One thing that was not part of our day-to-day in Eastern Canada is block heaters. In our families, at least, we never plugged the car in in cold weather, and we never knew many other people who did.
In Camrose, where our first winter has involved several multi-day cold snaps below -25, and where overnight lows are below -15 for weeks on end, we've been glad for the block heater. Norm will start without one, but he doesn't warm up all that fast. Most people around here seem to use them, too, as evidenced by the number of extension cords hanging off garages and out of front grilles. Makes sense to us.
What doesn't make sense to us is the practice of idling cars and trucks in parking lots while running errands. Ninety per cent of the time, when it's colder than about -5, a vehicle idling outside a business in this town will have no one inside. (As you might imagine, car theft is a relatively common problem in Camrose.) We've seen people pile multiple school-age children out of an SUV and into a Shopper's Drug Mart or a Superstore for what is likely not a 2-minute errand, leaving the empty car running in the parking lot. People gathering to convoy to another destination will meet up inside a building, leaving their vehicles running outside for 15 minutes or more. Our neighbour has been known to remote-start his truck in his driveway at 3 am, idle it for half an hour or so, and shut it off again.
From what we've been told, idling during shorter stops can be necessary for older diesel trucks, which are common enough in this area. Because they lack fuel-injection technology, they don't start well in cold weather. We're having trouble understanding the need for it with newer vehicles. Sure, the engine might cool off, but it seems like you'd use more gas idling it than you would running it cold for a few minutes. Do people just not like climbing into a cold car, or is there an explanation we've missed?
In Camrose, where our first winter has involved several multi-day cold snaps below -25, and where overnight lows are below -15 for weeks on end, we've been glad for the block heater. Norm will start without one, but he doesn't warm up all that fast. Most people around here seem to use them, too, as evidenced by the number of extension cords hanging off garages and out of front grilles. Makes sense to us.
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| Not a Camrose example (I don't think), but people will go to great lengths to plug in! |
From what we've been told, idling during shorter stops can be necessary for older diesel trucks, which are common enough in this area. Because they lack fuel-injection technology, they don't start well in cold weather. We're having trouble understanding the need for it with newer vehicles. Sure, the engine might cool off, but it seems like you'd use more gas idling it than you would running it cold for a few minutes. Do people just not like climbing into a cold car, or is there an explanation we've missed?
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