At one time it was common for a new house with an attached garage to have a switch in the kitchen which went to an outlet in the garage. You plugged your in-car heater into that circuit and when you got up in the morning and turned the coffee on, you also turned on the in-car heater. Result, you get into a toasty car.

At the time it was one of those 'wonders of modern living'.

There was an article in one of the driving magazine last year and an gov advisory that showed that its more economical to use a block heater.
It lowers your gas consumption and reduces wear on the engine.

Also with modern oils I don't think the issue of cycling would be to much of an issue, I can imagine with the older oils mixes it could lead to stratification of the oil and poor lubrication.

From what i can gather you only need it on for about 2 hrs before you drive anyway, so cycling shouldn't be an issue

http://oee.nrcan.gc.ca/communities-g...ers.cfm?attr=8

For what its worth I use the $15 crapy tire jobby too.... also its worth looking for discounts this time of year, our Local Hydro company is giving away coupons on energy saving devices and I think they have about $3 off the crappy tire timer

Thanks for link.

Lumps of metal dont sweat, therefore wind chill doesnt apply.

You still should probbaly use one if its in the garage, it gets pretty cold, but not as cold as outside obviously.

I set it to go off at 9 for weekends, and as I tend to run late!

Aaaah very true.

There does seem to be some confusion about wind chill, not just here but in general.

A temperature of -20C with a wind chill of -35C is still only -20C.

The temperature cannot go any lower than what it actually is just because the wind is blowing.

What the wind chill really means is that an object will cool off at the same rate as if the temperature was -35C (in this case) in still air. But even though it will cool faster it will not (can not) go any colder than the actual air temerature.

There you go, clear as mud.

Cheers
Steve

So, come February, you'll be out in a -35 wind chill telling yourself: "don't be so soft; it's only -20"? I think not.

But on the otherhand when its -20°C and you are driving down the 401 at 120kmh, your cars outside temp display wont be telling you it thinks that its minus 40°C

Try strapping your wife to the hood and see what sort of reading you get.

It's a pretty subjective thingy anyway. On a cloudless, windless day -20 is not unpleasant. Bung in a strong wind and it's a different matter entirely.

I heard, but I don't know where, that the windchill doesn't affect the coldness of a car. However, I do know that if I put the car in the garage it still starts no matter how cold it is and I never plug it in.

I think that you can get a car starter that will come on every three or four hours and run the car for 15 minutes and then turn it off. I don't know whether that would be cheaper than buying a timer. If you are going to install a car starter, which is a good thing anyway, you might as well enquire about a programmable one.

It will start, but its not doing the life expectancy of your engine any good.

Stopping and starting it on the autostarter over and over is also going to do horrible things in the long run. Condensation will eat out your exhaust system for one, and if the oil gets cold between starts the metal / metal contact that happens before the oil gets thin from the heat will wear out the engine in a few years.

But you are describing wind chill perfectly with both of your analogies.

It IS only -20 but it feels a h*ll of a lot colder.

The point is if the temp was -10 you more than likely wouldn't plug your car in.
But if it was -10 with a -25 wind chill would you plug it in? The answer should be no because it is still only -10.

Ottawa has the reputation of being the coldest CAPITOL CITY in the world (really it's true). We lived there for a while in the early 80s, believe me when it is -40 and a strong wind is blowing it is cold enough to make you walk backwards, I have done it several times. The wind chill factor is an important tool for deciding how long it will take exposed flesh to freeze. Just be careful what you expose!!!!

We don't have that problem any more since we moved to Vancouver Island.

Aaaaah the -40 myth rises again.

Actually it has not been as cold as -40 in Ottawa in the last thirty years. It may have felt as if it was but really it wasn't.

The coldest it has been is -35.2 in 1981.

For other major centers these are the coldest recorded temperatures since 1975

Victoria -12.7 / 1985
Vancouver -14.1 / 1993
Calgary -39.7 /1997
Edmonton -36.9 / 1982
Saskatoon -44.9 / 2004
Regina -42.2 / 1983
Winnipeg -41.8 / 1996
Toronto -31.3 / 1983
Montreal -32.4 / 1980
Fredericton -33.8 / 1989
Charlottetown -30.5 / 1982
Halifax -28.5 / 1993, 1994
St John's =23.8 / 1986, 1990

All information gleaned from Environment Canada. I only went back to 1975 but Calgary's records go back as far as 1881, Ottawa only 1938.
Interesting non the less if you take the time to look.

Splitting hairs!! the point is when it is windy at anything over -20 it is bl**dy cold.

No just telling it as it is.

However you won't get an argument from me regarding -20 and windy. It is damned cold.