A conundrum that I’ve been thinking about for a while. Does turning the temperature up (to warmer) while running the A/C help save any gas?
I can imagine it would if it somehow decreased how often the A/C kicks in; however, I’m thinking that the car probably just heats the air conditioned air to make it warmer.
So, does modulating the temperature save any gas or should I just enjoy the air being as arctic as possible and manually turn the A/C off and on when needed?
The question is phrased to make an answer impossible. The truth could be completely crazy. Just run it at the comfortable temperature and keep your eyes on the road. It makes no sense to worry about too many things. The car could simply quit running tomorrow and all that thought would be wasted anyway.
Different cars will give different answers. The real answer is that you need to find something more important to worry about. This one is really too small to get excited about.
On most cars nowadays, the temperature of the A/C is adjusted by blending heated air with the cooled air, ergo, no effect on gas mileage from turning up the temperature. This is definitely true for cars with automatic temperature control.
Some low-end cars may still cycle the compressor on and off in order to control the A/C temperature. But, as has already been said, the difference is so miniscule that I think the comfort of the driver and passengers is more important than the few pennies that might be saved by boosting the temperature.
How you drive undoubtedly has more of an impact on your overall mpg than use of the A/C.
Older Toyotas had a blue “econ” button that would cause the AC to cycle on less. But as others have said other cars just blend hot air to vary the temp and it’s an insignificant difference anyway. I find that I can go without the AC on mildly warm days by driving naked. ;o)
With a slurpee.
You NIGHT save a wopping 1 gallon/year. Go for it.
Have seen 100 of posts like this, this is what you do.
Roll up the windows turn air off or run the air and be compfortable the short time we are hear, one or the other
When you want to cool the car, just run the air conditioner. Sliding the temperature to warmer won’t lessen the work of the air conditioner. The air conditioner is either on or off. There is no inbetween. When you run the air conditioner and slide the temperature control to warm the air, you are heating air that has already been conditioned (cooled), so it doesn’t save a single drop of gasoline. The only time it makes sense to heat conditioned air is in the winter when the windows are fogging up on the inside. This will allow you to have warm dry air coming out of the vents.