I'm new to air con. General advice?

thescouselander

I agree - leave it on auto. A lot of cars have an eco setting which reduces the duty cycle of the compressor in cool conditions so the additional costs are minimal.

JohnB47

gardner1 wrote: »

just select temp and leave it on all year round....mine stays on low setting most of the year but turned up a notch during summer
makes no difference whatsoever on MPG

So, when you say yours is set on low setting but turned up a notch during summer, I'm not sure what you mean.

Apart from Climate Control (which is a bit more complicated) mine has an on/off switch and a temperature setting.

What sort of settings do you mean? Are you talking about a temperature setting or something else?

Iceweasel

This might help explain things:

http://www.raccars.co.uk/news/what-is-the-difference-between-air-con-and-climate-control

mobileron

I believe the terminology AC is wrong,that takes u back 10 years when all we had was an on/off switch.
Now we have climate control,it will monitor the inside of the car and decide what to do,as we are not capable of doing this? Please just set temp at 20/22 and see those windows clear on cold days.

The cost of fuel is minimal re the cost of dried up seals and have it regassed every 3 years.

n217970

Turning the AC off on my car saves around 10% in fuel - thats about £200 a year for me. Don't get me wrong if its hot/raining I turn it back on but on a dry day at this time of the year its just a drain on fuel.

bigadaj

mobileron wrote: »

I believe the terminology AC is wrong,that takes u back 10 years when all we had was an on/off switch.
Now we have climate control,it will monitor the inside of the car and decide what to do,as we are not capable of doing this? Please just set temp at 20/22 and see those windows clear on cold days.

The cost of fuel is minimal re the cost of dried up seals and have it regassed every 3 years.

Some cars have climate control, some have air conditioning and some have neither.

Gloomendoom

n217970 wrote: »

Turning the AC off on my car saves around 10% in fuel - thats about £200 a year for me. Don't get me wrong if its hot/raining I turn it back on but on a dry day at this time of the year its just a drain on fuel.

I doubt 10% is typical.

I have had cars with climate control since the early 90's and the measured effect on fuel consumption has been negligible if even detectable. I have stopped bothering to worry about it now and it's set on auto all the time. However, my cars have all had engines at the larger end of the scale. My cousin had an aircon equipped Daewoo Matiz that would stall if he turned the aircon on at idle.

BeenThroughItAll

bigadaj wrote: »

Some cars have climate control, some have air conditioning and some have neither.

But one can't have climate control without the ability to condition the air using cooling, otherwise you'd only be able to control the climate to at or above ambient temperature.

neilmcl

n217970 wrote: »

Turning the AC off on my car saves around 10% in fuel - thats about £200 a year for me. Don't get me wrong if its hot/raining I turn it back on but on a dry day at this time of the year its just a drain on fuel.

What car is that? I would say 10% is unlikely. Driving around under 30mph with the windows open can use just as much fuel than older cars using aircon. Using climate control on mine has little impact on my fuel economy as is the case with most modern vehicles particularly with modern start/stop and economy systems.

You doing your car more harm than good if you don't run your air conditioning system over the long term.

Apodemus

Gloomendoom wrote: »

I doubt 10% is typical.

I have had cars with climate control since the early 90's and the measured effect on fuel consumption has been negligible if even detectable. I have stopped bothering to worry about it now and it's set on auto all the time. However, my cars have all had engines at the larger end of the scale. My cousin had an aircon equipped Daewoo Matiz that would stall if he turned the aircon on at idle.

I’d agree with this. I can never detect a fuel consumption difference (although logically there must be). At idle, the revs drop initially until the engine management system works its magic.

I’m not sure if it is a common feature, but even if A/C is off, mine automatically puts it back on when the direction knob is turned fully to windscreen.