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

@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

Don’t park your running car outside my coffee shop, or you might have trouble finding your keys when you return.

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…

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.