Coffee Break- Leave Your Car Running?
I’m working in the local Starbucks this afternoon, where I’m enjoying beating the 100-degree heat we’re having here in Houston. Once thing that I’ve noticed since the heat wave has grown so unbearable is that cars take forever to cool down using air conditioning and heat back up quickly when parked. This fact of life has resulted in something I’m seeing almost every day that befuddles me every time.
When I got to the coffee shop today, while walking from my car to the store I realized that a car parked by the front door was sitting there empty. There was no one in it; apparently the owner figured he/she wouldn’t be gone very long and left it running. This was done no doubt to keep the interior nice and cool in the summer heat, but come on. Leaving the keys in a car is bad enough, but leaving it running?
Many people have “remote start” wherein they can start the car without the keys in it – so that the heater or A/C can get the car interior up to the desired temp. They need the key in the ignition before the car will shift into Drive or Reverse to go.
Not good for the car or for the environment. It would be better to park in the shade or use shades and/or tinted windows.
Gotta keep your computer from over-heating LOL
Some places it is illegal to leave an unattended vehicle
idling.
Plus, leaving your car idling with the A/C can
cause your engine to overheat,
causing more problems than a just a stolen car…
Prolly an environmentalist and global warming advocate that was just trying to save some energy and reduce his/her carbon footprint. As you know turning your A/C on and off in a short time frame creates tremendous current surges and hence wastes energy not to mention the strain on auto components. I bet it gets really hot down south and I would do the same in the name of energy conservation.
Haven’t seen that in the summer, but in the tundra of Minnesota, it’s common in the winter time. I’ve done it, but carry a spare lock “fob” so I can lock it while it’s running.
The 2010 Prius has this sorted pretty well – it runs the fan in the A/C via solar panels in the roof, so it keeps air circulating even when the car is off. Great idea if you ask me.
Same here in Austin and I am with you….Turn off the car wimps. Almost everywhere I went today there was at least one car idling with no one in sight. And one woman left her kids alone at Target!!!!
Another one was a nice new BMW M3 and I was tempted to go for a spin till I saw the mountain I mean guy walking out that owned it. I am still not sure how he fit into it.
I’ve been known to start mine via my remote starter to cool it off before I leave work for the day. It’s locked and the keys are with me. So I might be tempted to leave the a/c going via the remote starter when running in to the SBUX for a nice steaming latte.
Just hit he lock button and close the door… keep it cool for the busy person
I remember seeing a govt. funded commercial about this before, I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that people are doing it, or that my tax dollars are going towards reminding them not too!
to, sorry for the poor grammar.
I’ll remote start 5 minutes before I go to the car (thanks to the long range). I don’t think I’d ever want to leave the car running longer than 10 minutes unattended.
As for the engine overheating – I don’t think modern cars overhead that quickly, and unless you are driving a mid 80’s junker I doubt it’ll be an issue.
Yeah remote start has been around since the early 90s… I’m surprised you guys aren’t aware since it’s “mobile tech”
Since man made global warming is a hoax/propaganda, the real question is: do you want to waste some gas money to keep cool… and if you’re willing paying $5 for coffee – I doubt you’ll mind wasting $0.50 on gas…
What a bunch of whimps you have down there in Texas!? (JK excluded, of course).
Don’t park your running car outside my coffee shop, or you might have trouble finding your keys when you return.
I think you need more trees, in the car parks, and roads to provide shade and moisture in the air
use good tinted film for the windscreen , can reduce the heat…
another feature of most of the remote starters is being able to pull out the key without turning the car off. Shift to Park, press a button on the remote, and turn the key to off. The car continues to run, but if you hit the break pedal so you can shift out of Park it turns off. When you are back just put back the keys and turn to On, and you are good to go.
The thing is, I would think that those using the remote start capabilities only account for a percentage of those who leave the car running, the other 75%(made up of course) are the ones whose judgment we are questioning.
Jasen’s right. Even with the best tech, you can’t overlook the “stupid people factor”.
How about a drive-through Starbucks? Problem solved.
That’s the sad part, this Starbucks has a drivethru window.
Its funny the amount of misinformation you find in comment threads.
@Zack Lee Wright: The current surge from turning your A/C on and off is real, but marginal. If you are going to be away from your car for more than 10-15 seconds (yes, seconds) then you will save more energy and fuel turning it off. And that assumes your A/C is all electric, which its not. It runs off the accessory belt and thus causes fuel consumption to increase while its engaged, as well as a small drain against the battery. The battery part doesn’t matter because your alternator produces enough energy that a lot of it is simply wasted. The extra fuel means leaving it on ALWAYS uses more “energy” than turning it off, regardless of the length of time.
This myth permeates many other things as well. I have heard people claim a car uses so much gas starting up that it would run the car for several minutes at idle. This is again false. Extra fuel is used to start it, but only enough to idle the vehicle for a few seconds. Keeping a car idling for more than a few seconds is not saving fuel, especially if its already been running as it requires even less fuel to start it (cold cars idle higher and thus require more gas). I have also heard this claim for light bulbs, especially florescent light bulbs. Myth busters did this one for me. A surge of power is used to turn a light bulb on, but it is generally extremely small. For incandescent bulbs the power surge used to turn it on would only operate the bulb for a small fraction of a second. Although the power surge is much greater with florescent bulbs its still only enough to run them for a few seconds. If you are leaving the room for more than a few seconds turning the light off WILL save energy, even with florescents.
@Scott: I love how you refer to the “stupid people factor” right after you perpetuate the myth that human influenced global warming is a myth. I’m not here to argue this point with you. Real scientist have mountains of data to back up the reality that we have in fact warmed our planet with our own greenhouse gases and I will let that speak for itself. You are obviously paying far too much attention to the many people out there who are attempting to politicize this issue when it has nothing to do with politics. The science is real and there is very little real scientific descent from this consensus. Scientists are merely struggling to answer “how much” of an impact we are having on global warming, “how fast” changes are occurring, and what the consequences will be. There is also lively scientific debate on what we should do about this warming. There is no real debate on whether or not it is occurring and whether or not we played any hand in it. It is and we did. Please have more faith in the thousands of scientists who are far smarter than either of us than some political pundit or fringe meteorologist from the weather channel. Or just spend a bit of time reading the real scientific research behind this consensus and stop reading the conspiracy theories.
I have to go now. Too many people wrong on the internet and too little time
Oh, and in regards to the original post…
I sometimes leave my car running, especially in the winter (not much in the summer). I think James was shocked more about the fact that the car could be stolen than he was about waste of fuel/energy. I live in Omaha, Nebraska… we have plenty of crime here but I rarely worry about it getting stolen. I’m also the type of person that leaves my motorcycle helmet (and sometimes even my jacket) hanging off my bike with no lock of any kind holding it on. Sometimes I leave it there all day in very high traffic and crowded areas. My friends think I am nuts sometimes because I am so trusting. Sometimes the trust I have that people won’t take advantage of me gets betrayed, but I find it just as often gets rewarded, so I continue to be more trusting than most people. So far neither my car nor my helmet has ever been stolen