Those are good points dcb. I thought about that as well. I do not use the Paseo every day. In fact, normally I only use it a couple times a week. To take care of the scheduling problem I would set up the timer to turn on 1hr before my normal leave time. This would turn the heater on every morning its plugged in (likely including weekends if I used a cheap thermostat). To fix this problem, I was planning on adding a switch in line with the AC power to the thermostat. That way, if the thermostat relay kicks in, the switch still blocks power to the heater.
That takes care of pretty much 99% of my trips in the Paseo. However, if I wanted to use the block at a time not scheduled on the thermostat, I could easily install a bypass switch to bypass the thermostat (and other switch), so I plug in and it heats up right away.
I do have a 3rd option now. I was talking with Darin earlier today about how large of a heater to get. The basic consensus was that larger is better here. I have settled on a Kats 1000W circulating tank type heater for the Paseo. This allows pretty decent warm up times. Below is a graph Darin made of his Metro's warm up times with two block heaters going totaling 1100W. In 1hr, he is able to get very close to operating temperatures. Even running for 30 minutes results in a very respectable temperature.
With this very short warm up time, I could use a
remote control AC switch like they use for Christmas lights. I could get up in the morning, flick the switch, get ready, and it would be warm enough by the time I get out to the car.
I'm now leaning in this direction. Its much simpler, easier, and the fast warm up allows unplanned trip heating much more viable.