is on 24/7, there will be little or no benefit money-wise.We here have passenger compartment heaters coupled to the engine block heater, so the windows are clear and the car is dry inside eliminating window fogging.They are up to 2000w , so they are about 3 times the wattage of the engine block heater.Still couple of hours before driving is more economical than starting cold.Safer, and that has value too.
Willis did now something that we say here:”He hit a rock with his axe”.
We engine engineers put a different importance on block heaters. Sure, they make the engine easier to start, and that’s what makes people use them. But the real reason to use them is to limit the wear caused by cold oil not doing a proper lubrication job. Tar is not a good lubricant. And if you have a Mercedes Diesel, the WAIT light timer duration was determined by the marketing, not engineering department. If you let it wait longer, the glow plugs keep on heating and work better. Proud owner of a 300D 2.5T here.
George E. Smith,
The USA could reduce delays, save energy and increase safety by replacing most traffic lights and a large proportion of stop signs with roundabouts.
Sounds a great idea, – that is until they decide to fit traffic lights to those roundabouts too.
Here in the UK, we now have lots of roundabouts with traffic lights.
Once upon a time, most drivers were very disciplined at stopping for red lights. No longer, red means go, as long as nothing is coming. So now they have to fit cameras to the lights. Mad.
When I lived in Alaska I had two plugs one for the heater (I am not sure what it heated but I think it was the water) plus a trickle charger for the battery. You forgot to calculate the trickle charger. But even at that I would start the engine before taking my shower and eating breakfast and let the car run to heat up the transmission or the car would not move. And then the tires were flat for a mile or so.
BTW VW’s used a heat lamp placed under the engine.
Hoser
Agree totally with you wrt nuclear, only proviso being that it should not be generated anywhere there is a likelihood of an earthquake. I would also like to see the billions being wasted in AGW research devoted to research into hydrogen fusion
Pesky Laws of Thermodynamics —- They tend to get in the way of political agendas……
Just have to add that the best way to start a shut off a diesel engine in the middle of a Canadian winter is DON’T.
Unless you want to spend 5 hours with a Tiger torch fueled by bad nasty evil propane.
d
As several has commented, noone sane (who pays the bill) will have the heater on whenever the car is parked unless it is an emergency car of some kind (one should rather consider a heated garage, anyway). Modern cars start with no problem whatsoever down to -20C. Below this, a heater is a good idea as well as antifreeze in the fuel. Below -40 things get bad (so they say, I’ve no first hand experience with that). Fuel and oil tend to turn into a thick soup, and you definitely should let the engine keep running if you got it started and only need to park for a little while.
The trouble with letting the engine run is local pollution. Extreme cold is linked to inversion most places which traps the air.
“You’d need a trailer with a battery pack the size of the propulsion battery pack just to heat the passenger compartment. In gas fueled vehicles, you get the low quality heat almost for free. ”
It was not only air-cooled “bug” VW that had insufficient heating. I used to own a diesel-powered VW Rabbit with a 44 hp engine. It had quite decent performance, was incredibly reliable (150,000 miles with absolutely no engine maintenance) and easily made 75 m.p.g. However heating was marginal at temperature below about -15 centigrade. Such a small and efficient diesel simply did not produce enough waste heat.
I have just thought wrt my last posting, if the science of AGW is “settled” why don’t the no-brainers who believe it, give the money they receive in grants for further “research”, to fusion researchers?
I think we all know the answer to that question.