what wastes more gas? air conditioning or opening the windows.?

Answer 1

According to mythbusters on Discover Channel, neither one is fuel efficient, but the windows rolled down did not use as much gas as air conditioning, but only by a slim margin

Answer 2

AC intakes more gas, the cause of this is when the air is turned on, another belt from the engine is mobilized, thus expelling more gas. Now having BOTH windows down does the same thing, having them down produces more drag, the air that injects from both sides & collide. To save gasoline at a premium, just crack one side. I prefer the passenger side since a draft will be blown toward you. If you crack the driver side you wont feel as much if you were to crack the passenger side. DO NOT role down the window all the way, that produces drag. If you crack the passenger window, you'll have 2 benefits: you feel more air on your side, plus you'll reduce drag by a high ratio by just cracking it 2 or 3 inches. Try it, I do it, it’ll save more gas & you’ll have a nice (refreshing) breeze. Not during the day in summer though.

Answer 3

This really depends on the speed. I would say if you are traveling under 30 mph, the air conditioning will waste more gas. However, above that the windows cause drag that substantually ends up wasting more gas

Answer 4

Here is a bit of a tip. If your windows are down and you're on freeway it drags the car making it have to use more gas to push the car through and the AC is a good choice, but if you just turn your AC to cold and put it to circulate on your face without turning it on on the freeway then you will get cooled off because of the pressure from the wind outside will force that air into your car and it will be AC air.

I do this especially on long road trips on the freeway it saves gas and it cools you off.

Answer 5

Entire studies have been done on this question because there are so many factors involved. Conventional wisdom is to leave windows down at lower speeds and roll them up at highway speeds (the faster you're going, the more having the windows down will drag on your car). But according to New Scientist magazine's graphs on the subject, unless you're in an SUV, the difference between rolling down the windows and using the AC is negligible at all speeds. If you have a fuel-efficient car to begin with, using the AC shouldn't really be a question.

Answer 6

i really merely heard this someplace some weeks in the past. They reported that using aerodynamics, when you're doing over 40 mph, then that's genuinely extra gas powerful to close the domicile windows and do the A/C. that is because at those speeds, the wind truly causes a lot drag on the motorized vehicle it reduces the gas mileage. less than 40, you may do the domicile windows and that's extra powerful.

Answer 7

The A/C compressor takes horsepower to run. That means using more gas. But it makes a difference at what speed the engine running to how much more it will use. Around town, engine speeds are low so the engine isn't making much power so it will affect city mileage more. Once your on the freeway, the engine is revving more and making more power so the effect isn't so great. Your car is more efficient with the windows up at high speed so A/C with the windows up is better then having them down and causing turbulence

Answer 8

I assume you mean a car and the answer to that is air conditioner. They waste more gas then if you just had the windows down.

Answer 9

Well I gather that you are refering to a car... and in that case some veicals it doesn't matter... Depends on how the transmition is geared... On the bigger Dodges with really low geared transmitions even the owners mannual will tell you that running the air conditioner will not effect the gass mileage... But it drinks gas anyway... Now smaller cars and sport cars will see a great gass difference when you run the AC.

Answer 10

My father always told me that air conditioning uses more gas when in the car.