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Date: 29 Jul 2003 10:25:45 +0300 From: Simo Melenius <siolnanopsamfi> Subject: Re: Gas economy
"Andy Hookins" <andrew.hookinsnopsamamnopsamodata.co.uk> writes: > That's only part of it, warm up only accounts for a few minutes > of my 45-60 minute commute. There's got to be more to it. BTW Depends on how you get going in the morning. If you make a cold start in 15C (after a long night), then naively turn the indoor heating at full and start driving it'll take forever (10-15 minutes) to reach the optimal engine temperature. However, if you use an engine heater for an hour or two before you crank up and let the engine idle for a minute before starting to drive (e.g. while you scrape off the ice and snow off the windows) the temp will be up before you get around the first corner. Also one factor to the increased fuel consumption in winter time is tires and road condition. A road covered with snow (or half-melted snow) introduces a greater rolling friction when compared to dry asphalt on summer time. Additionally, winter tires are usually of a softer mix of rubber than summer tires and have deeper surface patterns and are more wavy on asphalt in general. I once drove old tires for half a summer after their last winter and when I finally disposed them and switched to summer tires, my fuel consumption dropped about 1 liter per 100km (somebody convert that to mpg:)). -- 0110011001101111011011110110001001100001011100100010110101110000
