Climate control/air con

Hi i have only just found out that using the aircon/climate control is using up my petrol. I feel i'm using lots more petrol in my panda then in my old punto ( same spec but no aircon/climate control) its slightly annoyed me.

On the 100hp it doesn't seem to make any difference to economy as far as I can tell.

Have you tried running a tank with the air con/climate control off to compare?

Chris

Yeah i will be trying it tomorrow . Sooooo if i turn off air con/climate and have the normal fan/heating on will it be ok or should i try it will the heating off all together? I have only notice this excessive fuel consuption since i've been using aircon to cool car down.

yes it does use up a little more but nothing drastic!

What Panda do you have and does the air con noticeably affect the performance of the car?

Chris

I have an eleganza.

Have to say that I've not really noticed that the consumption changed much from winter to summer, just the price of the frigging diesel

If you have an eleganza with climate isn't it a case of climate or nothing because it's all digital? I'm probably wrong, but this is what I found in another car I used with Climate control.

Jon.

You're half right The climate control regulates the temperature in the cabin, but you can select to have air-con assistance if you want.... You can also override the climate settings by picking vents and fan speed.

Chris

Doesn't seem to make much of a difference in the HP.

Agreed, doesn't seem to make a noticeable difference, even though I seem to remember the owners manual says something like a 20% increase in fuel consumption when air-con is being used.

Climate control (or aircon if it is switched on) only really affects fuel consumption when the compressor is running flat-out for long periods of time eg -when its 30c outside all week and you want ice cold air produced from hot outside air for hours on end. Normal aircon use in normal 20c weather won't affect consumption hardly at all. What annoys me is how lethargic the throttle response is when the compressor is running flat-out.