Which affects my car’s energy efficiency more: raising/lowering the setting on my car’s air conditioner, or raising/lowering the fan speed? Is there a most-efficient setting?
In: Engineering
The ac is either on or off as indicated by a lamp or snowflake symbol and while modern cars may offer an eco button that may or may not cycle ac as part of that, we should just assume it’s on. So the only effect there is if it’s running or not, temp setting doesn’t matter because it never cycles it just blends hot and cold air in different ways.
Increasing fan speed however does have an effect that’s more immediate though not as impactful as ac compressor on or off. An ac might pull 2-3HP while a fan on highest setting might pull 1/4 HP. Also we should consider that the engine fan will also turn on or run faster when AC is enabled and that saps power too, probably another HP or 2 depending on the car and design at least.
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