air conditioning

Another German automaker has rejected the air conditioning refrigerant that's scheduled to be adopted by global automakers in 2017. Earlier this month, Volkswagen lined up with Daimler and BMW to support Daimler's findings from last year that the new refrigerant, called HFO-1234yf, can become ...

BMW has joined Daimler and, potentially, Audi in quitting an automotive industry research program studying a proposed new air conditioning refrigerant, the simply named HFO-1234yf. BMW disagrees with the test methods being used. "We do not want to say the test results are wrong, but we are not ...

The EPGAA, an automotive glass industry association, says that solar control glass can "substantially" reduce the need for A/C, thus extending the range of an electric vehicle. Overcoming "range anxiety" is key to electric vehicle adoption, says the EPGAA. That's exactly why the association ...

What is HFO-1234yf? Well, it's the refrigerant that recently received final approval from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is supposedly 350-times less damaging to the atmosphere than the current HFC-134a. HFO-1234yf, which is claimed to be a non-ozone-depleting refrigerant, can now ...

There are some people who cool their cars down with ice, but General Motors thinks drivers like standard air conditioning. Since the refrigerant used in most automotive air conditioning systems is not good for the environment, GM is proud to announce it will use a better type of refrigerant ...

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has announced that the "cool cars" regulation has been canceled. "Cool cars" tried to reduce the need for air conditioning in new vehicles by mandating that their windows reflect or absorb a portion of the heat-producing rays from the sun. The decision to ...

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 ...

Following a directive first created back in 2006, the European Union has passed down a ruling that would force European automakers to find a new refrigerant to use in their vehicle's air conditioners. There's some debate as to the timing of this mandate, as it's no secret that most automakers are ...

It wasn't all that long ago that the auto industry was under fire for its use of ozone-depleting chemicals in its air conditioning systems. To curb those fears, the older R-12 refrigerant was replaced with R-134a refrigerant. Interestingly enough, CO2, long associated with harmful automobile ...

While "sick car syndrome" has been known about for quite some time now, the recent rise in gas prices may be causing a resurgence of sorts to the odd but mostly preventable issue. The cause of the problem is the air conditioning of your automobile, which features an evaporator which can be a haven ...