Comment by FooBarWidget | Hacker News Reader

Comment by FooBarWidget | Hacker News Reader

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Interesting that you think about it that way. My primary goals are the opposite:

1. To save as much money as possible. Meaning to make my car last as long as possible, postponing the need for repairs or a new car as long as possible

2. To reduce energy usage as much as possible. Not only to save money but also because it's good for the environment.

Which means I do exactly the opposite of yours. I'll to go great lengths to avoid turning on the car's heater. So I put on thicker clothes, I dry foggy windows with a towel, within the city I drive electric as much as possible (I have a hybrid), etc. I brake as little and as smoothly as possible to avoid kinectic energy being lost to braking (or if I do need to brake, at least have renegerative breaking recover 60%). All of this much to the chagrin of my wife who doesn't value such things at all. Or the guy behind me who's annoyed at the fact that I stop maintaining speed 100 meters away from the red light, instead of maintaining speed until 20 meters away and then braking in 2s.

I have the feeling that people like me are rare. It seems that when it comes to cars, nobody around me cares about saving money or saving the environment, they mainly care about comfort.

Are you aware not using the heater does not affect fuel efficiency in an ICE car? Heaters in ICE cars take the pull existing heat from the engine.

(I'm not aware of how your hybrid is programmed, it may or may not turn the engine on sooner if the heat is on.)

Letting off the gas 100 meters before a stop light and coast that will save gas, but of course it won't be more efficient to brake for the 100 meters before a stop sign, except for regen, as you mention. And is indeed obnoxious for other drivers if you are braking way before a sign.

Hypermiling is a good idea, but it's a trap to to slip into an orthorexia-type mindset about efficiency - imbuing virtue into deprivation. Going to "great lengths" to not turn on your car's heater, in addition to being 100% pointless if your ICE engine is running, is an asshole move if other people are in the car. I think it's worth it to fight the feelings of superiority you allude to in your last sentence.

I say all of this as somebody who thinks 95% of drivers would be best served by a Prius or Leaf.

> Are you aware not using the heater does not affect fuel efficiency in an ICE car? Heaters in ICE cars take the pull existing heat from the engine.

It does in many hybrids, particularly those that can operate in EV mode at higher speeds. When heat is commanded, they often will idle under even under no load conditions just to maintain coolant temp. These are conditions which otherwise would use zero fuel.

A fun party trick in my hybrid is that I can turn on and off my engine during the winter at a stop light by using the on/off switch for the climate controls. It’s instantaneous.

Seconded by a plug-in Prius owner.

Sadly the climate control pre-conditioning on the PiP only uses the battery (or mains, if left plugged in) to cool the interior before you set off, not to heat it. I guess this is because it doesn’t have reverse cycle AC, so can’t pump heat into the interior, only out of it. Far less useful in the UK than California.

So if you want heat, you have to run the engine.

Turning on the heater reduces my electric miles by a factor of 3. More energy is spent on heating than on moving.

> I think it's worth it to fight the feelings of superiority you allude to in your last sentence.

In every other thread about climate, people hyperventilate about the doom of climate change. But when I try to do my part, it's "100% pointless" and is characterized as merely wanting to feel superior?

This to me sounds like people want to be cynical while at the same time not wanting to do anything about it.

> I'll to go great lengths to avoid turning on the car's heater.

You know, heat is a byproduct of the combustion process…

—edit—

And these people who won’t turn on the AC to save gas end up messing up the aerodynamics and making the vehicle less efficient while also suffering.

Yes so? I'd rather want that 30% energy to be converted to kinetic energy, than 0% energy being converted. What's the point of using a car as an immobile heater?

I'll turn on the heater once I'm on the highway, not before.

I used to be the same way too but in warmer weather I would try not to run the A/C in my car. I think that kind of turned out to be a bad decision though because my car was older and by refusing to turn on the A/C, I think that might have made it more likely for the system to get messed up. I don't know the exact reasons, but maybe it has to do with the lack of pressure and the coolant not circulating.

I appreciate what you are trying to do, but there is a 0% chance that I put on a thick sweater instead of just using my heated seats.

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