In my situation, I'd only be able to use an EBH once each day (when I leave the house in the morning). NW Ohio, 2miles of country roads to 13 mile interstate, then 6 miles of city streets to my office. My day consists of trips to various construction sites, w/o an opportunity to plug in. Most days the car doesn't have a chance to cool of too much anyway. I have the grille blocked, and it seems some sort of engine blanketing would be helpful, but w/o some guidance, I'm relunctant to experiment. What would be an estimate of my MPG increase from the EBH, if it's benefit can only be had once each day. TIA jimsoh
The real benefit of a EBH comes in the first five minutes of a stone cold start, like your first drive of the morning. It allows your average mpg to be higher in the first 5 min, and then any combinations of grill blocking will help sustain the heat retention advantage by keeping the engine warmer. I would venture to say 1-3 mpg average increase for the tank.. Increasing your tire pressure to 42F/40R , slowing down the interstate travel speed, using cruise control on interstate and most of all, learing how to exploit ICE-off operation such as gliding, stealth and warp stealth will have a much greater effect on MPG. The EBH is the next step beyond all that. .
It's darn nice to have even if you can't get maximal usage from it. Depending upon how many cold starts you have during the day will dramatically affect what your final MPG improvement will be.
The other thing is you have an instantly warm vehicle. I live in northern New England. I like to be warm - even though it does consume some fuel. I think of my EBH as the green version of a remote engine starter which I will never again use - there just isn't any need for it.
