Posted 2007-11-02 8:06 AM (#2154) Subject: AC vs. Fuel Economy?
Posts: 40
Location: Ottawa, ON
After driving my 1500HD with it's 6.0V8 and pulling a 3 horse steel gooseneck for two seasons, I've come to a disturbing conclusion. The A/C uses the same amount of extra power as pulling the loaded trailer!!!
Is that normal? It really ticks me off that an option that I did not want in the first place, decreases my mileage by nearly 20%!
Now it is winter, the windshield is frosting up, and I'm paranoid about putting the interior climate control to the defrost setting. I tend to forget it there until I start to wonder why the tank is nearly empty....
I've had the console apart, but the controls are all solid state, there is no obvious way to disable the A/C in defrost mode. I'm wondering about removing the compressor clutch fuse for the winter. Is there any reason why that would be a bad idea?
Posted 2007-11-07 8:02 PM (#2162 - in reply to #2154) Subject: RE: AC vs. Fuel Economy?
Posts: 1919
I'm not sure how you determine (quantifiably) how much power it takes to pull loaded as compared to pulling empty with your A/C on. Are you referring to mileage only?
And if it's mileage - not sure in my experience that there's a dramatic difference. The more you ask your engine to do, the more it works, and uses fuel. I don't think there's a truck (or car) that uses less fuel as you increase the work load, so I'd keep what you have for now . . . and park it more often till fuel prices drop.
AC vs. Fuel Economy?
