[svpworld]

I know that air con is said to increase your fuel consumption because of the extra load the compressor places on the engine. Given the Insignia CDTi has 160 bhp and massive amounts of torque, I am just wondering if it makes any noticeable difference to the fuel economy? Not having owned my Insignia over the summer months, I haven't had chance to try it that often but I would like to leave the climate control set to AUTO. Since in AUTO it appears the air con is constantly on, I would like to know if anyone has noticed a big difference in mpg, especially for the 160 diesel. So far I don't see any noticeable difference in the distance I have driven, and it keeps the car from misting up. I know on smaller cars such as my previous 1.2 petrol corsa, turning on the air con did make a noticeable load on the engine and a slight reduction of the mpg.

[Rockh]

Having the aircon on does increase the fuel consumption, not by a vast amount. You can have the climate on auto but switch the aircon off, you just lose the de-humidification benefits.

[svpworld]

On mine I cant turn off the air con button when it is in Auto.. only way to disable auto is to touch one of the air vent direction buttons.... doing so the fan speed isnt displayed so I wonder if it goes into semi auto where I set the vents for output but the fan and temperature are still auto? Once I use any of the air vent direction buttons I can then switch off the air con button.....

[Peterborough-John]

Mate, if you are that worried about losing a couple of miles per gallon because of air con , i suggest you buy a bicycle. Air con is an extra demand on the engine product of the car, however, it is not a revelation that it reduces fuel consumption, you do not get anything for nothing !!!!!!

[Peterborough-John]

Mate, if you are that worried about losing a couple of miles per gallon because of air con , i suggest you buy a bicycle. Air con is an extra demand on the engine product of the car, however, it is not a revelation that it reduces fuel consumption, you do not get anything for nothing !!!!!!

Yeah sorry meant increases fuel consumption.

[svpworld]

Of course I am not bothered about it reducing fuel consumption, I merely wanted to instigate a discussion on users experiences just to see if (a) auto mode indeed does leave air con working continuously and if so, how significant the effect is for a big diesel over a small petrol... particularly the cdti. It won't mean I'm not going to use air con, just thought it would make a good thread.

[kevinfourlegs]

I know technology has moved on, but I know of a case involving a Fiesta diesel with aircon. The guy complained that he used more fuel with the aircon on. I dunno how noticable it will be for your car.

[carpetmonster]

I really looked into this on my old veccy, and if i left the air con on constant, the overall effect was just under 2mpg. However, on a long journey in the middle of summer, i never needed the air con on constant, was more a case of having it on a few minutes every half hour or so. This way, my mpg only dropped by about 0.1mpg over several summer months.
As for climate control, im not 100% sure but at the moment, there is no need to use aircon constantly. the climate can maintain your temp in the car, lets say 21 degrees, but i cant see any point using air con, maybe only for a quick windscreen demist.
Will be interesting to see what the summer brings though!

[thermalactivity]

i was sat waiting for my colleaugue to turn up on site so i did a little fiddling this morning! i noticed with the engine on tickover and the air con and auto climate control on the instantaneous mpg was constant at 0.2mpg. i then turned the air con and climate off and it dropped to 0.1mpg.
i can deal with the fact that it may use more fuel as i like using the toys that the car came with.....

[MICKTHEMECHANIC]

[QUOTE=Peterborough-John;115068]Yeah sorry meant increases fuel consumption.[/QUO

nobody gets a free dinner!:(

[svpworld]

I've concluded so far that leaving the climate control on AUTO doesn't make hardly any difference to fuel consumption of my CDTI 160 exclusiv. My trip computer only shows consumption to a resolution of 1 mpg, no change if I turn off the air con whilst the engine is ticking over. Seeing as it does it more good to leave it on, I'll just do that, set it and forget it!

Simon

[thermalactivity]

My trip computer only shows consumption to a resolution of 1 mpg, no change if I turn off the air con whilst the engine is ticking over.

your trip computer should show the mpg to one decimal place hence mine showing 0.2mpg instantaneous fuel consumption at tickover with the climate control on :confused: :confused:

[afisher]

Of course to be environmentally friendly we should all be switching off our engines if idling for more than a minute. Does anyone actually do that?

[svpworld]

I have the Exclusiv model which has the mid level info display between the instruments as opposed to the more detailed high level display. Could be why mine only shows average mpg, instantaneous mpg, range, distance covered and avg speed. Everything else shown as codes...