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With the high cost of fuel and recent increase in government anti-idling legislation, finding alternative ways to heat cabs has become a thriving industry--and a necessity for many fleets.

The California Air Resources Board's (CARB) five-minute idling limit has changed the game for many North American fleets, and that will only continue as more states follow the Golden State's lead on reducing harmful emissions.

With winter fast approaching, maintaining a warm cab is critical, but for fleets that don't travel much south of the Mason-Dixon line, heating-only no-idle systems are much less expensive way to do the job while reducing emissions.

Heating Help

Manitowoc, WI-based Dean Brennan Transport has been in business for 54 years, hauling mostly smoke products used to make hot dogs, bacon and sausage. The company operates a fleet of 21 trucks (Navistar International 9400s with 51-inch ProSleepers and 435-hp Cummins N14 engines) that travel an average of about 100,000 miles per year as far south as Georgia and as far north as Saskatchewan and Ontario.

Co-owner Buck Brennan was recently looking for a new idle-reduction solution that could decrease wear and tear on the engines and provide his drivers a more comfortable working environment during the cold-weather months. He decided to try the Teleflex Proheat X45 auxiliary coolant heater, which reduces engine idling and saves diesel fuel costs by enabling engine-off sleeper heating and engine pre-heating in cold weather.

The 13-kilowatt X45 is rated for 45,000 BTUs to provide sufficient heat in even the most extreme temperatures. An integrated pump circulates heated coolant to warm the engine block, making starting easier and reducing engine start-up wear. It features an onboard control panel that displays the heater status and mounting options for all truck configurations.

An optional timer lets a driver preheat the engine and sleeper in advance so that the truck is ready to go when the driver is. The unit consumes about a quart and a half of fuel per hour--about two-thirds less than the gallon of fuel heavy-duty truck engines typically burn while idling--while also reducing start-up engine wear in cold weather. Brennan says the system pays for itself within two years.

"I used to take (drivers') idling times weekly, and we had guys who went from 50 hours a week down to 12, nine, eight hours a week; some even less than that," he says. "Each driver is different--some guys are hot, some guys are cold. We had one guy who went from 96 hours in a month down to 12. It's making a big difference."

Brennan says drivers can just hit the switch in the morning to warm the trucks up while they go through their PM inspections.

"And when they sleep, we've got the Proheat X45 set up to keep the sleeper warm," he says. "It's a fantastic unit."

Cold Comfort

Richmond, BC-based Teleflex Power Systems' sales and marketing manager Brian Curliss says for fleets dealing with moderate to severe cold weather, the X45 provides the most benefit, as its high-heat output (45,000 BTU) is capable of rapidly preheating the engine coolant and block to near-operating temperature.

"The X45 performs double duty as it creates more than enough additional heat to heat the truck cab," he says. "In applications where a truck is parked for hours while the driver is resting, there's no need at all to idle the engine--it can keep the driver warm and comfortable while keeping the engine warm and ready to start at any time."

Teleflex Power Systems manufactures three other heating-only systems: the Proheat A2 (2-kilowatt capacity), the A4 and the M-Series--high-output heaters used in transit buses, coaches and off-highway equipment. The heaters are all diesel-powered and are designed to operated in cold climates where batteries are less efficient.

"The air heater acts much like your house furnace, turning on when needed to maintain a comfortable temperature in the sleeper cab," he says.

Cold-weather fleets are opting for heating-only systems because they provide the best ROI when air conditioning is not needed.

"The lower cost of heaters and the very small amount of fuel they use means a payback of months, not years," he says. "Also, if a truck is left overnight in hot weather, the driver may be uncomfortably warm, but in cold weather, there's a potential the truck will not start or the driver may suffer beyond being uncomfortably cold."

Multiple Solutions

Fenton, MI-based Webasto Product North America, Inc. has several heating-only options for fleets, including the Air Top 2000 and 3500, which heat cold cabin air. Webasto director of commercial vehicles/environmental and regulatory affairs John Thomas says the 3500 is designed either for extreme cold weather or vehicles like delivery vans or cargo heating applications that have larger spaces to heat, while the 2000 model works for most other situations.

"We're constantly working on the products to make them better and more efficient, reducing emissions," he says. "The emissions are way below the standard required by CARB or the EPA, which is why we think they're going to be around for a very long time, because there is nothing more efficient to create heat in a vehicle today."

Thomas says in areas not yet affected by the CARB regulations, cab heaters are still important to reduce costs.

"Even in places like Tennessee, they have many cold nights," he says. "A Class-8 cab burns about a gallon of fuel per hour idling, and this can run about 20 hours on a gallon of fuel, so there's quite a significant savings for them. It's almost like a no-brainer. When you're saying, ‘What's my fastest return on investment for my fleet?' It's a fuel-operated heater--hands down. It really does pay back extremely fast--in as little as three months, so the investment cost isn't very high. Think about the price of fuel--that pays back pretty quick when you're not burning that gallon an hour going out the truck engine."

Thomas says he expects no-idle technology to become standard on trucks as it is in Europe, but for now, he says early adopters are fleets that are looking to save fuel costs, go "green" or provide a competitive advantage.

"It's a win for the company that they don't have to burn the fuel, but a win for the driver that they have an environment where they're comfortable and have a good night's rest," he says. "And with the high driver turnover, they don't want to facilitate more of that, so they want their drivers to be pretty happy."

Webasto also offers engine heaters--typically for the Class-8 market--including the TSL 17, which integrates into the coolant loop of the engine, and preheats it using an evaporative burner.

"It's used where it gets into the negative temperatures in the winter and you don't want to start the engine cold," Thomas says. "Instead of plugging it in with a block heater, you can actually turn this on like an alarm clock timer, so it comes on, starts warming the engine an hour before you start, and when you come out, the vehicle's ready to go. You can get much larger ones that are capable of heating both the engine and the passenger compartment as well. It just depends on what your preference is and where you drive."

Popular Options

John Dennehy, vice-president of marketing and communications for Mississauga, ONT-based Espar Heater Systems, says that the company's most popular cab heating-only option by far is the Airtronic D2 fuel-fired bunk heater. The system draws fuel directly from the existing fuel tank and can run for about 22 hours on one gallon.

"You see some significant savings in fuel costs and a bigger savings in reduction of emissions," he says. "It's a 7,500 BTU heater; it operates very much like your house furnace, where you would mount a thermostat inside the bunk area, typically near your head. You set the desired temperature and then the heating system regulates between four different heat levels automatically, very silently, and continues to circulate hot air around the bunk until the heater turns off or the driver shuts it off. There is no more efficient way than heating a vehicle that way, in terms of air."