Looking for advise/opinions on parking my 08 FEH outside vs inside during winter. It can get to negative degrees at night here. Anyone else living in a colder climate have advice? Any performance differences between the two?

Background: I have two vehicles and one parking spot. I am considering alternating days with the vehicle because both are daily drivers. I am wondering if there would be any performance implications in doing so. Or if if one should be inside all the time and the other outside.

Thanks.

 

Good question, and there's no simple answer. You didn't say if the indoor parking space is heated or cooled, or if you have to pay for the heating or cooling. So what I say below assumes the indoor parking spot is heated and cooled, and you have to pay the utilities. However, if you live in an apartment with underground parking, the situation is quite different.

Note that both a hybrid and a non-hybrid have to be brought up (or down) to operating temperature. So you may save gas by having the FEH at a moderate temperature by keeping it indoors, but a non-hybrid will save gas that way also.

The only difference is that the hybrid adds the big battery. But that battery is not a big lump of stuff compared to the gas engine, and it doesn't need to be brought to such a high temperature. Likewise, having to cool the interior at the start of a drive involves more than the interior air. It includes all the metal etc. materials inside. So having to also cool the battery is not a huge deal.

One area where the hybrid is more suited to the cold is that rather than stress a 12V battery and a relatively small starter for cold starts, the hybrid uses an electric motor and the hybrid battery for pretty effortless starting.

And, having a heated or cooled parking space, if you pay the utilities directly, has a cost that offsets the better mileage by having the vehicle warmer or cooler. You have to pay for heating or cooling the space occupied by the vehicle.

A block heater on a timer probably is the most efficient way to deal with the cold mornings.

We have two vehicles and one unheated detached garage. The FEH is used most of the time, and we rotate the two between the garage and outside randomly.

 

The hybrid will suffer the bigger hit on mpg if left in a colder outdoors but it was getting much better than the non hybrid to begin with. The hybrid ICE will run longer after initial start to warm itself and you up. If the inside storage temperature is the same as the outside, there will be no difference. Block heaters help eliminate this problem.

 

I thought a trick for those in Arctic type conditions was to fabricate/install a (removable) front radiator block to allow the entire system to heat up more quickly. Plug in block heaters may not be that necessary if you switch the 12V battery to AGM type.

 

Agreed. I, like others, install a cover over the lower grill opening in winter.

Another point that needs to be made is that the FEH runs the engine like mad when it's cold partly to warm things up to reduce pollution. So far as I know, non-hybrids are similar, but use the automatic choke to reach and maintain operating temperature alone, rather than reach temperature for clean operation. I doubt any non-hybrids, for instance, open the choke just to warm up the catalytic converter.

 

There are no chokes anymore. Everything is fuel injected.

 

Oops. Am I showing my age? My first vehicle had a manual choke.

 

Probably. Not like me who can remember blocking the carburetor throat with my hand to choke one with the air cleaner off.