Park facing west or east

I usually face west but realized that with DST the sun is on the back of the car far longer than the front. I have the tint on the back and use the deflector on the front windshield.

I have lately tried facing east to keep the sun on the front deflector. It still hot as heck either way.

I have just ordered window visors so I can try leaving the windows slightly open.

 

West for late afternoon by similar reasoning, even accounting for the larger glass area and angles.
Cracking windows helps *a lot.*

It might be interesting to attach a pull-down shade to the rear window, and park facing east instead.

 

I just ordered visors for all four windows. There is a thread on here where others that have installed all four have not seen any mpg impact.

 

I like to park North-South. That way I can use the free charging of the magnetic poles...

 

My garage runs east-west with the doors on the west side.

 

Is it better to keep the rear window with the tint facing the sun for the majority of the time or the front window with the heat shield?

 

I say sunshade in front window parked facing south.

But the very best procedure is to have a Prius with the Solar Sunroof !!

I have 3M Crystalline on the rear glass.

 

OEM tint has I think 30% heat rejection; my WAG is that an aluminium sunblock rejects twice as much. So if the front glass insolation is less than half the rear glass, face west

A sunblock on the rear glass would change the numbers since it would have better heat rejection. I cannot calculate how much because I am unsure what effect the OEM tint on the rear window would have. I don't think the tint has the same effect when the sun is from the inside of the car (reflected off the sunblock.)

 

Can you expand on this statement a little further to be sure that I understand what you are saying ?

 

Sorry, that insolation sentence was goofy.

I meant to say that if the amount of sunlight entering the front windshield is =< than 200% of the rear glass, then face west.

 

Guys, why west?
The sun is always coming from the south.
Do you ever see solar panels facing west?

Facing west leaves your side windows collecting all that glorious energy all day long.

 

The discussion was for late afternoon. In my locale of New Mexico in the summer, that means west. The schoolchild refrain of 'rises in the east, sets in the west' is true for me in March. The sun is only due south at noon. If you really would like to be confused, I'll mention that the sun sets at 300 degrees in late June in my locale. Meaning the sun has left the southern sky completely! LOL

The U of Oregon has a wonderful solar mapping tool you can customize for your zip code

Re: PV, siting panels SW (about 225 degrees) is an excellent choice for my home. The annual collection is 92% of a due south orientation, and it increases the fraction collected from late summer days -- exactly the time you might want to run AC.

 

I have indoor parking, but when I had to park outside I noticed over the years of parking the car pointing at the same azimuth that it caused intense UV damage to certain interior parts of the car, i.e. seat coverings. For that reason, if you plan to keep the car for more than a few years, it would pay to rotate the solar orientation of the car to minimize concentrated interior UV damage.

 

My car is a vampire. It only ventures out after dark and I park it to absorb the most moonlight. I retreat to the darkness of the garage before sunrise.

 

I park facing south so the left side gets the sun after noon., I got great tint and other than a black car genrating heat, the afternoon breeze helps cool it off. I never was much for the front window protectors, at least not from the inside. The glass gets hot and radiates heat, heat is just inside the car, and not protected from coming in, radiant heat.

 

Yeah, the hot ticket, (cool actually) is to put that reflective mylar sunshade on the outside of the windshield and close it in the front doors.
But I can't bring myself to that level. Maybe if I had to leave the car for a long time....
But the best practice is to have a Level IV with the Solar Sunroof option !

 

When traveling during freezing winter conditions, I try to park facing east so the morning sun can help melt the morning frost on the windows, and warm the engine compartment. This sometimes also means finding a parking area with the least obstructed view towards sunrise.

The rest of the year, no preference.