It waste gas to turn on the A/C while driving a car, does A/C means cold air?

Question

Some car model lets you turn on the A/C while the temparature is set to hot. Also, does it waste gas to turn on the fan with the A/C off?

Answer 1

A/C stands for Air Conditioning. It not only cools the air, but removes the humidity. This fact is useful in the winter time when snow is being tracked in and out of cars. Everytime you use the defrost mode on cars with a/c it turns on the compressor to dehumidify the cabin of the car as well as blow hot air on the windshield. When you run the a/c compressor it does put a load on the engine and alternator causing the rpms to increase to recharge the battery. As the rpms increase, your gas miliage goes down. Good Luck!

Answer 2

It takes power from the engine to run the Air Conditioning (A/C) compressor, so it uses more gas to run the engine with the a/c on. Typically 1-2 mpg. However, I saw a study saying that running the a/c is actually more fuel efficient than driving with all the windows down, due to increased wind resistance. It also takes power from the engine when you turn on the fan, (although significantly less than the a/c compressor) so that uses gas too.

I'm not sure what the thought is behind allowing turning on the a/c and setting the thermostat to "hot". It seems to be pretty common though - most cars you can do it.

Answer 3

turning on any accessory is thought to cause gas use ,,but the engine is charging the battery any way,, and also the air conditioner needs to run two hours a month, year around to keep the clutch from rusting shut and throwing off the belt that runs the cars accessories and or the harmonic balancer ,, so run the ac in cold at least for 5 or ten minutes a day any day of the year,, and open the windows and run the fan,, if the a/c isnt cold the freon or the fuse may be bad or need charging ,,, good luck ,,and fans and so on shouldnt cost more to run if the battery and the bels and so on are good ,,

Answer 4

Turning on the AC activates the compressor in the car which consumes gas. The AC only works at one level of power, it is either on or off. In order to allow you to control the cooling and not freeze yourself the system mixes warm air into the cold in order to get the temperature you desire.

Answer 5

Hi. The fan doesn't use up any gas. so Its Ok to run just that. Turning on the A/c uses the compressor, which does. Call a Jiffy Lube, I had that same question pop into my head when i was there for an oil change and they told me that.

Answer 6

The fan is run off the elctrical system. Though this will add some load to the alternator (generator) you woun't notice in mpg. However if the A/C is on it means the compressror is runnign which will put some load on the engine, thus les MPG.

Answer 7

You don,t mention the year and model of your vehicle.But on most vehicles built in last decade or so the A/C compressor engages when you select the defrost position anyway.This is done so that drier dehumidified air is blowing on your glass.This is providing of course that your A/C system is in proper working order to begin with.And it only means cold air if you have the temp. selector knob set to cold.

Answer 8

test run by Mythbusters on the Discovery channel, showed that the mpg of your vehicle is the same running the ac as it is running with windows closed without ac, driving with ac off and windows open puts more drag on the vehicle than running the ac. up to 5% more which reduces your mgp by 3-5%

Answer 9

did you know that rolling down the windows while driving wastes more gas by pulling the car down ?

Answer 10

A/C MEANS AIR CONDITIONING.--AT LOWER SPEEDS YOUR CAR WILL USE MORE FUEL. AT HIGHER SPEEDS IT RUNS MORE EFFICIENTLY, USING LESS FUEL.