Conserving Fuel

Here is an interesting statistic that will help you focus on the effects of engine idling in the North American truck market.

Each year, trucks in North American idle more than four times the amount of oil spilled in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Most people think about oil usage in terms of consumption on the road. Transportation represents about 70% of the usage of oil in the USA and Canada each year so any effort to increase a truck's mileage can make a big impact on the amount of oil imported and consumed. That's why you see all kinds of aerodynamic devices on big rig trucks.

But most people don't think about all the trucks sitting in rest areas every night idling their engines to keep their drivers comfortable in their bunks. Class 8 trucks consume about .8 gallons of fuel for every hour they idle. And engine idling is one of the most negative effects on an engine's life. Long haul rigs can spend 2000 hours each year off the highway idling their engines. At .8 gallons per hour, that represents 1600 gallons of diesel fuel consumed by each truck each year. Take that number times an average cost of diesel of about $3.00 and you can see that the cost to fleets is $4,800 per truck.

The Glacier Bay ClimaCab electric Auxiliary Power Unit eliminates the need to idle the truck's engine to maintain the sleep bunk's temperature level. Our power management system provides 10 hours of temperature control using just four 12 Volt batteries.

Reduce Your Idle %

The ClimaCab® electric APU provides 10 hours of temperature control for sleeper cabs without the need to idle your engine. The result is significant fuel savings, improved driver comfort and less engine hours during the truck's trade cycle. Click here to learn more.

Conserving Oil

A Class 8 Truck consumes .8 gallons per hour of diesel fuel while idling at night to keep its driver comfortable in the sleeper cab. Many trucks idle up to 2000 hours per year consuming 1600 gallons of fuel.

Our ClimaCab electric APU eliminates the need to idle the truck's engine. Fleets can save as much as $4800 per truck per year.

Eliminating Carbon

The United States EPA estimates that 22.2 pounds of CO2 is generated for every gallon of fuel consumed. A truck idling 2000 hours a year puts over 17 tons of carbon into the atmosphere.

There are approximately 2 million trucks operating in the United States, half of which are sleeper cabs that typically idle at this level.

Glacier Bay is having a huge impact on the environment by eliminating idling.

Changing Power Generation

The generator set has not changed a lot since its introduction. Most designs run at two speeds -- idle and full rpm -- and are sized for their peak output characteristics.

Glacier Bay is changing that. Our "load aware" power electronics technology actually anticipates changes in the load on a system and varies the engine speed of the generator accordingly. The result is reduced fuel consumption, lighter, small size systems, noise reduction and an overall increase in responsiveness. This "disruptive technology" will change the face of the generator set market.