Autotherm Information

AUTOTHERM® is also manufactured with two protective sensors. Even though AUTOTHERM®uses less than 1 amp of power from the battery, it monitors the voltage of the battery and shuts the unit off should the battery reach just above 50% discharge. The battery then still has enough charge to start the vehicle. The other sensor monitors the temperature of the coolant. When the coolant reaches 95 F the unit shuts off. This assures that uncomfortable air will not be blown into the cab. Another advantage provided by AUTOTHERM is that of Controlled Engine Cool Down. By automatically continuing to circulate the 185 to 212 coolant after the engine is shut down it eliminates the possibility of "hot spots" thereby increasing engine life. AUTOTHERM®'s success is based on the fact that "an engine not running is not polluting and is burning no fuel". That then means we are not only protecting our children from dangerous emissions but we are also creating significant fuel savings for the vehicle owner. Using some numbers that the state of Illinois provided to us we can establish the following. With 18,500 school buses in service in Illinois, each of which, on average idle unnecessarily 1 hours per day not only can we eliminate approximately 15 - 18% of the time engines would be emitting pollutants but we would also save approximately425 gallons of fuel per vehicle per 9 months. 425 gallons X 18,500 buses = 7,862,500 gallons of fuel saved per year. At a conservative $2.25 per gallon of diesel fuel that saves the state's school districts about $17,690,000 per year in fuel expense. An installed AUTOTHERM® T-2500 Energy Recovery System costs about $600.00 per bus. With the conservative savings outlined above the Payback Period on each unit would be about 6 months. Since the buses have an average life span of 10-13 years (the state's numbers) the units installed on these buses would not only account for approximately $180,000,000 of saved money but they would also account for 5,400,000 non-running, non-polluting engine hours over ...