My wife is crazy. Help me convince her.

I was going to say that, especially given the good weather most of the time. The fuel you save in one trip on a bicycle over 2.8 miles return would be more than you will save with an EBH over 6 months and you get a free workout!!

 

Do you have a shower at work? Can you store work clothes in a locker and shower and dress at work?
Sorry, where ever I have worked there have been showers and a locker room somewhere in the building, maybe this isn't the norm. Unfortunately I live too far from work to ride a bike or I would. Trick is to take the car once a week with clothes for the week, then the rest of the week ride the bike. At the end of each day take your clothes you wore that day home for laundering in a backpack or pannier bag. If you have some extra clothes at work you can try to time the car trips for rainy or super hot days.

Secondary advantages;
you don't pay to heat the water for the shower and you look fresher at work because you haven't driven to work in that shirt.
You leave for work a little earlier when traffic is a little lighter but you don't get up any earlier because you just shift the time it takes to shower from before your commute to after.
You get to wear Lycra if you want.

 

So, with the alternatives now on hold, the question, as initially posed is would you benefit from the EBH?? I think Godiva gave as accurate a response, being that she's located in your neck of the woods, and that, coupled with the responses of the others, including the engineering analysis is a resounding yes!! So go for it! and try the grill block as well. That's something you could do tomorrow! It will also make a difference. (block upper and lower) In your area, at least until the end of February I would guess....

Good Luck!!

 

I need to do the same.
How far do you go in the first 5 minutes?
If it is 1 mile of your 1.9 miles and you got the consumption up from 25 to 50mpg then each day you will reduce your fuel consumption by 1/25th of a gallon so each month you will reduce your spending on fuel by about $3.00. An EBH costs about $60.00 so you are looking at a cost of 20 months fuel saving to pay for the EBH then you need to pay for the electricity to run the EBH. You have a choice of running the EBH all night or get a timer and run it for 3 hours each morning. I would recommend a timer, a quick search and I find electronic timers for about $30.00 or another 10 months worth of fuel savings

So far we are looking at spending 30 months worth of fuel savings up front, so we are looking at paying that off over say 3 years at an interest rate of 6% give interest of about $8-$10 so now we are looking at a cost of $100.00 or 33.3 months worth of petrol savings and we haven't put any electric into the EBH yet.

The average price of electricity in California was in 2005 about 12c/kWh
EBH uses about 500w per hour or 1.5kWh per 3 hour morning cycle so 18 cents worth of electricity per day, now you are a diligent person so you don't plug in your EBH until the night before you use your car, so you have your EBH plugged in for 25 days a month. This means over the 3 years you will use about $162 worth of electricity so over the first 3 years you have gone backward by about $160.00

I'll leave it to someone else to work out the environmental impact reduction.
Please excuse my dodgy maths and assumptions regarding vehicle use if they don't fit your actual use.

If your car used 25mpg over your 4 mile 2 way commute you fuel cost for the year is $144 for 48 gallons of petrol so any savings are not going to rock the globe.

 

I didn't post alternatives in my last post, just a bit of simple maths.
Over a 1.9 mile each way commute I would almost think year round grill blocking would be effective and safe.

 

Yeah, my first post on Priuschat.
Aussie Prius's are a little different to yours, but here's something you could try before spending any money.
Driving home from work in the early hours, the temp here is sometimes around 6 degrees C. What I have found is that during the warmup cycle the engine tends to run without producing any energy, but if you drive very steadily the engine will only rev slightly above idle while assisting the batteries. also turn off the climate control, as it has a tendency to keep the engine running even longer. Once you have travelled around 300 yds you'll notice the engine start to rev at which time normal driving can resume. Don't put the climate control back on until you're cruising.
Works for me, but your short driving distance may not allow the hybrid batteries to fully recharge.
Good Luck

 

Yes, it is possible with removal of the windshield wipers and the wiper cowling. See this for Hobbit's typically excellent documentation of the process.

 

The reason that it is easier to install from the bottom, is that the EBH should be on the lowest point of the engine, to warm the oil in the oil pan.
In Minnesota, we called them "frost plug heaters", and when I first moved here, a lot of people questioned me about the little power cord hanging out of my car's grill. Most people around here thought I had an electric car!

 

Not sure why you asked. I think your wife is totally sane.

 

WHy calculate for the first 3 miles on a 1.9 mile commute?