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Occasionally you will see an article which advises you to turn off your air conditioner for better fuel economy. Then, you will hear that it doesn't matter whether you have the car air conditioner on with the windows up or off with the windows down, you will get roughly the same gas mileage either way!
Confusing, isn't it?
Well, it doesn't need to be. It's a classic case of comparing apples and oranges.
First of all, those who say it probably doesn't matter whether you turn the air conditioner on and close the windows or open them and turn the AC off...are absolutely right.
That's the apple.
If you are rolling down the road, the drag on your engine from having your auto air conditioner own is going to be, in most cases, roughly the same as the drag from the air entering the car if you are moving with the AC turned off. It's easy to see that since the engine will have to work just as hard one way as the other, your fuel economy will not be effected by choosing one way over the other.
Here are the oranges.
Let's say you are stuck in a traffic jam...or even in a line at a light, in the drive-thru at McDonald's, or waiting for your buddy who just ran into the convenience store who is now standing in line himself.
As you sit there NOT moving forward, every time your car AC kicks on, the engine will have to work harder to run it.
Roll the window down and turn the air conditioner off, and the car will not have to work as hard...saving on gas. In fact, turning the car off will save even more gas.
This scenario can even be valid in very slow moving traffic. Say you are going from stop light to stop light on Main Street, or Wall Street, There's not going to be enough wind drag to be significant enough to reduce fuel economy greatly at those slow speeds, but every time the air conditioner comes on, your engine will rev up to run it, and that WILL reduce your fuel economy.
We can play with semantics and scenarios all day long, but the bottom line is that your car uses more fuel with the air conditioner on than off. Other factors, such as how fast you are going, whether you have the windows down, and whether you are going uphill or downhill will then enter into the equation and determine how much fuel your engine is going to have to use.
However, apples to apples, if the AC is on, you are burning more fuel than with it off.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Donovan Baldwin is a 64-year-old amateur bodybulder and freelance writer currently living in Stone Mountain, GA. He is a University of West Florida alumnus (BA Accounting 1973), and is retired from the U. S. Army after 21 years of service. Over the last 40 years, he has written over 150 poems, some of which have been published in literary journals and online, and has also published over 300 articles which now appear on several thousand webpages.
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