Does Car Air Conditioning Consume More Fuel?

[Fritz]

Yes, it does. The reason is that the air conditioning system operates using power from two sources: 1. The first part is the air conditioning compressor, which is powered by the engine. This increases the engine's load. At low engine speeds, a relatively large proportion of the engine's power output is allocated to the air conditioning compressor. The air conditioning can reduce the car's power by about half a gear, so when driving at low speeds, turning on the air conditioning will result in a noticeable decrease in power. This is because the engine is diverting power equivalent to half a gear to the air conditioning compressor, which in turn increases fuel consumption. 2. The other part includes the air conditioning fan, electromagnetic clutch, and other electrical devices, which also increase the load on the generator. Since the generator is driven by the engine, this indirectly increases fuel consumption as well.