Quote:
Originally Posted by Intrigued
Good catch there! Doing JUST the low side is key to gaining efficiency, since the idea of keeping the car cool depends on how cool your refrigerant is. Insulating the low side, which has COOLER than ambient contents, helps keep it even cooler, which then results in less A/C needed.
The high pressure lines, which are smaller in diameter than the low pressure lines, will run hotter than ambient temps when the A/C is operating, (because of the pressure AND the heat pulled out of the cabin of the car) and therefore should be left uncovered, to help cool off the refrigerant a tad.
Oh, by the way: better than 40 percent over EPA on your car, Gascort! Excellent!  My car is there temporarily...  I turn in my last Final project for the semester today, so maybe I'll get started with the blog on my success on the trip to KC in the heat for the meet!!! |
I was surprised to find that my expansion valve is very close to the radiator and condenser, maybe 25 cm away, more forward than my battery!
To find the low pressure lines for sure, I just ran the a/c for about 45 seconds and shut the car off, then felt the lines. I didn't notice before, but I had a low pressure line right next to the whole length of my exhaust manifold!
That part will probably see the most improvement of them all. I'm definitely doing this mod on my wife's car and my brother's car - they use the a/c very often and I think it would help.
Thanks for the congrats! BTW, I'm actually doing even better - haven't used enough fuel since the Kammback to reflect in my logs, but I don't think I've had a tank average under 44.4 mpg since installing it.