I have already tried this.
A low wattage block heater uses a lot more power to reach the same temperature as the large one.
My 3500 watt coolant heater can raise the temperature of the coolant in the engine from freezing to 75'F in 20 minutes, using just over 1kwh.
To get the same effect with a 600 watt block heater you have to leave it plugged in for hours to get the same results. Any more than 2 hours and you are at 1.2kwh.
To warm the coolant by 40'F with the smaller heater it takes around 3 to 4 hours if it can even raise the temperature 40'F. That adds up to a lot more than 1kwh.
So in the case of coolant heaters more is actually less.
That is why with the suburban engine is going to have the 5500 watt coolant heater plus two 600 watt heaters. The faster you can heat the coolant the less heat you loose to your surrounding environment.
Then even if you go to a lower wattage heating element the heating elements just get smaller. So the surface of the heating element likely gets just as hot. My 400 watt coolant heater is slightly smaller than the 600 watt elements I typically use, the newer 1,000 and 1,100 watt up grade heaters are about double the size of the 600.
The only way to get a lower heating element surface temperature is get a very large heating element such as a 1000 watt 120v element and run it on a varrac and dial the wattage down to what ever you would like to see it run at.
Or get a 240 volt heater and run it at 120 volts.
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1984 chevy suburban, custom made 6.5L diesel turbocharged with a Garrett T76 and Holset HE351VE, 22:1 compression 13psi of intercooled boost.
1989 firebird mostly stock. Aside from the 6-speed manual trans, corvette gen 5 front brakes, 1LE drive shaft, 4th Gen disc brake fbody rear end.
2011 leaf SL, white, portable 240v CHAdeMO, trailer hitch, new batt as of 2014.
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