block heater

[Mace Canute]

Wow........what can I say, you apparently don't understand

So much wrong information in your last post........it isn't even funny.

Funny...I was just thinking the same thing about yours.

Tell you what. Do an empirical experiment yourself. Get two identical thermometers and stick one in a metal box (no insulating factor, or at least minuscule) so it is out of the wind and put the other one out in the full force of the wind. They have to be close to each other of course and you have to prevent any external source of heat, like sunshine, from reaching both of them...that would skew the results. A dark windy night would be ideal. After they have been out in the wind for a good while (to allow the readings on each to stabilize) go check the readings and see what they are. I already know they will be equal but you do it so you can see with your own eyes that they are.

I have experienced frozen bridges when the ambient temperature is 40 degrees.

That would mean the bridge itself was below the freezing point and moisture in the warmer air condensed out onto the colder bridge material and froze. Nothing to do with "wind chill".

 

[TGReaper]

Play nice children:

Any air movement that disturbs the boundary layer will lessen the effectiveness of a heat source.(block heater)

By the same token shelter from air movement will allow a given inanimate unit to retain heat longer.

Dan

 

[Willl]

Could the argument be more about terminology then process ?

 

[irvingj]

"Could the argument be more about terminology then process ?"

Gentlemen, I believe we may have hit the proverbial nail on the head here.....

Concerning "wind chill" freezing bridges: Yes, it could happen, I suppose, if conditions were just so, that a venturi effect --or some other means of accelerating air-- could induce a pressure drop (Bernoulli) and Charlie Boyle would cause a drop in temperature.... but I'd think that would be more likely at 33 degrees rather than 40. I see it happen on my roof all the time, as cooler evening air flows downslope, hits my roof, and spills down the lee side. I'll get light frost on that side of the roof but nowhere else... but that's at 33 or so, never as warm as 40. (For what it's worth....)

 

[boatyard]

Wow! I think we have a horse that we MAY be able to lead to the water, but it is not going to drink the water.
Temperature will not change in the wind. It may feel different to you. Things may cool down faster/ fully. But the temperature in the wind will never be lower then a sheltered spot out of the wind. Period. And many of you have stated this basic premise so well so many times now. Someone is not listening.:confused2:

 

[PILOON]

Ice and bridges:

A bridge will be the same temp as the ambient air but the road up to and after the bridge will be just a bit warmer due to the fact that the soil under the road bed is always warmer and therefore the roadbed will be just warmer enough not to freeze.

Might be but 1/2 or maybe 2 deg or so difference but water (snow) will only freeze at 32 deg. and not at 34 or 35.

Now that generally occurs in areas that enjoy 'borderline cold' vs up north where it is very cold as our frost can go as deep as 4 ft.
Also the warnings are because the folks in those areas are rather unaware of the phenomena. Up north we are more aware of those things.

Once in deep south I watched folks skidding, spinning all over the place because of a freak 2 inch snow fall.
Being a Canadian I drove all over the place without any incident, but very cautiously.

 

[Gio]

ok, how about this. If you bake a cake in a 350 degree conventional oven it will cook slower then a cake baked in a 350 degree convection oven. :confused2: Is this a reverse wind chill effect?

sorry...just being a wise guy trying to further drive this thread from a simple block heater discussion

 

[brokenot]

sorry...just being a wise guy trying to further drive this thread from a simple block heater discussion

Sorry, I wasn't trying to threadjack this topic away from the block heater discussion.

At work though, we get calls all the time to go out to jobsites and get rental machines up and running. The customers come up with all manner of excuses and explanations as to their role in the no-start condition the particular piece of equipment is currently experiencing.

If it got down to zero, (or below), overnight.....the machine doesn't start unless it was plugged in. A customer that makes the call to have me come out and get it going, will come up with any explanation they can in order to divert the responsibility away from them....because otherwise they have to pay for the service call.

I've probably heard it a hundred times at least over the last 20 years. When they call and say it doesn't start, it's like they assume we've never started it at whatever the current temperature is. So if it's zero degrees, we'll tell them that if it indeed was plugged in for even a couple of hours, it will start.

That's when they whip out the "wind chill" explanation, and it goes a little somethin' like this:

"Yeah, it probably would start if it were just 0 degrees outside, but with the "wind chill" it's 25 below!"

(That's kind of amusing as well, because it's like they think we've never started the machine when it's been windy overnight either.:confused2

Every once in a while, we'll find that a block heater has indeed quit working. But the vast majority of the time, the operator really forgot to plug the machine in, OR....the jobsite foreman killed all of the site power at the end of the day after everyone else left. The no-start is their responsibility.

It never has been, and never will be "wind chill".

There's my tie-in to the block heater topic.

 

[Egon]

It never has been, and never will be "wind chill".

Of course it could be wind chill. You must consider the effect it can have on the fellow having to go out and brave the elements for an extra trip to plug in a piece of equipment !:thumbsup:

 

[Kitz]

ok, how about this. If you bake a cake in a 350 degree conventional oven it will cook slower then a cake baked in a 350 degree convection oven. :confused2: Is this a reverse wind chill effect?

sorry...just being a wise guy trying to further drive this thread from a simple block heater discussion

:thumbsup:my heater question was answered thanks guys but this is the best one:laughing: