Reasons to Roll Your Car Windows Down (Other Than the Nice Weather)
It’s slightly more fuel-efficient than using air conditioning.
It’s finally above 60 degrees in Boston, which means you might consider embarking on a road trip this weekend.
If so, you might wonder whether it’s more fuel efficient to use your air conditioning, or to roll your car windows down.
While some argue that driving at high speeds with the windows down creates too much air resistance to be fuel efficient, studies show that it is “slightly more efficient at any speed’’ to roll down the windows.
Here’s why:
Since cars’ AC rely on compressors that draw power from their engines, running AC reduces the number of miles vehicles can travel on any amount of gas, according to Vox.
Just how much AC reduces fuel efficiency varies depending on the car model, but on average, it’s decreased by 3 to 10 percent.
A 2004 study conducted by The Society of Automobile Engineers showed that a sedan and an SUV both used more fuel with the AC running while driving at a wide range of speeds – from roughly 30 to 68 miles per hour. (The tests were conducted in 86-degree weather in Mesa, Arizona.)
The study’s findings might not apply to highway driving, however. If you usually cruise at over 68 miles per hour, the wind resistance could become great enough to negate the efficiency of driving with your windows down, whether you’re driving a boxy SUV or a sleek sedan.
But if you really want to save money, what’s the best method?
“The most efficient way to drive around is with windows up and air conditioning off but of course that’s miserable,’’ AAA’s Car Doctor John Paul told Boston.com. Paul added that the ‘windows versus AC’ debate was more pertinent in the 1960s and ‘70s, when cars’ AC systems drastically affected fuel economy.
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