Andyinchville1
Veteran Member
Hi All,
1) Since summer is here and my MPG have taken a hit because of AC usage I was thinking of something that I think could help us get back some MPG's maybe....
Back Ground:
The other day while I was driving at night, I had the fan at speed 1 and it was getting a little chilly in the car so I shut off the AC and ran vent for a bit .... eventually it got too warm and due to the humidity "sticky" inside so I turned the ac back on.
This happened for several cycles ( I was thinking the later at night it got maybe I could just run vents because coolness would set in but that point never came).
I remember reading in an AC thread here that it takes about 15 minutes for the AC system to stabilize and become more efficient , so my turning the system on and off was probably not ideal.
With that I decided to run the AC at fan speed 1 and blend in a little heat ..... NOW it was comfortable.
Problem :
From an efficiency standpoint , it is kinda crazy running the AC and mixing in heat to make it comfortable ... afterall the engine still has to spend energy to turn the compressor to make things nice and cool for the AC system!
Potential Solution :
Anyways , it got me to thinking ....
IF the fan speed could be reduced somewhat then the cabin would (or could) be made more comfortable WITHOUT the addition of heat and WITHOUT having to run the compressor more .... (i.e. the fan blowing fast on the evaporator makes the compressor work more to maintain the cold temp on the evaporator BUT if we slow the fan speed , the evaporator does not lose its coolness as fast and the engine driven compressor doesn't have to work as much therefore reducing MPG losses.
My plan to achieve this was to wire in an ADDITIONAL fan speed controller in series with the existing one so the fan speed could be lower and have more steps (speed wise) in between.
What are your thoughts on this ? (is running a fan too slow bad for the fan ? Is maybe not blowing on the evaporator enough bad for the AC system?) maybe I overlooked something?
2) As a second way to help with Air Conditioning efficiency (and I read it here in another post but it was so long and technical I could not get the bottom line on it)
What Freon (like R12 , R 12a, R415 ? others ?) could be used INSTEAD of our R134A to make the AC system more efficient ? I know there may be issues with seals BUT they could be replaced I guess ..... Just seeing which freon was the solution and how much it could save MPG wise.
3) I suppose if one had an unlimited supply of mineral free / distilled / rain water one could rig a mister in front of the AC condenser and maybe that would help?
Anyways, thanks in advance for any and all help on this ... Also, any other ideas on how to save MPG's WITH the AC running ?
Andrew
1) Since summer is here and my MPG have taken a hit because of AC usage I was thinking of something that I think could help us get back some MPG's maybe....
Back Ground:
The other day while I was driving at night, I had the fan at speed 1 and it was getting a little chilly in the car so I shut off the AC and ran vent for a bit .... eventually it got too warm and due to the humidity "sticky" inside so I turned the ac back on.
This happened for several cycles ( I was thinking the later at night it got maybe I could just run vents because coolness would set in but that point never came).
I remember reading in an AC thread here that it takes about 15 minutes for the AC system to stabilize and become more efficient , so my turning the system on and off was probably not ideal.
With that I decided to run the AC at fan speed 1 and blend in a little heat ..... NOW it was comfortable.
Problem :
From an efficiency standpoint , it is kinda crazy running the AC and mixing in heat to make it comfortable ... afterall the engine still has to spend energy to turn the compressor to make things nice and cool for the AC system!
Potential Solution :
Anyways , it got me to thinking ....
IF the fan speed could be reduced somewhat then the cabin would (or could) be made more comfortable WITHOUT the addition of heat and WITHOUT having to run the compressor more .... (i.e. the fan blowing fast on the evaporator makes the compressor work more to maintain the cold temp on the evaporator BUT if we slow the fan speed , the evaporator does not lose its coolness as fast and the engine driven compressor doesn't have to work as much therefore reducing MPG losses.
My plan to achieve this was to wire in an ADDITIONAL fan speed controller in series with the existing one so the fan speed could be lower and have more steps (speed wise) in between.
What are your thoughts on this ? (is running a fan too slow bad for the fan ? Is maybe not blowing on the evaporator enough bad for the AC system?) maybe I overlooked something?
2) As a second way to help with Air Conditioning efficiency (and I read it here in another post but it was so long and technical I could not get the bottom line on it)
What Freon (like R12 , R 12a, R415 ? others ?) could be used INSTEAD of our R134A to make the AC system more efficient ? I know there may be issues with seals BUT they could be replaced I guess ..... Just seeing which freon was the solution and how much it could save MPG wise.
3) I suppose if one had an unlimited supply of mineral free / distilled / rain water one could rig a mister in front of the AC condenser and maybe that would help?
Anyways, thanks in advance for any and all help on this ... Also, any other ideas on how to save MPG's WITH the AC running ?
Andrew
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