I wouldn't call it a waste of gas.. especially where some of you guys are..
but does cranking up the AC really make you drain your gas tank a lot quicker? and if so .. is there a huge difference?
From what i understand.. or rather what other ppl have told me is that.. AC drains ur battery or something and ur car needs to conpensate with gas??
BUT i am a total noob when it comes to cars..
so .. answers neone??

 

your ac is a compressor that draws its power from your engine via a belt drive, so it uses gas when the compressor is under a load...I wish my ac worked []

 

i read your post about not having AC..

I recommend you drive topless.
(by ur avatar i assume ur female)

 

Thats his girlfriend...

 

If you would read my profile you would see that my name is Justin which means thats not me in the avatar pic...sorry bro

edit:check the new sig text, lol

 

yeah i thought so .. and i wasn't hitting on her .. lol
dirty things just fly outta my mouth at times..

*nice sig.. lol

 

Yeah, the AC compressor is driven by the engine and it creates an extra load when it's working. The ventilation fan, on the other hand, runs off electrical power, but since your alternator powers everything while the car is running, it doesn't really drain your battery unless your engine is off. If you've got a good battery, like an Optima, I wouldn't even worry about the battery unless you're sitting with the engine off for more than an hour or so.

Since the AC runs off the engine, it isn't working when the engine is off, so you're just getting vent air blown around if you run the AC with the engine off. It does usemore gas to run the AC, but some cars are really noticeable and some aren't. I don't notice any real change in mileage with my '00 VP sedan between winter and summer, and I run AC all the time when it's warm out. I also don't notice much difference in power, but I'm not demanding screaming acceleration from my engine either. I've driven some vehicles though that were REALLY different when the AC was running. My family's '86 Renault Encore was crazy weak with AC running, even when it was pretty new. The thing could barely idle. Driving I-70 W out of Denver was painfully slow in that car during the summer.

 

i hate these types of threads (concerning this question that is). even if your ac is costing you money, if you lived in texas, arizona, flordia; what type of price tag would you put on ac? even if it is costing you a miniscual amount of gas.

how about this, if you want to save some gas money, then either drive when it's cold, or don't drive at all. lol

 

Consumer reports did a study and found that ON AVERAGE having the a/c on full blast gave ONE LESS MPG. in other words, dont worry about it.

 

^^ ya on mythbusters they did a test about using A/C or not and they found out that there is barel any difference its like 5 mi per tank of gas so its like nothing