OK, about my assumption:

How could a little fan blowing 70 degree heat 24 inches away from the engine possibly heat up the engine as well as a block heater which is coming in direct contact with the antifreeze?

I say the direct heating element should work far better. Anytime you use direct heat applied to something it heats faster and better than indirect heat, is that not correct? When we are frying chicken, we keep the frying pan ON the stove, not 24 inches from the stove, right?

And as far as the electricity used by my space heater: at most 1 Kwh per morning, which is at most 17 cents per day. I'd rather pay that to a local utility company than to a Saudi King, personally......

 

I don't know, good question. That's why the fan heater seems a little silly to me.

Look I'm not dreaming this up or theorizing about how block heaters work. I have used them my whole life. When it's cold enough outside to need one, they produce barely enough heat to keep the engine warm enough to start. Without them many cars will not even start in the frigid temperatures the heaters are designed for. They do not keep the enging warm enough to produce hot air instantly, or even within a minute or two. They do not keep the engine at operating temperature, or anywhere close.

 

Hey, I was skeptical too. It was just an experiment the first day, until it WORKED !!!

 

Great, have at it. I'm not trying to tell you the fan heater won't do what you want it to.

I suppose if you used a block heater in a garage it might make the car warm up faster, because in that environment it's not losing heat like it does outside in frigid temps and wind. That's where they really come in handy - people don't use them to make the heater work faster, they use them because for many cars in many cold places, without using a block heater the car won't even start.

My truck for example, of course very different from a 1.3l HCH, it's a diesel and if I don't plug it in overnight on a cold minnesota winter night, it will be very hard to start - and it beats the crap out of the engine to start it that cold. It burns cold as hell and smokes up the neighborhood, even when I do use the heater. Yes, it might warm up a few seconds faster, but when it's that cold, the difference is not real noticeable. On the smaller cars it's not so dramatic, but still when it's 20 below, it doesn't matter if you plug it in or not - it's still going to take several minutes to generate water hot enough to blow hot air.

 

Just curious, but in order to maintain "good" MPG with an "artificially-warmed" car (using a block heater or external source) wouldn't you also need to somehow keep the energy pack for the IMA system warm? (Granted, that has nothing to do with getting the engine warm enough to throw out warm/hot air when you first get in.)

I just read through the Accord manuals and it speaks about how assist/regen aren't going to kick in on cold days until the IMA system is warmed up which would probably mean lower MPG (the tranny also only uses the first 3 gears until the car is warmed up.) I'll have to dig through the HCH manuals to see if there's a simliar cold weather situation with the battery pack in the Civic.