Are you supposed to leave the heater on all night? If so, then does anyone know the power this thing sucks?
My old jeep heater used to be about 50 watts. I would bet that the honda heater is not much over 100 watts. You could always get a heavy duty timer and have it turn on about 4 hours before you need to drive away. Another nice thing about the block heater is when you start the car on a very cold morning, you have instant heat..
Well, the website has a page under the 2005 Civic Hybrid which indicates the block heater is available for that year and "also fits 2004 Civic Hybrid" so my guess is that the block heaters are exactly the same.
You'd plug the car in at night and the block heater could be on a thermostatic switch. This way you can plug the car in hot, like right after pulling in the garage and it will only charge the battery. Then once the coolant drops below, say, 100 degrees, it would kick in the heater too in order to maintain an effective coolant temp. You'd go out the next morning to a fully charged battery, reasonably warm engine and have full electrical assist and the high FE and low emissions that come with having a warm engine.
Using electricity to keep a metal object at 100 degrees all night, in a 20 degree environment perhaps, sounds like a big waste of energy.
BTW, I can understand someone in Fairbanks Alaska wanting to do this, but in Phoenix of all places???
but, some of us are from "fairbanks alaska" temperatures. Although, I do agree with you on energy waste if you are heating all night, but, on a timer for a few hours, at our current temp of 20 degrees in tomahawk wisconsin, would help.
p.s. 20 degrees is a heat wave in a couple of months.
RIHCH: What dealership did you get that installed? I am also from RI and am waiting for my 06 HCH to arrive. Hopefully I can wait a month so I can get the tax credit.
BTW, I can understand someone in Fairbanks Alaska wanting to do this, but in Phoenix of all places???
Well, if the car did not lose 2-3 MPG every morning in Phoenix when the temps are in the 30s or the 40s, then I would not have to be considering this mod.
But I care too much about keeping my gas mileage high to just let Mother Nature reduce me to a whimpering puppy, if I have a tool to defeat her...
Using electricity to keep a metal object at 100 degrees all night, in a 20 degree environment perhaps, sounds like a big waste of energy.
BTW, I can understand someone in Fairbanks Alaska wanting to do this, but in Phoenix of all places???
It's like a 15W heater...that's about 50 cents to run every night for a full year. Will it save you 50 cents of gas over a year? Solve that and ther's your answer.
It costs about $40, and installs in under an hour.
Why not have one, regardless of location? You don't have to use it, after all- its just there.
Or for those concerned more about climate than money:
It should come down to what pumps out more GHG- the generator providing the energy for your heater, or your car running cold and with the catalytic running in open loop? However that balance swings is the objective answer.
Re: Update: Honda engine block heater
