Warm up your car before you drive to work? Think again.
Posted by Courtney Goldberg
Starting your carto âwarm it upâ before you drive to work in the morning may seem like a good idea, especially given the extreme cold temperatures weâve experienced lately. However, that practice happens to be a very bad one, not only for the environment but also for your wallet. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, having your car sit idle for just 10 seconds wastes more gas than restarting it.
Contrary to popular belief, todayâs modern cars with electric engines donât need time to âwarm upâ like they may have âback in the dayâ. In fact, your car is twice as likely to warm up faster once itâs being driven, than if it were to sit idle in your driveway (or worse, garage). Another myth about leaving your engine running is that turning it on and off frequently damages your carâs engine and battery. That couldnât be further from the truth. The added wear of frequent engine restarts may amount to about $10/year in added maintenance but the fuel savings youâd realize from not idling could yield anywhere from $70-$650 per year. Idling also causes your car to operate longer than normal, which is hard on the engine. When a car sits idle, fuel residue and water condensation build up on the engine and that can damage the cylinders, spark plugs and exhaust system.
Speaking of exhaust (âŚcough, coughâŚ), the excessive fumes emitted from idling cars are unhealthy! An idling car produces just as much CO2 as one moving on the roads and those emissions â or pollutants â are linked to serious human illnesses such as asthma, heart disease, chronic bronchitis and even cancer. The next time you need to âwait in your carâ for someone, park it and go wait in a nearby store instead. Itâs better for your wallet, itâs better for the air and itâs better for us.
Not to mention, idling happens to be against the law and anti-idling regulations exist in all six of the New England states. In Massachusetts, a car cannot sit idle for more than 5 minutes, even if itâs parked and âwaitingâ for someone (e.g. at the airport). In New Hampshire, idling for more than 5 minutes is illegal if the temperature is 32°F or greater and idling is not allowed for more than 15 minutes if the temperature is under 32°F.
The next time you think about turning on your car before you are ready to drive away, consider this:
Idling wastes 0.3 gallons/hour (that number increases to up to 1 gallon/hour on bigger vehicles). That amounts to close to $0.75/hour according to todayâs gas prices. Additionally, for each gallon of gas burned (whether thatâs by driving or idling), 20 pounds of CO2 are emitted into the air we breathe.
In short, donât idle. It gets you nowhere.










