Does Climate Control use fuel?
I drive an '06 Vauxhall Vectra, and am trying to save money on petrol.
My car has air conditioning and climate control.
I know that with air conditioning turned on, it uses a fair amount of fuel, but what if I just set my climate control to say 19 degrees celcius without the air conditioning turned on?
Will it just try to cool the car using air vents from outside? Or will it burn fuel to cool it like with air conditioning.
Comments
You car has air conditioning which is used in conjunction with the climate control. These are not two separate systems. You do not have two different ways to cool or heat you car There is one device on your car that can cool the air and that is the air conditioning compressor. The climate control is simply a system to control the fan, air con, and heating from the engine to try to get the temperature on the control that you have selected.
If the air outside the car is over 19 C in the example you quote and the air con is turned off then the system will not be able to cool the air and will simply blow air from outside into the car at whatever temp it is. Fuel usage will be at a minimum and none will be used in attempting to cool the car save for a little tiny amount as the fan may go to fastest speed to try to cool you.
If the air outside is cooler than 19 C, in the example you give, then heat from the engines cooling system will be used to heat the air coming into the car to get it up to the 19 C you desire.
Again, next to no extra fuel used
The air-con does however provide a useful Dehumidifying function that removes water vapour from the air, when it is switched on, thus making demisting the windows a whole lot faster than when it is not on
It is only when the aircon is on and cooling that you use up to 10% more fuel than with it off.
EDIT - a perfect answer as I am sure you will agree dear reader - however you will note that someone has given me a thumbs down - am pretty sure I know who and and now watching it carefully
It depends if the climate control automatically triggers the air con.
If it does then yes it will use more fuel, if not it won't.
As Timbo says aircon is a compressor, which can actually be used to both heat and cool the car.
In your example setting it to 19 degress without aircon will just take outside air so depending how hot it is outside may not be able to cool the air to that temperature but would not use more fuel.
i do no longer understand the form you get climate administration without air con. Is it only like what a/c human beings call an economizer (establishing exterior vents while the exterior air is chilly)? if so it only will develop automobile's drag a splash yet no longer as undesirable for performance as an AC. warmth is recuperating the performance of the engine via removing the surplus engine warmth so it does no longer use greater gas. air con makes use of lots greater gas to run the compressor on the AC. in spite of the incontrovertible fact that in case you're going over 50mph and journey with the AC on and the domicile windows close the decreased drag from the closed domicile windows removes many of the greater desirable gas waste.
All air con/climate control affects the fuel consumption, a guide is below 30mph open a window above that use the air con, the idea is that above 30mph the drag of an open window uses more fuel than the aircon/climate control
Most climate control systems don't invoke the air-con unless you turn it on too. It'll try its best just using the fan & vents.
Some "posher" systems do automatically bring the air-con into play whether you like it or not - those on cars where the owner is unlikely to be too concerned about fuel costs . . .
climate control = smart airconditioning
your car has climate control only. That is aircon with that isnt on all the time but aircon that are controled to stay on your preferred temp.
climate control should be more efficient
simple answer no has nothing to do with fuel