Quote:
Originally Posted by svc
Thing to remember is also the total efficiency. Will the preheating cost more in electricity than gasoline saved? Or will Webasto or Espar (Eberspächer in the EU  ) burn more fuel than it saves? |
The fuel savings may not ever be as great as the increased engine life, or, mean time between overhauls.
We can all come up with scenarios of vehicle type and use, etc, where one factor will sway a decision. But assuming folks are buying the right vehicle and trying to keep it the maximum number of years/miles (maybe 20 years and/or 250k miles) then prudent use of pre-heating seems a no-brainer to reduce start-up wear.
Same for a winter front on a diesel. One need not live in a cold climate to conduct some simple experiments on a vehicle kept two decades to figure best use of energy.