AC or Windows down?

I can smell cigarette smoke from the driver of a car 400 metres (1/4 mile) ahead of mine on a freeway traveling at 110km/h (70mph). I'm an ex smoker, we are the worst!

 

The air gets in and the air gets out through 1 window. I think the air in the car swirls around and there is an exchange of air at the window.
I have a feeling the more noise it is making the more having the window down is messing with your milage. Noise is energy and that energy comes from somewhere. Your fuel tank.

 

If I do open any windows, it's usually the driver's window and the rear passenger's side window. It seems to get a better cross flow without a lot of buffeting.

 

You want to go deaf... open just the drivers rear window and drive faster than 45... DEAR GOD...

 

You're still creating a buffer where the wind has to change direction. Either way will be bad.. the wind will cyclone in the interior before it exits through the second window, so it shouldn't change efficiency much.

 

It turns out from numerous tests and theses, that its a wash. Opeming the windows increases areo drag so much at any speed over 20 mph (and thats because nobody tested at under 20) tha closing thw indows and using A/C had no advantage or disadvantage at normal speeds and temps. At greater speed the A/C was the clear winner as Cd's increased to more than .40 !
Usding the vehicle fresh air in wityhout iopening the windows was competitive but of course not saving $ in discomfort loses to not saving in comfort.

 

I get noticeably better MPG numbers with the window down rather than using the AC. My C spends a lot of time at stop lights, parked in driveways, parking lots, and the like. The AC doesn't just use more power, it keeps drawing when I make those quick jumps out of my car, unless I constantly turn it off and on, so windows is the way to go for me.

Note that my C is showing an average speed of only 19 MPH since I bought it. I did 116 miles in deliveries the other day when it was hot and sunny and got a noticeable trucker tan...well burn actually, so there is a downside to the window method.

 

I wish there was a more aggressive eco setting that only turned the AC/heat/defrost on when the ICE would be on anyway.

 

Weird thing about my AC, is that even though I have it off, I can still feel cold air (presumably from outside) coming through the vents above the climate controls. It's more like a draft... Is this normal? I don't see how to turn it off in the manual other than have it blow down to my feet but even then...

 

I think it only does that when the internal temperature of the car gets too warm. It seems to be initiated by the battery fan. When I go over my 80 degree threshold, that happens.

 

It hasn't gotten that hot outside yet, it's been 50 degrees and I feel like the outside cold air just gets through the vents, more so when I go faster. I mean, there's only one OFF button on the climate controls but it still displays the person icon with an arrow pointing to where the air should go; nothing else is on the display like no temperature or anything.

 

I live by the sea where it's 60s-90s at most year long and always with nice cool winds, so windows down for me

 

You have it set to vent outside air into the cabin, so even with the fan turned off traveling down the road will force outside air into the cabin, and traveling faster will force more air in. There is a button on the climate controls to recycle cabin air, push this to light up the button and it will stop venting in outside air. The button looks like the outline of a car with an arrow making a circular motion within it, it's just below and to the left of the front window defrost button. With it set to recycle you won't have any noticeable internal air movement unless you turn the fan on.

The AC absolutely will not run if the fan isn't on, but I found out the heater is a different story, it always tries to get the cabin to your preset temperature (possibly only when venting in outside air?). Just don't set the temp up too high on the climate control and forget about it.

 

Well that makes more sense. I figured "OFF" meant Off, for crying out loud, there's an Off button, it should work.
Nice mustache by the way O_O

 

How to Reduce MPG loss Because of A/C Use | PriusChat

 

I can't think of any other car that the heater goes off when you turn off the fan or that switches to recirculate when you switch off the fan.

 

I think the temperature control determines the ratio of hot air from the engine to outside air that comes through the vents. If it's not set to "low", it usually seems to be warm, even if the fan isn't on. Not sure what it does when recirculation is turned on.

 

No, but without the fan on you don't have access to the temperature dial, or even know what it is set to. In most cars you don't have to turn the fan on to turn the dial.

Which comes to another thing that mildly bugs me. You can't turn the fan off by pressing down on the fan speed, have to hit the actual off button, which still gets me every once in awhile.

 

The fan button should be a fan toggle button, not a fan off button. If the fan is on and you press it, the fan should turn off. If the fan is off and you press it, it should turn the fan back on to the previous fan speed setting. This way you don't have to screw around with the fan speed so much.

 

Being "COOL" at 17 & Being "COOL" at 58 is to different things.
If it's Hot & Humid AC on 24 hours a day. I only move fast between AC environment's.