Truck idling restrictions will be the norm before long, rather than the exception. Today, enforcement of idle restrictions occurs at some level, either state, county, or municipal, in more than half of the U.S. While not yet commonplace in Canada, jurisdictions up here are catching on to the anti-idling thing, too.

Fortunately there are more options today than ever, and some technologies seem poised to take us well into the future. Here’s what’s on the market now.

Diesel-fired cab heaters are the least expensive technology on the market, and the easiest to install and maintain. Basically small forced-air furnaces, these heaters run all night on fractions of a gallon of fuel, produce no emissions to speak of, and require little maintenance.

Espar, for example, has an interesting window-mounted unit called the Baire Necessity that provides engine-off heat to the cab, and it doesn’t require the permanent installation of the company’s Airtronic D2 bunk heater. It’s portable too and can easily be transported in the truck or just as easily moved from one truck to another. We might even see freight terminals supplying them to drivers for temporary use.
 

Coolant heaters are often included in battery-powered climate control systems whose primary function is cooling, such as Kenworth’s Clean Power system and Peterbilt’s Comfort Class system.

The Paccar system uses four dedicated, advanced deep-cycle batteries that power a thermal storage cooler with 21,000 BTUs of cooling capacity. The system has the capability to provide engine-off cooling and heating, plus power 120-volt auxiliary loads.

The charger/inverter also charges the two dedicated starting batteries incorporated into the system. Kenworth claims Clean Power can keep sleepers cool and provide accessory power for up to 10 hours even with ambient temperatures as high as 95ºF degrees.

While IdleAire is not available in Canada yet, it’s an
example of the kind of off-board electrified parking spaces
that will have deeper market penetration in the future.

While the Paccar system is proprietary, Webasto’s Cool Blue Truck package works in a similar manner and is widely available. During the charging cycle, a large-capacity alternator supplies an inverter that converts the DC power to AC to drive a refrigeration compressor. The compressor freezes a water-based coolant circulating within tiny tubes contained in a storage unit. A full charge takes four to six hours of driving time, Webasto claims.

During the operating cycle, chilled coolant circulates through heat exchangers, where fans circulate the cool air throughout the sleeper.

"We’re working on the next generation of Cool Blue Truck, and we’re shooting for greater efficiency in the cooling media so we can retain a greater level of cooling for longer periods," says Webasto’s Michael Lee.

There’s a new cooling system available now, brought to the truck market by a ­company with roots in designing and ­manufacturing refrigeration, air conditioning systems, DC power management platforms, and high-tech insulation products.

Key to Glacier Bay’s battery-driven ClimaCab system is a proprietary Power Management Module, used to regulate each component for maximum efficiency under any set of conditions.

"ClimaCab uses state-of-the-art heat exchangers in the coils and the evaporator, and fans that are as efficient as they can be," says general manager, Jay Parr. "We can make all those pieces work very efficiently together thanks to a control strategy that puts the thermodynamic cycle in its most efficient place for any environment."

Parr claims ClimaCab is up to twice as efficient as any other system on the market. "We can give them twice the cooling for the same amount of time, or the same level of cooling for twice as long," he says, "at half the total cost of ownership of a diesel APU."

And there are still the off-board systems to consider: shore power, or truckstop electrification. They offer limitless power with no weight or space penalty, and zero emissions.

If fuel prices aren’t enough to change people’s
minds about idling, increased enforcement certainly could be

Their biggest weakness at this point is limited availability. But as networks expand the chances of finding a spot to hook up to will improve. A recently announced $22 million grant from the U.S. government will help to install electrified truck parking spaces at 50 truckstops there in the coming year.

SIDEBAR:

Will a single technology emerge and lead the way toward idle-free living? Three years ago, the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) surveyed the owners of some 55,000 power units to get a sense of where idle-reduction was headed.

The results predicted market share for battery-powered systems would reach 40 percent by 2010, with diesel APUs and fuel-fired cab heaters holding at 28 percent each.

Combined, the survey group said it expected to spend $56 million on idle-reduction technologies over a five-year period following the survey. You might be able to guess where the money would have been spent had the recession not sealed up everyone’s pockets. The preference of those owners seems clear, but battery systems aren’t without shortcomings too.

While cost and weight are similar to the diesel models, battery-powered HVAC systems have relatively short duty cycles, and the batteries take a lot of storage space. But there’s huge potential for improvement here. Already, advanced absorbed-glass-mat and carbon-foam batteries offer deeper cycling and faster recharge cycles than lead-acid batteries without placing an excessive burden on alternators.

Smaller, lighter, and more powerful storage cells are within reach, and with the advanced power ­management systems now entering the market, the potential for this technology looks better all the time.

Does all this mean the traditional diesel-powered APU has seen its day?

Despite criticism about maintenance demands, the recent mandating of expensive particulate filters, and restrictions on their use in some states, diesel APUs offer virtually limitless operating time — give a supply of fuel. That’s still a big consideration among the weekend layover crowd. Diesel APUs and cab heaters remain portable, meaning they could see service on more than one truck.

Ed Maxwell of EnviroDock, a shore-power provider with installations in upstate New York, says aggressive enforcement of the anti-idling laws in that state is generating a lot of interest in key-off climate control.

"Every time the cops make a sweep of the parking lot, we see the docks fill up almost immediately afterward," he notes. "If fuel prices aren’t enough to change people’s minds, increased enforcement certainly could be."