What uses more gas in a car AC or Heat ?

Question

How about a car with no AC, but climate control. Which would use more fuel, Cold or Heat?

Answer 1

A/C by a big amount. The only power you need for heat is the fan.. That takes a very small amount of horse power. For A/C you have to drive the compressor pump. That takes a great deal of H/P and fuel..

Answer 2

First, let's talk about air conditioning. Your car AC uses a compressor attached to the engine that requires a certain amount of Horsepower to run. When you turn on the AC, a signal is sent to the AC compressor that engages a clutch on its pully to allow it to work. When it does this, the engine is managed to compensate for the load the compressor requires, which causes a little more fuel to be burned to make this power. The AC does require the engine to burn more fuel, anytime the compressor runs.

The heating system is a little more elusive when talking about requiring more power to operate. On the surface of things, you would think that it doesn't, because it takes heat from the coolant of your engine and delivers it to you. This is heat that is already available. But, anytime you run the heat or the air conditioner, it requires the running of a fan to circulate the air. This is part of the ventilation system of the car. Anytime you don't have the AC/heat controls set to off, you are using this fan, so yes it requires electricity to operate, which requires the engine to spend a little more fuel to overcome the load on the alternator to compensate for this. This is, however marginal.

The bottom line is; any time you want anything on a car to do work for you, it will use gasoline to replace this energy in one way or another. Sometimes the system is efficient (like a heating system) and sometimes less (AC systems).

Even so, these systems are fairly decent in energy consumption according to what people are willing to pay for gas. It is really a negligable value you are trying to pursue here and as long as you are comfortable with buying fuel you shouldn't worry too much if your personal comfort is being sacrificed by gaining a very small percentage on your fuel economy.

Copy and pasted....I did not write this myself...

Answer 3

Air conditioning uses a compressor, which takes power to turn, although the new units don't take as much as the old ones. Heat is free, it is a by-product of the engine, and the only power is that to power the fan. Climate control is a automatic temperature maintenance programme that controls both the a/c and heat.

Answer 4

with most cars today they all have air unless it is not wanted .The a/c compressor comes on to cool down the interior of a vehicle in the summer.But on a vehicle with it like my DAKOTA it comes on with the heat in the winter to take out the moisture and dry the air as it heats the interior.A car without a/c would use a lot less gas because the a/c compressor uses a lot of engine power to pump up and maintain pressure and flow in the a/c system.It causes engine drag durring all driving while the a/c is on .for the winter I have a switch under my dash to keep my a/c off so I save fuel at warm up and driving(about $60.00 to 80.00 a winter)not joking either .And in summer I switch it back on for comfort and sacrifice the mileage I lose.It saves the life of an engine I have 190,780 + miles on my 93 dakota,and 117,000 + on my 95 neon to prove my strategy works.

Answer 5

the ac does the heater dosent use any extra gas. the ac when its being used a compressure turns on and makes the motor work harder. now if u run the defroster on the car it also turns on the ac compressor on this is designed keep the ac in working cond during the winter so in the summer it still works good.

Answer 6

The A.C. When you run the A.C. you are turning a compressor.
When the heat is on you are using the heat from the engine that is waste heat. That is to say heat that would go out though the radiator normally.

Answer 7

AC

Answer 8

A/C