HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM YOUR CAR AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM
Do you get the most from your car air conditioning? This might seem like an obvious thing, but we find that many people don’t know how to get the best results from their car air conditioning, and we often give our customers a lesson while they are in the shop. Here is the best way to get the most from your car air conditioning system:
- Open all the doors. If your car has been sitting in the sun for a while, the cabin temperature can be extremely high. Job one is to get rid of all that hot air.
- Start your car and roll down all the windows. Don’t get in to your car yet if you don’t have to. It’s almost always hotter inside than outside.
- Turn on the car air conditioning system in standard mode, taking fresh air from outside of the vehicle, with fan(s) on full blast and coming through the front air ducts.
- Allow a few seconds for the hot air in the vehicle to be displaced by the cooler air coming from your air conditioner. Then you can close the doors, roll up your windows and start keeping the cool air inside the cabin.
- Once you have cooled the interior down to a comfortable temperature you can switch your ventilation system to “Recirculate” mode. This means you are now cooling the relatively cooler air taken from inside your vehicle. It’s more efficient and requires less power than cooling outside air.
Even if you only park your car for a 10-minute pit stop, it is worthwhile repeating this process when you start up again.
By the way, studies have shown that for the average vehicle travelling at highway speed, it’s more economical to run the car air conditioning with the windows up than to have the windows rolled down (even partially) with no air conditioner running. The reduction in aerodynamics uses up more fuel than running the car air conditioning. Now you know!