I never understand people who open the window. All that does is turbocharge hot air at you.

My understanding is that the forced air draft aids evapouration of sweat which causes cooling.

Edited by RichT54 on 18/08/2012 at 18:02

>>I never understand people who open the window

Because its nice.

I have no scientific basis for this, only what I've read (maybe here/another forum/?):

As most people are aware, if you leave your car out in the sun, it'll get baked like an oven/greehouse. When you open the doors, it'll be MUCH hotter than outside, hence why you should always open all doors first before setting off to purge as much hot air as possible. Even though the air temperature would've dropped considerably, the inner surfaces will still be hot (heated directly by radiative heat from the sun), so drive along (if safe/secure to do so and not raining!) with all your windows open for the first few minutes for speeds up to 30mph or so (drag >30mph costs more fuel than A/C). The hot inner car surfaces will lose heat via the air blowing across them (similar to a person, but without the moisture evaporation).

Once over 35mph for prolonged period and/or inside tempertaure not dropping/surfaces not getting any cooler, shut all windows and use the A/C. My tip is to not set the temp dial too low (say 20-21C) for very high ambient temperatures (26C and above), but for the first 10-20 mins set the temp ~23 and gradually lower it as the journey progresses to lessen the effects of "thermal shock" (going from a hot to a cool environment), which may also have the added effect of giving you a very dry throat.

Seems to work well for me! I also (other than trying to park my car in a shady spot [afternoon shade is best] without being under a lime tree or one full of bird/with lots of bird c**p on the ground) open all the doors of my car for a couple of minutes during my lunch break to help purge as much hot air as possible to lessen the heating affect later on. Have a go and see how you get on.

Some of us could open the hinged windscreen.

I used to drive a coach before air con was introduced and it was a green house on wheels.

A days drive on national express down a motorway i used to go home with a seriously burnt face and soaking wet. Often used to carry two or three unifroms and most ended up white with salt stains. Oh it was horrible on really hot days and i can remeber being stuck on the M5 near taunton when the outside temp was in the 90's !

glad to have AC these days and also glad i went back into garage work.

Sort of related to A/C. Just had the Cabin Air Filter changed on my Note (37.5K miles) . Two and a half years and the previously white filter was deepest darkest black. With out that think about the rubbish you breathe in.

On topic...A/c. won't be without it from now on. Great for clearing misty screens in winter and great for summer motoring in cool comfort.

Top tip. Make sure you run it for ten minutes a week every week just to keep the system 'lubed' otherwise you'll get problems. I do this and my Xtrail hasn't needed any a/c work or even a regas in 9 years and still working great. Just a freshen up service. Crosses fingers.......

Oh periodically you can set it on recirculate heater up to the max then fill the car with a lot of mist from an anti bacterial room freshner spray and put the fan on high. Cheap DIY a/c freshen up. Costs next to nothing and I have NEVER had that musty fridge smell described earlier.