Air conditioning – the car cools down properly with a small trick

The car is in the blazing sun, and when getting in, a refreshing coolness welcomes. This experience is primarily granted drivers of electric cars. Many electric cars have a stand atmosphere that can be activated before getting in via the app or key to cool the interior even before driving. There are stand climate systems for combustion engines, but these are very rare. Usually you climb into brooding heat. This is hardly surprising: a car is ultimately just a sheet metal box that heats up even more in the sun than the ambient air.

It is most effective to avoid heat from the outset. A parking space in the shade or in a garage keeps the car much cooler. But if you only find a place in the embers? How do you best cool down the car? Just turn on the air conditioning system? That works, but is not optimal. If the interior is very hot and stuffy, you should first open all the windows and put the fan on full power. This type of lift feast exchanges the used air. After a short time, however, the windows should be closed again and the air conditioning system should be placed on “circulating air”.

This is displayed by a symbol with rotating arrows. What happens? The car no longer sucks hot outside air, but circulates the interior air, which becomes cooler due to the air conditioning system. The system also consumes less energy because it only has to counteract the heating of the vehicle in the circulation operation.

A temperature setting between 20 and 22 ° C is often ideal for combining comfort and energy efficiency. A temperature difference to the outside air is too large should be avoided to prevent colds. So don’t let it permanently “low” – then you can reach frosty 16 degrees and less. In the case of fresh air supply, the system must constantly cool the warm outside air to the desired temperature. On long distances you should occasionally switch to the outside air to improve the air quality in the interior. A car is not completely airtight, so that small quantities of fresh air still penetrate in the air -air operation. A shortage of oxygen is therefore not a risk.

However, operating air conditioning with open windows is not a good idea. It constantly flows into the car that was not cooled. In order to achieve the desired temperature, the system must then work at full power. Incidentally, open windows also increase air resistance and thus the energy consumption significantly.

With ongoing air conditioning in midsummer, consumption increases by twelve to 20 percent, open windows lead to similar values ​​without reaching cooling comfort. However, this can increase significantly in short -haul traffic. If a fully heated car is only moved a few kilometers, the system works very strongly all the time and if the desired temperature is reached and the ECO mode could begin, the trip is over.

You don’t have to wait a long time for the cool air. After just a few hundred meters, a modern air conditioning system works with full performance and quickly cools down the relatively small interior. It is more difficult to cool the surfaces heated by the sun. Fabric covers only slowly release the heat on bare skin. However, steering wheel, gear knob and leather covers can be uncomfortably hot. Here a cloth, gloves or a reflection film that are placed on the windshield before parking are helped to reduce the sun’s rays. Alternatively, you can also attach lateral sun protection films to the windows.