Air Con vs Heating etc

[SBJames]

Hi,

In ICE cars we all know that AC on means compressor on and loss of power/poorer fuel consumption. I've never noticed having the fan on gently made much difference to the MPG either.

Now when I turn the fans on, even at pretty much ambient temperature and leave it on low, the mileage drop is exactly the same as if I crank the heat up, or even put the AC on. Is that right? Or can the computer just not cope? Should I just let the air con stay on semi-permanently then?

 

[ReintjeWA]

I think it might have to do with how grossly inefficient ICE vehicles are to begin with, so a little drain on efficiency doesn’t stand out as much.

Another thing to keep in mind, is that the GOM is by no means accurate, unless you have a very similar drive under similar conditions over a period of time. Case in point, I always seem to get about 400 km on 100% charge, but the other day consumed 170 km of “range” on a 60km trip because I had two passengers and was going slightly up hill.

I think the software just charges you a set amount of km for having any heating/cooling on, but it’s all guess work

 

[Ian Key]

You're not comparing like with like. The GOM shows you the loss of range if you drove the car down to 0%. The mpg shows how much fuel you are using at that moment.

You need to compare mpg with m/kWh or the GOM with the range left in the ICE's fuel tank.