Author Topic: ultimate clown car habit  (Read 6801 times)

Hedge_87

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ultimate clown car habit
« on: May 29, 2014, 08:19:00 PM »
I live next to the baseball diamonds in a small rural town in KS.  There is a little league tournament going on right now. I got home and noticed 3 cars sitting on my street facing the ball fields with their engine running. I thought. You have got to be sitting me!!! There are people sitting in a car engine idling,  ac blasting watching baseball games. It's only 82 degrees here. Come on people! And nobody looked extremely ill or anything. I could see maybe one but not three at the same game.
« Last Edit: May 30, 2014, 04:22:58 AM by Hedge_87 »

Cheddar Stacker

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Re: ultimate clown car habig
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2014, 09:30:51 PM »
I have an 8 month old and have been guilty of similar sins recently. I can't think of many other good excuses for doing this though. Maybe they had a valid reason??

marty998

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Re: ultimate clown car habig
« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2014, 02:30:14 AM »
Out of interest, just how much petrol does a car burn whilst idling?

Not that I do it, but just wondering....

cashball

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Re: ultimate clown car habig
« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2014, 03:43:40 AM »
Trip computer in my last car claimed around 1.2L/hr. But it would vary depending on power draw from a/c, stereo, etc. A lot of cars probably burn more though, it was a fancypants VW model.

The only valid reason for cowering in front of an air conditioner when it's 82F is that you just crawled out of a freezer flew in from the arctic circle.

Hedge_87

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Re: ultimate clown car habit
« Reply #4 on: May 30, 2014, 04:30:02 AM »
I could see having an 8 month old. We would do similar things with my grandparents because they really shouldn't be outside due to health issues. Just from looking at these people they looked ok. One guy was just chain smoking cigarettes lol there is a pile of butts where he was parked. 

Ottawa

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Re: ultimate clown car habit
« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2014, 06:09:07 AM »
I saw this a couple times around here as well!  It's VERY normal to use the remote starter in the winter here.  People start their car 15 minutes before going outside so they have a warm car.  I mean, if you didn't do this - the frozen body count would go through the roof in the winter.  The morgues would be overun!

So I totally understand that you want to get more use out of your remote car starter during the summer as well.  I mean - if you paid a lot of money for that fancy remote starter...you have to use it right?  It's just so convenient to move from a climate controlled house to a climate controlled vehicle with little discomfort in between.  Ideally you would also be wearing your Beats headphones from house to car so you wouldn't be subject to pesky nature sounds either. 

I don't know how the biking industry can keep up with these remarkable innovations for human comfort.  I'm going to trade in my bike for a Cadillac Escalade on the way home tonight.  I need to give up this hard life and take comfortable refuge in my rolling hvac system.

GuitarStv

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Re: ultimate clown car habit
« Reply #6 on: May 30, 2014, 06:16:26 AM »
I saw this a couple times around here as well!  It's VERY normal to use the remote starter in the winter here.  People start their car 15 minutes before going outside so they have a warm car.  I mean, if you didn't do this - the frozen body count would go through the roof in the winter.  The morgues would be overun!

Yeah, I see a lot of those 'ghost cars' while biking to work in the winter.

odput

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Re: ultimate clown car habit
« Reply #7 on: May 30, 2014, 06:23:21 AM »
I saw this a couple times around here as well!  It's VERY normal to use the remote starter in the winter here.  People start their car 15 minutes before going outside so they have a warm car.  I mean, if you didn't do this - the frozen body count would go through the roof in the winter.  The morgues would be overun!

So I totally understand that you want to get more use out of your remote car starter during the summer as well.  I mean - if you paid a lot of money for that fancy remote starter...you have to use it right?  It's just so convenient to move from a climate controlled house to a climate controlled vehicle with little discomfort in between.  Ideally you would also be wearing your Beats headphones from house to car so you wouldn't be subject to pesky nature sounds either. 

I don't know how the biking industry can keep up with these remarkable innovations for human comfort.  I'm going to trade in my bike for a Cadillac Escalade on the way home tonight.  I need to give up this hard life and take comfortable refuge in my rolling hvac system.

Maybe their cars have catheters and bedpans in them...make sure your Escalade has that too

CarDude

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Re: ultimate clown car habig
« Reply #8 on: May 30, 2014, 06:55:29 AM »
Out of interest, just how much petrol does a car burn whilst idling?

Not that I do it, but just wondering....

It depends on the engine size, temperature, and to some extent on the accessories. A 4-cylinder I used to drive burned around .25 gallons per hour while in park once fully warmed, while a V6 I used to drive would burn around .5 gph. Heat wouldn't affect the economy, while air conditioning did so significantly.

slugline

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Re: ultimate clown car habit
« Reply #9 on: May 30, 2014, 07:24:01 AM »
See any screens lit up? If I saw that, my guess is that they're desperate to charge their portable entertainment devices.

CarDude

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Re: ultimate clown car habig
« Reply #10 on: May 30, 2014, 08:11:46 AM »
Out of interest, just how much petrol does a car burn whilst idling?

Not that I do it, but just wondering....

It depends on the engine size, temperature, and to some extent on the accessories. A 4-cylinder I used to drive burned around .25 gallons per hour while in park once fully warmed, while a V6 I used to drive would burn around .5 gph. Heat wouldn't affect the economy, while air conditioning did so significantly.

In addition to this, the 4-cylinder would burn close to .75 gph when started for the first time on a cold day. I imagine the V6 was probably at twice that amount. So warming your car when it's cold outside does use much more gas, but not enough to make it expensive for most people. One and a half gph, for example, at 5 minutes of warming per day would be 100 minutes over a month of work, which would still be less than 3 gallons, which would be less than $12 extra in gas per month. Most folks are fine with that.

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Re: ultimate clown car habig
« Reply #11 on: May 30, 2014, 08:29:20 AM »
I have an 8 month old and have been guilty of similar sins recently. I can't think of many other good excuses for doing this though. Maybe they had a valid reason??

Out of curiosity, why is having an 8 month old a valid reason for that? You don't want to disturb the rest of the fans?

Ottawa

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Re: ultimate clown car habig
« Reply #12 on: May 30, 2014, 08:35:48 AM »
In addition to this, the 4-cylinder would burn close to .75 gph when started for the first time on a cold day. I imagine the V6 was probably at twice that amount. So warming your car when it's cold outside does use much more gas, but not enough to make it expensive for most people. One and a half gph, for example, at 5 minutes of warming per day would be 100 minutes over a month of work, which would still be less than 3 gallons, which would be less than $12 extra in gas per month. Most folks are fine with that.

Except that it should make a difference!  When real numbers are used, as follows:
 
In an experiment on a 1L car engine a bunch of data was produced. 
I graphed it to get the average burn per minute up to the 17 minutes.  This data set was collected with an external temperature of -7C (19F).  The numbers below would go up fairly dramatically in our normal -15 - 20C mornings...

Bottom line
0.2L burned to warm up engine (17 minutes required)

In clown culture winters - this is repeated 2x per day every day.  Anecdotally, in Ottawa, I see this start to occur in November - March (5 months). 
so, 150 days x 0.4L = 60L of fuel for the luxury of warmth in a 1L engine car!!  This translates to a cost of 60X1.25/L = $75 and a carbon footprint of 60L x 2.5kg/L = 150KG of CO2. 

While obviously the folks who do this are "Fine with that"....Mustachians must not be!!

I would hazard a guess that those 6 and 8 cylinder engines that are everywhere would push these numbers up much higher.

CarDude

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Re: ultimate clown car habig
« Reply #13 on: May 30, 2014, 09:04:51 AM »
In addition to this, the 4-cylinder would burn close to .75 gph when started for the first time on a cold day. I imagine the V6 was probably at twice that amount. So warming your car when it's cold outside does use much more gas, but not enough to make it expensive for most people. One and a half gph, for example, at 5 minutes of warming per day would be 100 minutes over a month of work, which would still be less than 3 gallons, which would be less than $12 extra in gas per month. Most folks are fine with that.

Except that it should make a difference!  When real numbers are used, as follows:
 
In an experiment on a 1L car engine a bunch of data was produced. 
I graphed it to get the average burn per minute up to the 17 minutes.  This data set was collected with an external temperature of -7C (19F).  The numbers below would go up fairly dramatically in our normal -15 - 20C mornings...

Bottom line
0.2L burned to warm up engine (17 minutes required)

In clown culture winters - this is repeated 2x per day every day.  Anecdotally, in Ottawa, I see this start to occur in November - March (5 months). 
so, 150 days x 0.4L = 60L of fuel for the luxury of warmth in a 1L engine car!!  This translates to a cost of 60X1.25/L = $75 and a carbon footprint of 60L x 2.5kg/L = 150KG of CO2. 

While obviously the folks who do this are "Fine with that"....Mustachians must not be!!

I would hazard a guess that those 6 and 8 cylinder engines that are everywhere would push these numbers up much higher.

Oh no, I agree that it's not a good idea. I'm just explaining why most non-Mustachians are okay with it; the money seeps out too slowly for them to notice it.

Hunny156

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Re: ultimate clown car habit
« Reply #14 on: May 30, 2014, 11:34:27 AM »
Gotta admit to this one - I installed a remote car starter on two 4 Cylinder vehicles I owned when living in NY.  I think the cost was about $150 if you already had an alarm system in place, but that was also a good decade ago.

I'm not a fan of the cold, I was disappointed to feel how cold it can get even here in TX!  So, I'm a total wuss when it comes to the cold.  Also, Dad had some pretty hard and fast rules regarding cars, and he swore by warming up the car for at least 10 minutes before taking off in the winter.  He also insisted we only use premium gas in all our (econobox) vehicles.

I absolutely loved my remote starter in the winter!  I shudder to think that the first one had an auto-shutoff feature at 30 minutes, and I know I did sometimes run down that clock.  The second one was a little better, auto shutoff at 15 minutes.

The best part of the remote starter was being able to start it as someone was approaching the vehicle & I was out of sight.  I had a lot of laughs startling people when the car started up by itself, and no one was in the car!  Oh, and the hoodlums in the parking lot who would lean on my car sometimes.  That was fun to watch them jump off and then look around.  Guess it was still a pretty new feature in those days...

homeymomma

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Re: ultimate clown car habig
« Reply #15 on: May 30, 2014, 11:42:12 AM »
I have an 8 month old and have been guilty of similar sins recently. I can't think of many other good excuses for doing this though. Maybe they had a valid reason??

Out of curiosity, why is having an 8 month old a valid reason for that? You don't want to disturb the rest of the fans?

Sometimes babies fall asleep at inconvenient times. Sometimes parents choose to let them sleep (in an air conditioned or heated car if the temp demands) rather than ruining the baby's and thereby the parents day just to get out of the car. I have done this a few times (stayed with sleeping baby in air conditioned or heated car) usually while hubby runs into the store on the way home. It just makes the most sense sometimes. Unfortunately, it's hard to be über mustachian when a tiny person with poor thermoregulation skills is involved :)

Hedge_87

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Re: ultimate clown car habit
« Reply #16 on: May 30, 2014, 02:57:36 PM »
The problem I had. It was a beautiful 82 degrees, the bleachers have amazingly huge oak trees that keep them shaded, and there was a soft southern breeze keeping the relativly medium humidity comfortable. Maybe it was to hard to walk the <100ft to get to the bleachers. We sat on the back patio with a few friends drinking some adult beverages until 30 minutes or so after dark. None of us died from heat exhaustion lol.

As a side note I will also warm the car up a little if it is below freezing out (5 minutes tops while I'm scraping ice off). Not for my comfort but to allow a little oil circulation to occur.

seanc0x0

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Re: ultimate clown car habit
« Reply #17 on: May 30, 2014, 03:08:09 PM »
I'm always amazed by the way people leave their cars idling. I see it every day while I drop my kid off at daycare. It seems every other parent just leaves their car running while they bring their kid in. Small wonder car theft is such a problem in this town, the thieves don't even need to do any work to get a car!

In the winter I will idle my car (while I'm clearing off frost/snow) to get it warm before we head off, but even then I turn it off if I'm going to be away from the car a few minutes. It's not like it'll cool off that fast, even when it's -40.

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Re: ultimate clown car habig
« Reply #18 on: May 30, 2014, 05:13:03 PM »
I have an 8 month old and have been guilty of similar sins recently. I can't think of many other good excuses for doing this though. Maybe they had a valid reason??

Out of curiosity, why is having an 8 month old a valid reason for that? You don't want to disturb the rest of the fans?

Sometimes babies fall asleep at inconvenient times. Sometimes parents choose to let them sleep (in an air conditioned or heated car if the temp demands) rather than ruining the baby's and thereby the parents day just to get out of the car. I have done this a few times (stayed with sleeping baby in air conditioned or heated car) usually while hubby runs into the store on the way home. It just makes the most sense sometimes. Unfortunately, it's hard to be über mustachian when a tiny person with poor thermoregulation skills is involved :)

Thanks homeymomma, that pretty much sums it up. Not at a baseball game, just someone running into the store or whatever.

 

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