54
Independent of other factors, running the AC definitely does.
Idk the science of it but only what I have observed. I live somewhere where it is ~20°F in winter and ~85°F in the summer. In winter I avg around 21MPG and in the summer I avg 23MPG.
The difference in gas mileage is almost certainly due to winter blend fuel, which has a lower energy density than summer blend.
with such a cold weather, the engine is going to take a while to reach ideal operational temperature, so running un-efficiently for a while. MPG change will be more noticeable if your commutes are short
Yeah my commute to work is only 7 miles so that makes sense.
Also your tire pressure likely goes down, further hurting your mileage. Always remember to swap out the summer air in your tires for winter air.
In terms of engine efficiency, I believe having an engine that's warmed up improves efficiency somewhat, but if it's hot enough that you turn on your AC, your mileage is going to go down. I definitely notice a difference.
That’s true I did not think about the AC factor.
The density of air depends on temperature (and humidity, among other things). A huge source of loss at freeway speed is air resistance, so lower density due to higher temps should improve mileage.
Warm weather drastically improves my hybrid's gas mileage. The batteries don't operate as well once it gets below mid-40s fahrenheit.
Yep, it's worse, but minimal. I drive a heavy car (Volvo S80) on LPG and the mileage is tad worse, less then 10%. The best mileage I get on highway trips at 20C or just below that.
Your car's engine has a temperature sensor on the air intake, because it needs a certain fuel-to-oxygen ratio in the cylinder to ensure all of the fuel is ignited. Cold air is denser, so more fuel is injected in colder weather for the same volume of air. While accelerating, it won't make much of a difference, but it would lead to decreased fuel mileage due to more fuel used while idling and coasting.
Newer vehicles would not be too much of a difference depending on how much you let your vehicle warm up before driving during the winter. It runs less efficiently when cold but that would be offset by using the air conditioner in the summer. My primary vehicle is an 1988 4runner, it increases the idle when it's cold to get to operating temp faster, I don't have a/c. During the winter I get about 10mpg pretty much regardless of whether I let it defrost before driving or not, during the summer it goes up to about 15mpg. My fiance's 2003 Jetta only varies by about 3mpg between summer and winter though.
this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2023
54 points (100.0% liked)
No Stupid Questions
35694 readers
1072 users here now
No such thing. Ask away!
!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.
All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.
Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.
If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.
Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.
If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Credits
Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!
The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS