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[jereboam]

Recently, two sensible people of my acquaintance have mentioned in passing that they never use the air conditioning in their cars.  They both claimed that it uses too much fuel.  I was aware of this, because many other people have mentioned it over the years.

On my car, I have the climate control set to "auto" permanently.  The presence of climate control was one of the reasons why I bought the Omega, and the Mondeo and the Volvo 960 I had previously. 

My 3.0 automatic can only be described as a "gas guzzler" anyway, and when it finally passes on to the great breakers yard in the sky, I have no doubt that I will replace it with another vehicle of a similar thirsty persuasion. 

But I would be interested to know just how much extra gas it guzzles because of my use of the air conditioning.  Can anyone tell me?

[Lazydocker]

Having run my 3.0 both with and without I'd say very little At the end of the day, as you say, it's a big old motor to turn that little pump unlike smaller engined cars We had the misfortune of having a Nissan Pixo Automatic as a courtesy car recently and the engine note changed when using the A/C

Also, when over about 30mph the drag of having the windows open will cause more fuel consumption than the A/C compressor anyway

[dbug]

Few years back had a clit on hire in Spain - 1.0 lit engine - had to turn a/c off goin up steep hills and back on againe on way down !!

[rob in gib]

Few years back had a clit on hire in Spain - 1.0 lit engine - had to turn a/c off goin up steep hills and back on againe on way down !!

Oh dear

My air con is set to 22c and always on
defo needed specially at the mo with temp in the 30s all day and night 8-)

[henryd]

Few years back had a clit on hire in Spain - 1.0 lit engine - had to turn a/c off goin up steep hills and back on againe on way down !!

Oh dear

My air con is set to 22c and always on
defo needed specially at the mo with temp in the 30s all day and night 8-)

I was down there last week and know what you mean,thankfully our apartment  was airconned as well

[Entwood]

I've "tried" to do some comparisons over the years .... do a journey with aircon on and check fuel consumption, then do the return with it off and recheck .. has been totally inconclusive ... IMHO a single moment of "boot it past a truck" will use as much fuel as the aircon will in an hour !!

I was once told - but have no proof - that the average aircon compressor requires 5 HP to run ... so out of my 217 that is just 2.3 % ....

at 25 mpg a 2% change is 0.5 mpg ..... well outside the "noteceable" range !!!

[cem_devecioglu]

Having run my 3.0 both with and without I'd say very little At the end of the day, as you say, it's a big old motor to turn that little pump unlike smaller engined cars We had the misfortune of having a Nissan Pixo Automatic as a courtesy car recently and the engine note changed when using the A/C

Also, when over about 30mph the drag of having the windows open will cause more fuel consumption than the A/C compressor anyway

yep..its prooven..

[albitz]

I rarely use mine. I prefer fresh air to "conditioned" air. Its kept for days well above 25 degrees, which dont happen that often in these parts.

[Osprey]

I've "tried" to do some comparisons over the years .... do a journey with aircon on and check fuel consumption, then do the return with it off and recheck .. has been totally inconclusive ... IMHO a single moment of "boot it past a truck" will use as much fuel as the aircon will in an hour !!

I was once told - but have no proof - that the average aircon compressor requires 5 HP to run ... so out of my 217 that is just 2.3 % ....

at 25 mpg a 2% change is 0.5 mpg ..... well outside the "noteceable" range !!!

True... as long as you are actually using all 217 horses.  If you spend most of your time sticking to a speed limit you might only be using 50 horses, so 10% for the A/C. 

I haven't measured properly but, using the display figures on regular journeys, it looks like about 1 or possibly 2 mpg difference.  So I would agree - hardly worth turning it off. 

[Varche]

Years ago,when we visited America we upgraded (if that is the right word) to a Huggy Bear pimpmobile. That was a gas guzzler. It had cruise and superb freeze your passengers to ice air con. Much of the journeys are ultra boring 55 mph stuff dead flat. I found it cost 4mpg on the consumption having the air con on coldest setting. Normal MPG was about 25. Mind you fuel was only about 50 p a gallon in those days. Nowaydays they will be more efficient.

Are the specs different from North Europe and South Europe on an Omega?

[jereboam]

Few years back had a clit on hire in Spain - 1.0 lit engine - had to turn a/c off goin up steep hills and back on againe on way down !!

I'd forgotten - that happened to me once.  Got stuck in an underground car park in my holiday hire - couldn't get the car up the ramp, and had no idea why.  The woman waiting behind me eventually shouted out to turn off the AC - it worked!

[mantahatch]

iirc Mythbusters did it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBusters_(2004_season) near bottom of page.

Seems at low speed it is better to have windows open, but higher speeds it is better to use air con.

HTH