Two college students visiting national parks cross-country, a winter waitress at an expensive ski resort, a mother searching far for a job, a man who saved enough money to leave the "Cardboard City". For each of these individuals, the car is more than a means of transport. It is the room in which they live, with its own comforts and discomforts, freedoms and restrictions.

A.J. Archer, author of a book on living in vehicles, Car Living, writes, "car living is an option for those who are going through a change in their life – either a traumatic or benign change – and for those who have a car and some (but not a lot) of money." In a carliving.com website survey, 78% of the people who responded said that they felt they could survive by living in a vehicle. This study takes place in Eugene, Oregon where on any given night an estimated 71 vehicles are used for shelter.*

In the study that follows, we take a close look at the car’s overnight environment. We measure the temperatures in a compact car parked on the street overnight in sub-freezing temperatures, and we test strategies for keeping the compact car environment above 40 degrees overnight in sub-freezing temperatures.

We chose the temperature parameters for this study based on the article "Know Your Hypothermia"* which states that overnight exposure to temperatures lower than 40 degrees, under certain conditions, can result in hypothermia. While such instances are rare, each year, roughly 700 people die from hypothermia in the United States.