Summer Tips: How to Effectively Use Your Air Conditioning Switching on the car’s AC has become such a common action today, you almost do it as a reflex, just like you close your eyes when sneezing. Most people don’t even know how the AC work and as a result they will use it incorrectly. Yeah, automakers have made the AC’s user interface very easy to use; all you need to do is press a button and set the temperature, the rest being done by the system, but there are some tricks to use the system more efficiently. Tricks that might be obvious enough to discover yourself, or hidden ones that not every automaker will share with you. We’ll tell you some of the most important ones here, but first let’s take a look at how the AC works. The air conditioning system in your car is a closed circuit containing a low- and high-pressure side: In the high pressure side, the coolant (which is gaseous at this moment) gets sucked in by a compressor driven by the engine. Yep, that noise you hear from underneath the hood when you start the AC is the compressor kicking in.

The compressor forces the gas into the condenser, which is basically a radiator that cools down the heated compressed coolant and turns it into liquid at a high pressure. Next, in the low pressure side, the high pressure liquid coolant gets pushed through an expansion valve and thrown into the evaporator. Here’s where the magic happens: the low pressure coolant has a very low boiling temperature and when it reaches the evaporator (which is a radiator inside the cabin) it will immediately turn into gas, process called vaporization. And as you might have learned in high-school, vaporization is an endothermic process, which means it is absorbing heat. So basically, the evaporator located somewhere behind your dash board, is cooling the air around it. An electric fan is sucking air from the outside, pushes it around the evaporator and then it gets blown into your face through the air vents. The cycle is then repeated over and over. Now that you know how it works, let’s see how you can use the AC properly.

Start with the basicsThe first step to lessen the AC’s work is to park in a shaded spot. We know you won’t find one every time, especially in huge parking lots, but keep in mind to always try and park your car in shade. It also helps you to know where the shade will fall at a certain hour near a building or tree when you go to work. If the only parking spot left is in full sunlight in the first part of the day, there are high chances it will be shaded in the afternoon. Spot them and park your car there. Even if your car will heat up during the day, shade will lower its temperature in the afternoon so it won’t be a furnace on wheels when you leave the office. If you park in a wide open area, you can use windshield shades to cover your car’s windows. This will reduce the greenhouse effect inside.The classic wayIf all of the above have failed and your car’s interior resembles with the deepest region of hell, it’s a lot better if you will try and ventilate the cabin first before turning on the AC.

So basically you have to open all the windows and drive a bit. An effective maneuver is to drive at around 10-15 km/h (6-9 mph) and take 90 degree turns, as the inertia will push out the hot air through one side of the car and suck ‘fresh’ one from outside. heating and cooling units for small roomsThis also works when you want to get rid of a fart before picking up your girlfriend.how much to replace home ac unitStart the AC in LowYou are not too happy when someone abruptly wake you up in the middle of the night, right? cleaning roof top ac unitsNeither the AC wants to give 100% when you turn it on. In case you have an automatic air conditioning system, it will automatically start in Low mode and will gradually increase its speed.

So try to mimmic that using the Temperature and Blower controls.Always use recirculation modeHow do you want your interior? Well, don’t just let the hot outside air to come in. Once the AC is blowing cool air in your face turn ON the Recirculation Mode. This means that the AC system won’t suck air from the outside and it will use the one in the cabin. Since the cabin air is starting to get cooler, the system will work less to further cool that one down instead of continuously cool the one sucked from outside.When you reached your destination, don’t just turn OFF the engine, because you’ll create a bit of a shock in the AC unit. First, turn OFF the AC while the engine is running. You can start doing this even before reaching your destination. The car interior should be pretty cool now so you won’t break a sweat. After turning OFF the AC, keep the fan working at medium to high speed. Do you know that puddle of water forming underneath you car after using the AC?

Well, that’s coming from the evaporator. The unit is almost ice cold when hot air passes near it so condensation occurs on its fins, forming water droplets. The fan working while the AC is stopped will dry out the evaporator and its surroundings. This means moss and other damp-dark-places-loving bacteria won’t thrive there and you’ll be spared from foul smells and possible respiratory system diseases.MaintenanceDon’t forget to follow your car’s periodic maintenance schedule, when the cabin air filter should be replaced. At least once a year, your service should spray some anti-bacterial substances into your AC’s ducts and vents. Also, at some point the refrigerant in the system will need to be replaced. Do it on a certified dealership that only uses original replacements for your vehicle. You should know that the AC will upset your fuel consumption. That compressor needs to be powered someway, and the engine is responsible for that. Another thing you should know is to not exaggerate with the temperature variation.