I plan on using a timer to run it 2 hours before I leave to save on the electric bill.

Anyone know what the watt draw is on these block heaters?

Is it equivilant to a room space heater's draw?

TIA

 

They vary, anywhere from 750 to 1500 watts. I've tested a couple cummins ones and they are around 1200-1300 watts. Depending what electricity costs it should be around 10cents a hour to run

 

plug it in and don't worry about it i had mine plugged in everynight last winter and did not notice very much of an increase on the bill i bet it was not more that 2 dollars a day and besides that plugging it in for 2 hours is not enough to really do any good

 

i agree with whiteeye. i did the same with mine, set it for two hours and nothing. after a week of finding the best time i settled with midnight on the timer.

 

I use a timer and have mine come on about 4 hours before I leave in the morning. I didn't really see much change in the bill.
IIRC the factory heater on these trucks is a 750 watt unit.

 

I've been using block heaters for over 35 yrs here in AK and I never use to worry bout the cost of running them. Our rates made a pretty good jump two yrs ago and broke down and went with a digital timer and haven't looked back. I set mine for 4 hrs and I have luke warm air as soon as the truck starts. Make sure you get a decent timer,last thing you want is no start to begin the day with.

 

I run mine for about 90 minutes in temps from 0-25°, and below 0° 4 hours.

I have an OBDII gauge reader and can see coolant temp. 90 minutes of operation provided 90% of the coolant temp of overnight operation at a fraction of the cost, $2/day adds up for a winter and you don't get that money back in fuel savings or heat unless its below 0° outside.

Do you have a winter front? That's important to the block heater being effective in shorter time, without it I need many hours of block heater operation to get the same temp.

 

All the Cummins block heaters I have changed have been 750 watt.

I don't believe it is necessary to run the block heater all night long; I don't think anything is gained over 4 hours of 'on' time. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning I will flip on the switch to turn the block heater on, so it can run about an hour before I start the truck. This doesn't warm the engine enough for me to feel heat at the vents, but is enough to make the engine start easier, which is fine by me.

 

I plug in mine overnight with timer, 7-8 hours, all year round. The coolant temp will be between 95 to 105 in the morning, depending on the ambient temp. I am going to try with my new winter front to see what coolant temp I can get up in the cold morning. I want the coolant temp come up ASAP.

 

I get about 90° in winter with just 90 minutes with a winter front. On days closer to 30° I get about 95°.

 

Do the math:

1 kilowatt = 1000 watts.

If you have a 750 watt heater you are using .75 kilowatts per hour.

If you run the heater for 4 hours you have used 3 kilowatts of electricity.

If you pay 12 cents per kilowatt, you will use 36 cents per day.

36 cents times 30 days is about $11 a month.

With a 1500 watt heater you can double that to $22 a month. Leave it on from when you get home at 5pm till when you leave at 6am and you could spend $70 a month for your heater. If your rates are higher, say 18 cents per kilowatt, you may spend over $105 a month!

 

I use a 250 watt oil pan heater as well as the block heater and the water temp will go from -20 C to +40 C in 90 minutes. I have the under hood winter front all buttoned up and it warms up nice and fast.

 

AH64ID:
Is your winter front the same as the one from Geno's?
I got mine from Geno a couple of weeks ago.

 

I just looked on the Geno's website and mine looks different. Mine is the Mopar one.

 

Why do you need block warmers? I am going to be stationed in FL next what temperatures do you use yours in?