Air conditioning light

I do the same. Its permanently set to 19c if the weather is colder it warms me if its hotter it cools me, perfect.

Mike

Many blokes would like to do the same , sadly if you have a female partner they will invariably fiddle in the vain hope that a cold engine will start pumping out heat if you turn the temp up and fan to max on manual control.

There really should be an option in the vehicles electronic systems that disables the cabin controls so they can fiddle but haven?t actually changed anything.

GH

Same here. I've never turned it off. It just does what it needs to do.

I'd guess different makers use the same climate control system - or rather from the same maker. Rather like engine management. And like all such things likely comes in different versions according to what the car maker will pay. Even although a lot of the facilities may actually come at a very low extra cost, if any.

Yes - I generally leave mine on auto, apart from fast demist/defrost. Sadly no electric front screen heater on this car.

I once had a Triumph 1300 that was equipped with a valve arrangement that allowed you to pull out a plunger to disable the heating system. It was suitably hidden so the passenger(s) would not realise what had been done!

Thanks again. This turned out to be the case. When the demist function is selected the A/C automatically comes on. This possibility had not occurred to me.

In article , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

You are always limited by your own experience. Unfortunately you do not seem to recognise that others are not.

In article , Scott writes

RTFM

In article , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

Utter bollocks. Takes very little. I've had several small engined cars with air con. Current is Suzuki Alto 1 ltr

This happens on my fairly ancient Rover. Which has zero automation for the heating - just the levers of the time.

Apart from the benefit of drying the air, it ensues the AC is used during the winter to help prevent the compressor seals drying out.

All that says is you are incapable of noticing the difference in performance and MPG. Or perhaps you think the power to run the compressor comes from the magic tree.

The 'eco' screen on my car's trip computer warns you about stuff that's burning diesel (windows/sunroof open when travelling at speed, bum-warmer left on) generally stuff you would struggle not to notice.

It gives an estimate of the energy used by aircon, which seems to hover between 1/16 and 1/4 gallon/hour, presumably would go much higher in warmer climes ...

Fuel consumption increases when the A/C is on but but with modern engine management the drop off in performance is barely noticeable, unless you are pushing your engine to the limit.

I cannot disagree. I don't have the FM as I bought the car second hand but before you say I know it's on-line and I should have checked. I was thrown by the previous model that did not work in this way. Thanks to everyone for keeping me right.

Makes no difference if you have modern engine management or not. Unless that management deliberately restricts engine output when the AC is not in use - so the likes of bert can claim it make no difference.

But rather obviously, the less the output of the engine, the more the use of AC is going to be noticeable. As the energy needed to cool the cabin is determined by the size of that, not the engine.

Tried that with mine, alas I don't read Japanese!

Are you practising to be TNP?

That rather depends on the AC system. Some will suck in excess of 10 BHP.

What was that you posted elsewhere about not assuming your experience is reflective of everyone's?

Or they can do it the other way - if the AC compressor can be driven by an inverter / VFD etc, then they can back off the power to the AC when you demand maximum acceleration. (modern AC systems appear to have some modulation rather than the on/off thermostatic control of older systems)

There is also quite a gulf in performance between AC systems as well. Some will drop the heat and humidity a bit, but can't really cope in really hot conditions or with lots of solar gain. Others can drop the temperature to fridge level regardless.