Remember when you were a kid and either your family car didn’t have air conditioning, or your parents only used when they absolutely needed to because it was so “expensive” to run it? Oh, how those were the days. Driving on long summer vacations from state to state stuck to the seat of the car, or even worse, your little brother crammed in next to you and the family luggage. What if I told you what we suffered through as kids was not even necessary? That you could in fact, drive whilst being chilled to perfection even in the desert without burning through all of your fuel supply? Certainly not, no!
Well, listen here because it appears we were all lied to. Experts are now saying that if you want to save fuel that you can now do so by using your air conditioning. The folks at USA today recently reported some very useful (and somewhat surprising) tidbits by fueleconomy.gov, which is considered the best resource for all of your fuel maximizing needs.
Now, we will never get past the fact that every time you turn the air conditioning on that it will definitely consume fuel; that’s just part of it and science doesn’t lie. The pros are saying closing the windows and staying cool that way is more efficient than leaving them open and ruining any chances of letting aerodynamics work against you. When we have the windows down and are flying doing the freeway it causes the vehicle to need to work even harder than usual, which the Environmental Protection Agency says it not the best idea.
Some other helpful tips on decreasing your fuel consumption are to:
Park your vehicle where it is shady; even if this means walking a tad farther than usual to your destination. When parking by shade under a tree your car or truck will never get as hot as if you leave it out in the open in a sunny parking lot.
Crack those windows open when you first begin driving after leaving it parked for a long time to clean out the inside of the car and get some of that warm air back into the outdoors. For those that drive a hybrid car, you can pre-cool the car while it may be plugged in. This is a clever tip that will allow the car to utilize the electric grid for its power source versus your car later when you begin driving.
