Avoiding the A/C

[sh0rtlife]

Originally Posted by ltwargssf

I have a scan gauge and idling/slow speeds with the ac on you will get a noticeable mpg drop. Once you are going and cruising its not much at all.

i can verify that with "real world" use....been delivering a a IC for a big box co, and can tell you without a doubt that idling with the AC on will KILL your mpg, but wide open HWY running it may ding you 1 point at best....dead of summer full AC running i found it wasnt the travel hurting it was the idling IE stop grab package sprint for door sprint back to car GO GO GO, but when your talking about 40-50 stops of sitting idling for 30sec to a min per it adds up fast

someones going to spout shut off the car, yeah our AC systems suck to get "up to speed" but work really well once they are ahead of the heat curve/humidity..and the amount of time to re-cool and remove the humidity we had this summer..your at your next stop swetting bullets and the car has just started to cool again and your shutting it down..by the 3rd stop youve got enough engine heat soak into the cooler that you leave it running for the next 3 stops to "catch up" or you suffer the heat and shut it down entirely as its pumping more humidity into the car trying to play catchup

all said if im delivering with the AC running full and idling at stops i noted a drop from my 27 to 25, while my wife who isnt as fast noted a drop down to around 27..Ie she would spend more time idleing than i would