With thermometers marking temperatures above 30 degrees. In addition to protecting your car from the sun and keeping an eye out for air conditioning problems, there are also tricks to get the air conditioning to cool properly without costing more fuel. And not only that, but also for extend its useful life and that it can start to fail at the most inappropriate moment and end up with the cabin turned into an oven.
And it is that the air conditioning affects the consumption of the vehicle. While on, a compressor it sucks in the refrigerant gas and passes it to a condenser, where it returns to a liquid state in a radiator… up to the expansion valve, where it passes back to gas and cools. After cooling the air, it passes thanks to a fan through the grilles of the dashboard vents… and starts again.
All this process of removing heat from the air through mechanical processes (sucking in air from outside or recirculating air from the passenger compartment) wastes energy, which comes from the car engine, which must make more effort: In addition to moving the vehicle, the engine must drive the compressor. This extra effort translates into a increase in consumption between 5 and 20% (A few tenths in consumption, although it varies depending on the type of car).
And yes, benefits are lost, but you will only notice it in cars with small engines and demanding a lot from the air conditioning. It is also true that some modern vehicles choose to disconnect the climate control if the pedal is fully depressed, so as not to compromise safety by demanding maximum power.
Before entering
It is obvious that the more we try to lower the cabin temperature, it will cost more energy (fuel in this case), to reach it. Therefore, using tricks to quickly cool a car can save some fuel.
at boot
Do you get to the car and discover that it is like an oven? To help the air conditioning to work, the ideal thing is that during the first minutes driving you proceed to open the window a bit.
Yes, at the same time you turn on the air conditioner. Since warm air weighs less than cold air, it tends to go up. In this way you help it to go away and be replaced by the cold more quickly. After a while, you can proceed to close them.
windows
In our tips to use less fuel, we already told you that lowering the car windows worsens aerodynamics. That will make the car spend more… but that aerodynamic loss is not too great if the speed is low. According to several studies, the critical moment is at 80-90 km/h (From there, the air that enters “slows down” the car. Hence, in urban journeys at lower speeds you spend less fuel with the windows down than using the air conditioning fully to cool the car.
Sometimes, when the heat is very hot, rolling down the windows is not enough to guarantee a comfortable temperature… but opening them will renew the hot air of the car, lowering the passenger compartment a few degrees and making the compressor work less… spending less fuel.
Have you used it in winter?
Like any component of the car, that it comes into operation regularly is a Guaranteed to work when needed. So do not hesitate to use it for actions such as demisting the windows in winter. In addition to gaining security (it is much faster to gain visibility), you make sure that it does not get damaged due to lack of use.
don’t force it
To prevent the air conditioning from breaking down, it is also vital prevent it from working at maximum power. In this sense, remember the first two points to lower the passenger compartment temperature before starting the journey… and once under way, be rational with its use. You don’t have to freeze either. The ideal temperature inside the car should be around 22 degrees. Anything below that temperature is an unnecessary fuel expense.
