Viewing posts tagged "Air Conditioners"

Saving Gas on Changing Windows

Being more frugal about using the air conditioning system in your car can save fuel, but it doesn’t mean you have to sweat away on the freeway.

A new study shows that by using heat-resistant glass you can reduce the need for air conditioning – essentially you can change-out the windows, at least for a plug-in. With heat-resistant glass, the cabin gets colder, blocking out more of the heat compared to regular car windows, and thus increases fuel efficiency (when turning the air conditioning down).

The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Pittsburgh Glass Works (PGW) conducted the study to show how changing to PGW's Sungate EP heat-resistant windows can improve fuel economy.

"The adjusted, utility factor-weighted fuel economy increased from 36.8 to 42.9 mpg for the Sungate EP thermal load case, while the adjusted, UF-weighted electrical energy consumption was roughly equivalent," said John Rugh, Senior Mechanical Engineer for NREL, in a statement.

According to PGW, the Sungate EP glazing has been designed to reject almost 97 percent of the sun’s infra-red energy.

There are other ways to avoid heat radiation from windows. The PGW technology could be compared with PhotoSolar, a Danish company focusing on lowering the impact of solar radiation when it comes to heat by using progressive micro lamells.

PhotoSolar has a sun film that keeps out 50 percent of solar radiation and also plans to make windows that can generate power as well. However, their sun film is made to fit in building windows and not in cars. At least not yet. (See video: The Solar Window.)

Since plug-in hybrids often are more fuel efficient than regular cars to start with, the impact of increased air conditioning economy really shows on the bill. PGW says that’s why it focuses its technology on these types of vehicles.