Skip to content Skip to institutional links

Common menu bar links

Office of Energy Efficiency Links

Office of Energy Efficiency (OEE)

Communities and Government

The Idling Impact Calculator

We invite you to try our new interactive calculator! Requires Flash Plugin

Calculate the impact of idling in your community, province/territory, and beyond!

This interactive calculator will help you determine how much fuel, GHG emissions and money you will save by cutting back on vehicle idling.

Simply select the level of information you require and the number of minutes per day that you think is reasonable for motorists to avoid idling. The calculator shows you the potential emissions, fuel reduction, and dollar savings that you can achieve!

STEP 1

Location Information

Region

STEP 2

Surveys show many Canadians idle on average 6-8 minutes per day. If idling times differ in your community, please select a time ranging from 1 to 10 minutes. This will be used to calculate the impacts of idling across the selected location(s).

Average idling time

STEP 3

The average cost of fuel for the selected location is provided. If you would like to use another average fuel cost to calculate the idling impact, please enter it below.

Average fuel cost per litre (optional) $ per litre (source information from 2004, desrosier data)

STEP 4

Preferred results for indicating the impact of idling

reduce the use of [#] litres of fuel per year

save [$] worth of fuel from idling per year

reduce [#] tonnes of GHG emissions per year

represents % of total light-duty vehicle fuel use in [location]

equal to taking [#] vehicles off the road

each driver would save [#] litres of fuel, [$] fuel costs, and reduce [#] GHG emissions per year

equal to a fuel cost reduction of [$] per litre at the pump

enough GHG emissions to fill [#] NHL-sized hockey rinks

save [#] trees planted to absorb GHG emissions

The final idling results for each community are based on the 2004 average engine size of all light-duty vehicles in each community (Source: DesRosier Automotive Consultants).