Author Topic: Aircon use.  (Read 1824 times)

VicW

  • Approved Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1441
  • Country: england
  • My Honda: 07 Plate Civic 1.8 i-Shift.
Aircon use.
« on: May 23, 2022, 03:55:42 PM »
I run a Civic but have owned several Jazz's so thought this might be of interest.
Took my car in for an air con service this morning only to be confronted by the technician. He said you should run the aircon in recirculate, I disagreed with him and suggested that particularly in the winter you would run the risk of misting up the car. He said if you run it using outside air you are picking up hot air from the engine. Surely the system is designed to cope with this and in any case if you continually recirculate the air the occupants would get tired from the lack of fresh air. He made no comment.
Any opinions?

Vic.

ColinS

  • Approved Member
  • *
  • Posts: 899
  • Country: england
  • My Honda: 2018 HR-V EX-Navi CVT
Re: Aircon use.
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2022, 04:05:58 PM »
He is wrong.  You are totally right.

sparky Paul

  • Approved Member
  • *
  • Posts: 3436
  • Country: gb
  • My Honda: 2015 GG6 Jazz EX 1.4 I-VTEC / 2008 GE3 Jazz SE 1.4 i-DSI
Re: Aircon use.
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2022, 10:34:07 PM »
I always understood that you start manual aircon on fresh air, to remove hot air from the car, then switch to recirculate. Aircon has to work a lot harder if it has to continuously deal with warm outside air, limiting the ability to reduce the cabin temperature and wasting fuel.

On recirculate, a small amount of fresh air is combined to prevent the air becoming stale. Misting should never be an issue as aircon also dehumidifies the air.

Kremmen

  • Approved Member
  • *
  • Posts: 4573
  • Country: england
  • Civinfo interloper
  • Fuel economy:
  • My Honda: MY22 Jazz EX
Re: Aircon use.
« Reply #3 on: May 24, 2022, 05:39:56 AM »
On all my aircon cars misting has always been a side effect of too much recirc. However, that's in the colder months when auto recirc has kicked in to prevent freezing air being dragged in before the engine has warmed up.
Let's be careful out there !

JimSh

  • Approved Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1334
  • Country: scotland
  • My Honda: 2014 Honda Jazz ES Plus
Re: Aircon use.
« Reply #4 on: May 24, 2022, 08:58:29 AM »
My Mk2 has climate control which automatically selects air from outside except when the car has been sitting in the sun and the temperature in the car is very high on startup when it selects recirculate. ( living in Scotland, I didn't notice this until I had had the car for about a year)
When the temperature inside the car has been reduced it then switches to cooling the outside air.
« Last Edit: May 24, 2022, 12:44:36 PM by JimSh »

Jocko

  • Approved Member
  • *
  • Posts: 9356
  • Country: scotland
  • Fuel economy:
  • My Honda: Died from rust.
Re: Aircon use.
« Reply #5 on: May 24, 2022, 04:34:45 PM »
On my Vauxhall Cavalier, if you had the aircon on, then switched to recirc, it automatically shut the aircon off.

embee

  • Approved Member
  • *
  • Posts: 808
  • Country: gb
  • My Honda: 2018 Jazz SE CVT
Re: Aircon use.
« Reply #6 on: May 29, 2022, 03:51:36 PM »
I think you can use common sense, if your car comes fitted with it as standard.  ;)

If you want to be economical .......

If the car is hot having been sitting in the sun and the air outside is a little cooler, use full fan fresh air without aircon to pull the temp down as much as you can sensibly, open windows etc., this will get the material of the car down in temp. Surfaces in the sun will get way hotter than the air so you can get good initial cooling just using outside air.
Then use aircon and recirc to pull the cabin temp down as quickly as possible, use appropriate fan speed for your wishes (less air = colder, more air = cool but changing cabin space sooner).
If and when it gets cool enough slow the fan and switch to fresh air if you feel it getting stale.
You often feel cooler if just your face/hands get cold air, so you can perhaps be more economical by selecting upper vents only if you wish.

If you aren't bothered about economy just turn it up to 11 and wait.

No hard and fast rules .................



VicW

  • Topic Starter
  • Approved Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1441
  • Country: england
  • My Honda: 07 Plate Civic 1.8 i-Shift.
Re: Aircon use.
« Reply #7 on: May 29, 2022, 04:30:21 PM »
An interesting point. Since I started this topic I have used 'auto' in my Civic and it works fine running in 'recirc' when first getting in the car on a warm day with the fan on fast but changing to outside air at a slower fan speed as required.
When I owned Jazz's I never used 'auto' because I didn't like the speeds and direction it chose and I assumed the Civic would use the same algorithms as the Jazz. 'Don't assume, check.'

Vic.

Tags:
 

Back to top