Idling...how many gallons per hour?

$7k-$10k buys a lot of anti-idling tickets.

Personally, I'll take my chances with the tickets until or unless some goobermint goofball makes the ticket into a points violation.

I don't know about your truck but all of mine turned into an "easy bake oven" inside of a few mins of sitting in the sun.
It turned into a "meat locker" within minutes in the winter too.

I nearly froze to death one time because I was trying be a "company guy" & be "green friendly".
You can forget all that.

My safety & comfort is worth every bit of fuel that I supposedly "waste" in the effort.
I'm not against "green" but I'm not going to kill myself over it either.

When my dispatchers show me the thermostat in the office is set for 30' or less in the winter or 90' in the summer, I'll be more willing to do my share in keeping climate control costs down.

The same goes for keeping police, fire, DOT etc vehicles comfy during the year.

I am not oblivious to pollution created by idling engines.
I'm also not convinced that todays engines can't idle in a low emmisions condition either.

I get to thinking about all those oil fired heaters/furnaces in people's homes & how inefficient & nasty they burn...day after day..night after night.
I'm sure you've smelled them as you went by in a residential neighborhood.

At 0.45-0.5 gals per hour, how much can a new engine spew out in harmful particulates?
Can't be much different than a home heat plant running on oil.

I could go on but it's pointless..I'm preaching to the choir.

 

Actually, the APU is not idling most of the time because it's actually working to keep the batterys & the air conditioning compressor going. If heat is needed, I'm sure it cranks up a bit to generate the hot water.

Think refer unit.

 

Depending how many hours you typically idle right now will determine your fuel savings with an APU. The advanatage of an APU is that you can use it anywhere, off ramps, KMart parking lot, etc. With IdleAire you have to find a truck stop that has it and then hope that the spots aren't full. With fuel costs now averaging over $3.25 throughout the US your fuel savings will add up much more quickly.
$3.25 X 8 hrs. = $26 per night
26 X 5 nights = $130 per week
$130 X 50 weeks = $6500 (assuming you take a couple weeks off)
APU fuel usage = 0.2 gal/hr = $1300
$6500 - 1300 = $5200 annual fuel savings.
Also, these numbers do not take into account less wear and tear on your truck engine, less preventative maintenance on truck engine and less alternator and other component failures on the truck.

 

I have found in my 07 Volvo to be about 1 gal per hr. With just the apu running it's under .5 gal per hr.

 

Your APU is burning .5 gal per hour? What kind do you have?