Hmm! strange how the air con in my car clears the misty windows very quickly on cold mornings.
Hmm! strange how the air con in my car clears the misty windows very quickly on cold mornings.
But does it maintain say 21c at a rh of 60% or does it just get drier and drier as it cools?
Chris French formulated the question :
My CC has a similar function, a button marked ECONOMY. It disables the a/c system, but the heating works normally.
Adrian used his keyboard to write :
My CC automatically recirculates, if there is a wide temperature difference between actual and desired temperature. It is also useful for drying the car interior and your clothes in wet weather.
My BMW has fully automatic climate control - but you can still switch off the AC. It will remember the state of the AC at switch on. Obviously with it switched off you can't achieve a lower temp than ambient.
It likely is more efficient in pure terms. But it doesn't cool down the car left in a hot sun nearly as quickly.
The Rover uses an AC Delco unit from the US days of cheap fuel.
Remember an article in the then motoring press when the new Rolls Royce Silver Shadow was described. The first Rolls with standard AC. The article said the AC used about the same power as a Mini made at maximum. ;-)
You simply don't get out for nowt. To be of any use, AC has to produce several kW of cooling. The heater gets this for free as waste heat from the engine. The AC has to generate this cold air. So has to make the fuel consumption worse. Unless it's a VW where they fiddle the software, of course. ;-)
Dave Plowman (News) explained :
Modern a/c compressors have some sort of variable load gubbins, to match the output to the needs for cooling.
True, but they make up for that by allowing the windows to be kept closed during hot weather, making the car more slippery through the air.
Dave Plowman (News) wrote on 10/01/2016 :
That sounds a bit unlikely. 2 or 3 Kw seems around the normal for a/c.
They all do that. Cycle on and off by demand. Modern ones may well have a more efficient way of doing things, but will still take a lot of power at maximum demand.
In a traffic jam? ;-)
Writing as an ex-Engineer who used Air Conditioning in his work, that is correct. Office buildings and hotels usually have full air conditioning, houses usually don't, (they can have cooling), and cars very rarely do. It requires a source of water, of course, such as an onboard storage tank for a car, which must be kept scrupulously clean. It should be possible to trap condensate from cooling to help keep this topped up, but the timing might be a problem. I believe at least one car was advertised as having humidification, maybe a Jag or a BMW, or RR?
Not at all. It dries it out by cooling it below Dew Point, then reheats it. But that is not Air Conditioning.
Ah, I see, but in my previous cars without Aircon, the screen *heater* cleared the screen of mist.
..but not as quickly or as effectively as it would have been with a/c.
Dave Plowman (News) wrote on 10/01/2016 :
On and off is not variable load, variable load is variable load.
Yes, by blowing warm (damp) air at it. Once the heater's blowing warm.
Blowing (even cool, before the heater's chucking much out) dry air at it will clear it much faster, and much more effectively.
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