(NOTE: ****yankees can skip this thread, since they may use their A/C once every blue moon or so. For us Southern folk, OTOH, it's a basic survival tool.)

Nearly a full summer's worth of driving my new HCH has taught me how to use the air conditioner for best fuel economy:

1. Let the engine warm up a bit; otherwise you're just blowing hot air into the car. (If possible, wait until you're on the open road.)

2. Turn on the A/C with the temperature dial at its lowest setting (62 degrees). Let it run like that for a minute or two.

3. Hit the "recirculate" button. It's the one with the amber light to the left of the A/C button. You'll quickly notice a sharp drop in temperature.

4. Crank up the thermostat to 72 degrees or higher. In fact, even on a typical hot/humid Florida afternoon, I've stayed comfortable with the dial just a notch or two below the maximum of 82 degrees!

This strategy minimizes usage of the A/C's compressor, resulting in much greater FE than the standard "turn it on and forget it" approach.

And as always, make sure the "ECON" button is active. Mine's never off!

Dave:

Do you keep the recirc on all the time? I guess you do not want to bring in any outside air (makes sense in that you don't have to cool 90+ deg air to whatever the AC condensor cools it to.)

I've noticed with mine having it set to auto, I get cold air within about 10 seconds of it comming on, even on a hot day.

Mike V.

Sure enough Dave, that's what I've been doing for the last few years. Other helpful tidbit is to open the driver door and then roll down all the windows and let some of the hot air vent before cranking up the car.

I'm enough of a fanatic I even open the trunk to let it vent the hot air too. That, IMO is helpful that much more to the battery. Who knows if it makes a difference.

AL

'00 Insight "Wazabi" -75,000+ miles
'03 Toyota Matrix - 81,000+ miles
'03 HCH-CVT-OSBM-41,000+ miles (retired 04-10-06)
"I'm very secure with my little Insight, no Prius envy here."

I learned quickly to avoid the "auto" setting. All too often, it would turn on the A/C when all I wanted was some fresh air ventilation. And yes, I do keep the recirc button on once the cooldown is complete, for the reason you mention.

Thanks for the reminder about opening the windows before starting up; should have mentioned that as well. Though I've never opened the trunk!

The best solution for saving fuel hands down is what I've been doing all this summer is the icewater- dabbing cloth method.

The next best thing for those who choose less extreme measures is to manually cycle the A/C button as needed, and to keep it off while accelerating or pulling a hill.
You could extend that to only using it while decellerating or rolling downhill.

For those less extreme the climate control is likely a good choice.
Sometime I hope to hook an indicator light on the compressor clutch and do some timing comparisons between full A/C use vs climate control set to warm and see if the compressor actually cycles less......or if it just mixes warm air with the refrigerated air. (Which I suspect because with the lack of the refrigerated air component you only get heater core heated air.)

Sounds like a good weekend project if the clutch connections are easy to get at.

Efficient drivers do it better.
1003 miles a tank personal record. 74MPG calculated. HCH1 CVT

Actually, most cars do not do 100% recirculate. With the recirc button selected it will use mostly recycled air but it will still use some fresh air to avoid fogging and CO poisoning. I don't know what the ratio is for the HCH but I've heard figures like 80/20 for recirc/fresh ratio for other cars.

Thanks for the reply. Btw, I don't know what part of florida you're i , but the linkbelow is for hov stickers for florida.

http://www.greenhybrid.com/discuss/s...kers.3616.html

MikeV

Actually I'm in New Mexico. We don't have HOV lanes here, though sometimes I think we should have a special LSV (low speed vehicle) lane for horse trailers and cars towing other cars to mexico. :-)

Hi; Hot_Georgia_2004

You just brought up an interesting point that I have been wanting to post and just never got around to it.

I understand that when the A/C is turned on that it makes (NO) difference as to where you set the temperature, all the way on Cold or somewhere in between. Now, the reason I say that is I once again have been told this, if you turn on the A/C the compressor runs a "Certain-Time" and then cycles off regardless of where the temperature is set. The only thing that happens when you set the temperature towards the warmer side is that you pull in hot air more to mix with the cold air from the A/C compressor. The time the compressor runs does not change it simply cycles on and off at a certain timed cycle. So a person is really not saving gas or anything by changing the temp. setting, just not as comfortable inside the car.

It would really be-nice if someone out there new the (correct answer) to this because why be hotter if it really makes no difference as to when the A/C compressor cuts/cycles on and off. Another question is, does it make a difference as to the vehicle having Auto-Climate Control versus Manual? Is Honda different than say a Domestic vehicle like Chevrolet? The tech. that gave me the info. was referring to a Chevrolet so I don't know if Honda's A/C works different or not. Another thought what about the 2006 HCH that has Electric A/C and the normal A/C compressor how do they cycle with the Temp. set at different degrees?


I hope some Honda Master Techs. will read this post and add the facts to this A/C inquiry.

Still Confused

Terry

Edit spelling

Intersting, your profile showed florida in the post.

Mike V