Efficient air conditioning could potentially save billions of gallons of gas
The U.S. Department of Transportation and National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) are hard at work developing new ways to make the air conditioners more efficient and reduce the interior tempteratures in our cars and trucks. What's the big deal? Apparently, a whopping seven billion gallons of gasoline are used each and every year in the United States alone to run automotive AC units, which represents 5.5-percent of the country's fuel use. Burning that fuel emits more than 58 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Surely, then, anything that can be done to make air conditioners more effective is worth looking into, and the NREL has a helper called ADAM. The 160-pound Advanced Automotive Mannequin features 120 sensing zones and is used to effectively monitor the ambient and surface temperatures inside a car, among other things. The end result of the organization's findings could be a savings of some three billion gallons of gasoline per year. That's hot stuff.
[Source: Wired]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jim 10:27AM (7/03/2009)
I think if we were to add up all the fuel savings that each of the forecasts "promise", we will be able to sell gasoline to the Saudi.
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Giuliano Automotive 11:49AM (7/03/2009)
I had never calculated the excessive fuel consumption due to air conditioners.
Congratulations on the article.
Giuliano Cosimetti
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Stew 9:45PM (7/03/2009)
Or they could not have the air cond come on when someone puts the knob in the defrost position. Yeah, it helps clear the windows faster but I am capable of turning the A/C on if I decide I need it.
Most of the motoring public probably don't realize (or care for that matter) that this is occurring.
Stew
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NeilBlanchard 9:26PM (7/03/2009)
Hear, hear! This is a big problem in an ice storm -- you need maximum heat on the windshield to be able to see, and the stock setting runs the flippin' A/C! I just unplugged the A/C fuse, and the *worst* mileage I got last winter (here in New England) was 41mpg!
Neil
Will 10:39AM (7/06/2009)
The A/C comes on to remove moisture and make fog removal from the windows more effective.
MikeW 12:13PM (7/03/2009)
Ventilated seats.
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Bill 12:33PM (7/03/2009)
And electric-powered instead of belt-driven compressors.
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Rodge 3:11PM (7/10/2009)
If you have a gas engine the belt drive is almost 100% efficient. When you convert mechanical energy to electric you loose 10% then when you convert the electric energy back to mechanical to drive the compressor you loose another 10%. So electric drive compressor in gas engine is only 80% efficent.
PopSmith 3:15PM (7/03/2009)
They should start using Solar Gard on all new car windows (or at least offering it).
It is a thin, clear film that goes on windows and blocks 99% of UV rays and "rejects" 66% of solar heat, according to the manufacturer. I don't know how well it works "in the field" but with a reduction in solar heat of 66% that would greatly reduce air conditioning loads from trying to cool down a car on a hot (or just sunny) day.
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Paul 7:58PM (7/03/2009)
Using Climate Controlled Seats (CCS)can reduce A/C 'load' by up to 80% and their are other methods such as variable speed compressors. The DoE are sinking money into thermoelectrics but their efficiency is only 5-10% in the lab. http://electric-vehicles-cars-bikes.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-power-heating-and-ac-in-electric.html
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axio.matik 4:50PM (7/06/2009)
A few years back, a Department of Energy study found that US gasoline consumption could be cut by 522 million gallons a year if every car had ventilated seats. Drivers sitting in these cooler seats would need to use the AC less:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/07/science/07findings.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1141752378-ReSKyGz0Qv30FQynAAS3OA
Also, the quantity of CO2 listed above can not be correct. Burning 1 gallon of gasoline produces 20 pounds of CO2, so 7 billion gallons of gas would produce 140 billion pounds, or, 63 *million* metric tons of CO2. (fyi, the 7 billion gallon figure jives with the study I referenced above. The 522 million gallons was quoted as a 7.5% reduction in the gas used to run vehicle AC systems)
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