The increased consumption depends on how much cooling you ask of the air conditioner. Typical averages for Germany might be 1-2 liters/100 km during cool down and 0.5-1 liters/100 km thereafter. How that converts to mpg depends on the car's realized mpg as those units are non-linear. If you are getting 10 mpg, the air conditioner won't be very noticeable. If you are getting 100 mpg, using the air conditioner might prove a financial hardship.
Using my long term average of 8.6 l / 100 km (32 mpg UK) for the base consumption, I convert the above to 4-7 mpg during cool down and 2-4 mpg thereafter. Perhaps someone someplace hot can give you some better figures from their consumption records. I'm not sure I use my air conditioner enough to have the data for a calculation
Judging by the last few days, this will be a good summer to have it in northern Europe. I think I'll be glad I got mine fixed.
Last edited by John Firestone; 04-24-2011 at 08:46 AM. |