Yay for air con... boo for fuel economy! \o/

On another note, what is the lowest temp peoples climate control goes to?
Click to expand...

15c on the Scorp but I've done a mod that gives lower vent temps - -4c - any lower the exchanger starts to ice up.
 
18c then it goes into low mode which will cool the air as much as possible without things in the system starting to freeze :p

I wish it went down to 16c but meh, i'll make do!
 
rover416i said:
Nice and cool on my commute this morning! :D

At half 5 I shall be going to my car, getting it cool inside then cruising home while everyone else in their sweatboxes melts :p
Click to expand...

Pretty sure nearly everyone else on your commute has air-con. I can't remember the last time I got in a car without it (my dad's Picasso notwithstanding, although that's just because it's one of the long list of things that's broken :p)
 
I find it amusing the amount of people that drive around sweating with the windows down in cars that quite clearly have some form of aircon (MKIII Mondeos for example).
 
killsta said:
On another note, what is the lowest temp peoples climate control goes to?

Mine only goes to 15C...no 'low' mode. I want it colder dammit!
Click to expand...

Mercedes climate goes down to 12c, then "Lo". Both have the same effect - damn cold car :)

Overlag, i would suggest that there is something wrong with your AC, what do you do in...buildings...for example, which are usually permanently air conditioned.
 
clv101 said:
No, I did 167 miles Monday afternoon with the aircon on and returned 57mpg in the Fabia VRS. I wasn't driving particularly slowly so wouldn't have expected it to be much more.
Click to expand...

I think it depends on the car in question. My Mondeo Zetec Oil Burner see's a very small drop in fuel echonomy whereas my friends 1.4 Fiesta see's a much bigger drop.
 
because it kills MPG and makes me feel ill if its left on for long periods.
Click to expand...

Modern AC systems don't kill MPG - in fact, it doesn't affect my 8yr old Scorpio at all. Probably makes more difference if you have a weedy engine though.

And if it makes you feel ill, as already said then there is something wrong with it - probably need an anti bacterial treatment. Could even have a minor coolant leak in the exchanger (now that WILL make you feel queasy)
 
Jez said:
Overlag, i would suggest that there is something wrong with your AC, what do you do in...buildings...for example, which are usually permanently air conditioned.
Click to expand...

all car AC's have made me sick if I'm honest. I just got back from dropping parents off at the airport. I had to use it for the whole journey on the m25, and now i have a sore throat and headache. That was in my parents Scenic, and i got the same in my Fiesta's. I also find that Car AC generally doesn't cool the car that much so you have to have the vents directed at you. I think this is the problem...

i don't suffer in buildings or at home.
 
amigafan2003 said:
Modern AC systems don't kill MPG - in fact, it doesn't affect my 8yr old Scorpio at all. Probably makes more difference if you have a weedy engine though.
Click to expand...

lol weedy engine. So mr eddie stobart (R122 something?) is lying when he said it makes a 0.5mpg diff on his lorry, which only averages 8 anyway.... 0.5mpg is rather big if your as low as 8. Is that a weedy engine? No.

AC causes massive engine drag which you have to overcome with more throttle. The fact that all cars(1.2l, 2l, 2.5t, 3l v6 etc) ive been in jump 250-500rpm when the AC is turned on proves this.

Im willing to BET it does effect your Scorpio as well.
 
sore throat and headache
Click to expand...

Classic symptom of bacteria in the AC.

You wash it, wax it, vacuum up the crumbs and wipe off the muddy shoe prints. But no matter how clean you keep your car, there may still be bacteria and fungi lingering in its air-conditioning system, putting you and your family at risk for potential health problems.........Simmons learned firsthand the effects of driving a sick car when he got a headache every time he drove a test car to and from work.........................About 5 to 10 percent of all sore throats are caused by bacteria. The most common bacterial sore throat is caused by a bacterium called group A Streptococcus (pronounced strep-tuh-KOK-us) and is most common in vehicle AC systems that haven't been cleaned for a while.
Click to expand...

Vehicle AC systems should be cleaned every year.

I also find that Car AC generally doesn't cool the car that much
Click to expand...

You're kidding? If I have the AC pointed at the steering wheel the wheel becomes almost too cold to touch. My AC actually got me shivering yesterday. I know I've done a mod to my AC to make it colder but even in the wifes Mondeo surfaces are cold to the touch with it on max cooling.

a lot of people forget to put AC on recir if they want max cooling -that way your not trying to cool warm air from outside all the time - you're re-cooling already cooled air from inside.

Im willing to BET it does effect your Scorpio as well.
Click to expand...

I haven't been able to see a difference - but then again most journeys I do differ between 1-2mpg anyway due to traffic. For exampple, when I first did the journey to work, I did it with no air con, 38 mile round trip, 23.2mpg. Next day air con all the time, 23.4mpg. The same trip can vary from 20mpg to 25mpg. I even did a whole week without air con - £26.14. Next week with air con on - £26.40. I wouldn't say 26p increase is a reliable figure to suggest aic con vastly decreases mpg.

Oh, and when my air con compressor cuts in, there is no change in engine rpm or engine note - sits rock solid at 750rpm.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
amigafan2003 said:
Classic symptom of bacteria in the AC.



Vehicle AC systems should be cleaned every year.
Click to expand...
they have been in all my cars, not so sure about others ive been in though..

You're kidding? If I have the AC pointed at the steering wheel the wheel becomes almost too cold to touch. My AC actually got me shivering yesterday. I know I've done a mod to my AC to make it colder but even in the wifes Mondeo surfaces are cold to the touch with it on max cooling.

a lot of people forget to put AC on recir if they want max cooling -that way your not trying to cool warm air from outside all the time - you're re-cooling already cooled air from inside.
Click to expand...

exacty what i mean, the AC is FREEZING and it causes me to get headaches/sore throat due to the air being so cold. but if it isnt directed at me, i dont feel it at all and end up in a warmer pocket of air. cant win lol


I haven't been able to see a difference - but then again most journeys I do differ between 1-2mpg anyway due to traffic. For exampple, when I first did the journey to work, I did it with no air con, 38 mile round trip, 23.2mpg. Next day air con all the time, 23.4mpg. The same trip can vary from 20mpg to 25mpg. I even did a whole week without air con - £26.14. Next week with air con on - £26.40. I wouldn't say 26p increase is a reliable figure to suggest aic con vastly decreases mpg.

Oh, and when my air con compressor cuts in, there is no change in engine rpm or engine note - sits rock solid at 750rpm.
Click to expand...

400miles AC off, 44mpg. 400miles AC on 37mpg. Only issue is traffic could have effected that, but the instant readout drops almost straight away when sticking AC on. (only 20miles of that was non Motorway)
 
Last edited:
exacty what i mean, the AC is FREEZING and it causes me to get headaches/sore throat due to the air being so cold. but if it isnt directed at me, i dont feel it at all and end up in a warmer pocket of air. cant win lol
Click to expand...

Sorry, I forgot you were talking plain old poverty spec AC. Climate control solves most of those issues, dual zone more so.

400miles AC off, 44mpg. 400miles AC on 37mpg. Only issue is traffic could have effected that, but the instant readout drops almost straight away when sticking AC on. (only 20miles of that was non Motorway)
Click to expand...

I'm afraid I don't do any identical journeys in the same weather with the same type of traffic over those distances to compare. I'm still willing to wager there is no noticable difference in AC on or off on a Scorp though - it's well known for being a very efficient system and runs at a lower pressure but higher volume of coolant than most other systems. BMW's, Mercs, VW's and Audis also use low pressure systems which are very efficient - a fact borne out by owners of those marquees commenting in these threads that they see neglibable difference in MPG when the AC is on.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Well siad.

I forget the program but a TV show did a report where having your window down at +40mph harmed your MPG much more than AC did (which they said made negligible difference on modern cars anyway).

Only issue is traffic could have effected that, but the instant readout drops almost straight away when sticking AC on.
Click to expand...

http://www.airconditioningforcars.co.uk/ACpage05.htm

Similarly if on a hot day you drive along and perhaps note that the fuel consumption on your onboard computer shows 34mpg and you turn on the AC and it immediately drops to 28 mpg it would be easy to assume that you were loosing 6 mpg for the AC. Having read the previous few sentences you can now work out that this simplistic assumption is not in fact correct and that within a few minutes the computer will show a gradual rise to near the point at which it started.
Click to expand...

Have a read, learn something new.

Plenty of other techy articles out there dispelling the myth that AC kills mpg but I thought I'd link one that's easy to understand :-)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom