Product Description
Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher’s book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Solar Furnace, Pellet Stove, Corn Stove, Greenwood Technologies, Wood-Burning Stove, Masonry Heater, Flameless Ration Heater, Oil Heater, Block Heater, Heater, Outdoor Wood-Fired Boiler, Chip Heater, Ceramic Heater, Gasoline Heater, Kerosene Heater, Gas Heater, Radioisotope Heater Unit, Mont-Louis Solar Furnace, Central Boiler, Microheaters, Fan Heater, Dusalux, Laser Heater, Patio Heater, Heater, Convection Heater, Salamander Heater, Vented Gas Heater, Potbelly Stove, Flueless Fire. Excerpt: A typical block heater cord. A block heater is an electric heater that heats the engine of a car to ease starting in cold weather. They are connected to normal AC power overnight or before driving, via regular power plugs that are fed through a vehicle’s grille . This allows easier starting in cold temperatures, by keeping the coolant warm. Heaters are also available for motor oil so that warm oil can quickly circulate and warm the engine during startup. The rapid heat circulation caused by block heaters also aids the initial vaporization of fuel in the engine; because of this effect, block heaters reduce pollution , as poor fuel vaporization causes much higher emissions. Research by the Agricultural Engineering Department of the University of Saskatchewan in Canada has shown that operating a block heater for longer than four hours prior to starting a vehicle is a waste of energy. It was found that coolant temperature increased by almost 20 Celsius degrees in that period, regardless of the initial temperature (4 tests were run at ambient temperatures ranging from -11 to -29 degrees); continued use of the heater for a further one or two, or more, hours achieved a mere 2 or 3 more degrees as conditions stabilized. Engine oil temperature was found to increase over these periods by just 5 Cels…