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Old 05-07-2022, 01:33 PM   #39 (permalink)
ps2fixer
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Location: MI, USA
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Temps up here in the extreme north (Michigan) are hitting 60's and in a few days it's going to the 80's, crazy how it went from basically just above freezing to boom middle of summer lol.

AC takes a lot of energy, not sure if much can be done to lower the load besides putting less cooling demand on it (higher temp setting). Pretty sure it's electric in your car, so it won't need to run the engine, but it's quite a draw on the hybrid battery.

If you have a grill block, you might see gains opening it back up some since the heat from the heat pump action of the AC system is pushed to the condenser up front

Another idea I just had, when you first get in the car, turning the AC on would help warm the engine up a little faster (heat pushed into radiator), but it's also likely will be loading the engine indirectly when still not up to operating temp. Couple ideas to play around with at least.

The steering wheel has an AC button, you can turn it on/off as needed, but I suspect the auto controls work fairly well at cycling the pump.
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