Ditching the A/C compressor in 100-105 degree heat and 100% humidity??
 

I was thinking of getting rid of my AC compressor altogether from my 92 Protege since it is broken, but it is TOOOOOO hot in the DC summers.

Sorry, but cracking the windows 1 inch all the way around just won't cut it.

I can't stand the heat!

I was thinking of running some tubes into the interior to get some air into the interior, but not sure if it is doable and practical.

FYI - Turning the HVAC control to fan is nowhere near acceptable either.

I have had a thermometer in the AC vent during the summer and it has read 180-185 degrees.

Leaving the windows open doesn't cool things down to a comfortable level either.

I am forced to drive with my windows down all the way on the highway and i am confident that it is sucking more gas.

I am thinking about just getting a junkyard compressor in there and recharging the ac myself, but I don't want to go through the money on this beater.

Any thoughts?

By the way, I am forced to wear business casual to work. I could go to work with a tee shirt and shorts then change, but it is still too hot here!

Thanks

You could try these.

I only saw a 1.8% FE decrease with both windows rolled down in my car on the highway @ 50mph. 1.8% decrease really isn't much at all. Also, do you have your rear windows tinted? It does wonders for lowing cabin temperature.

It matters where you live but Some states alow you to have tint on the front door windows. Some allow darker than others. Here in Arizona the police don't bother you about the front tint usally. I put 5% tint on my cars, door windows, even a 6 inch strip at the top of the windshield! :cool: the more the better. As long as the car moving it is fine. stoplights suck though.

I try to always bring Icewater with me, and that makes a big differnce. Also as long as you aren't thinking about the heat, it's not bad at all :D

100% humidity? Get A/C! I'm o.k. w/ up to ~110-120, but that's with next to no humidity....

There's gotta be a way to make a seat cover that has those blue ice packs all over it... make it cover the whole bottom and about halfway up the back. You could put it in the freezer at work during the day... Just thinking out loud... OR, make a vest with ice packs in it.

Also, drinking freezing cold water will help some.

Cold Vest
 

The vest is a great idea...:thumbup:

For medical patients with temperature sensative diseases (i.e. Muscular Dystrophy) a vest is available that pumps cool or warm water through the vest. They're rather expensive, but I suppose you could rig-up something similar with a small pump, some tubes, and a reservoir.

RH77

You could make a cooler based air conditioner. Basically its a cooler full of ice with a fan on top. Windows down is generally always cheaper than a/c on.

How about an 800watt inverter connected to a high effeciency 5000btu a/c in the trunk. Some of them draws as little as 5amps 110v.

oh its not that bad i live in IL, same temps same humidity. both my cars were made without ac, you dont relaly need it. and roll the windows all the way down! ac vs windows down, ac is always going to kill your mpg...

set the fan on high blasting thru the vents right at your face(wait a few aseconds so the hot air that was in the vents can escape) and have the windows all the waty down. get one of thsoe silver accordian style sun shades and always put it in your windshield makes a world of difference! also window tint helps ALOT! ive had to do this for several summers and its not bad. yes stuck in traffic does suck but ac is for wimps! :D

i want to invest in some tint also because it seems to help a ton in my friends cars

I say,, do what you need to do. I keep the A/C system's in my cars working. Ive had heat stroke and exhaustion a few times in my life. Its much easier to get after you have had one or some of it. Ive grown very tried of these Okie summers. I flat out hate them now days. I didn't like them when I was a kid.

All of our cars have tint. The Ranger has a factory tinted glass. Its done very well. The Accord and Civic we had done in 3M CS 30% front, sides and rear. With as 20% strip across the top of the windsheild. Then I had the sunroof's done with Huper Optiks. The Huper is high dollar stuff. Its heat blocking is wonderful. Next time I have a car done. I will fork over the dough for a all Huper install.

Wife uses a sun shield in the Accord. I don't cause I dislike the folded up and spring hoop things in my car. ( That could change this summer ) We both tend to leave our windows cracked about 1/4" along with the sun rood cracked the same amount with the sun shield pulled back just a hair.

On those near to 100f days or 100f plus days. I get in the car, roll the windows down. The Accord will roll them down with the key fob as you unlock and walk up to the car. Thats nice! Key on and turn the blow on high. Let it push out more hot air from the cabin and duct work. I then start the car. Back out and bring the windows up to the 3/4 mark. Then flip the A/C on with fresh air intake. Then as Im driving to the freeway I go ahead and close the windows and put the A/C on max air/recirculate. This pulls heat from the dash and other interior parts of the car, along with cooling me down. By the time I hit the freeway cabin temps have dropped. I will then most likely turn the A/C off, crack the windows 1 to 3 inches, depending and let the blower fill the cabin with outside air.

A lot of this depends on. Did I spend the work day in the office in the A/C. Or was I in the none A/C shop. Or in the field working in a boiler room or dancing around a pump row in a mech. room. Or just flat out in the sun all day drinking Gator Juice. I hardly ever fire off the A/C in the morning. Its the afternoons that get me. Then add in the fact that part of my afternoon drive home can be straight into the sun. It becomes a spot call.

Some days the A/C is never ran. Others,, only 2 to 5 miles. Then some days its on the whole 40 mile trip home. I wont use a ICE Vest or recirc system. My goal is to stay as comphy as I can without ruining my mpg. I want to stay alert and in a healthy psychical state.

One of my signs of alert is when my exhaled breath is cooler than my lips or nostrils. Its then time to take some sort of action.

Your mileage may vary. :)

psy

Paint your roof and hood white and get the cold air intake connect to the grill area of the car instead of the windshield area where the hot air off the hood gets in. Check your old compressor for leaks maybe it is a low leak and will last a few months if you recharge it which will carry you through the hotter months.

+1 on leaving the windows cracked during the day. What a difference.

Check the rubber seal on the back edge of your hood to make sure air isn't coming through there and into your ventilation intake. Except, I guess the air would theoretically flow the other way...

I wish I could remember where I saw it, but someone sold a relatively cheap ($60) that was nothing more then a cooler with 2 fans in it, one at each end near the top. You filled it with ice and turned one or both fans on and presto, cold air. They said on high with "one bag" of ice it lasted for three hours and about 5 hours with only one fan running. It said it easily kept a car interior cool even on low

I have seen more expensive models of the same sort of thing more meant for RV’s or boats. Or you could just get a 12v muffin fan and an old cooler and make it yourself.

I bought an adjustable thermostat (only $20 at AutoZone) for my Caprice for the electric radiator fan. I am thinking, if I buy another, and I Wire the sensor part in my vent, I could turn it real low (compared to the radiator temp) and use the stitch as a "governor" for the AC clutch. It I set it at 90 degrees, it is much better than 150+ degrees and it should make hardly any impact on gas mileage.

The reason being is I know if I turn on the AC for 3-5 seconds then I can drive with the vent on for about 5 minutes very comfortable!! This thermostat would do it for me! :) Most AC systems run the AC compressor more than 50% of the time. In a car with good tint, that is over kill.

Also, with a Chevrolet fuel pump relay you can rig up a "regenerative" type AC mode, so that when you are stepping on the brakes, you charge up the AC system for free! Done right with injection cut off, this should make AC have NO impact on FE in stop and go driving. :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

With the heat and humidity you are talking about, I would get the compressor fixed and working. When it's not running, it doesn't really draw enough power to be worth bothering with. When it's hot and humid, it's a massive improvement in your comfort and how temperate you feel. If you feel more comfortable, you are going to be able to pay more attention to what your doing, without getting flustered over something because of being irritable with the heat and humidity.

I'd leave it in. I put an AC system into my daughters 87 Honda, last year and I'm putting one into my 89 Honda, this year. Massive improvement, particularly when it's hot and humid.

These are all interesting thoughts!

Thanks so far.

Their used to be a device that you could put in one of the rear windows, that used solar to run a little fan motor, to circulate the air. I haven't seen one in a long while, but those worked pretty well at keeping the interior of the car from getting into oven mode, in the summer time.

You wonder why (on cars without standard A/C) the A/C option costs about $1000, when you can buy a portable room A/C for $140 at Walmart.

markup ;)

Have you installed a heater flow cutoff? You may be pumping hot coolant though the heater box, which will warm up vented air. A brass natural gas cutoff will work.

mostly becaue a cars ac system is alot more complicated. which means, new mouning brackets, new holes to make in correct locations, new hoses to route wires to run all in compact places. a home AC unit is a box with all the parts inches away from each other and thier incredebly easy to work on and as long as all the parts are there and its in the box its good enough. you dont have to worry about runnign wires 5 feet away, hoses to keep from melting etc...


and some cars have to have the coolant flow thru the heater core otherwise theres no coolant flowing thu the engine.

If the car requires water to flow through the heater core (I've not seen one yet) then the water line can be rerouted during the summer months. My 96 Tahoe had a vacuum operated valve inline that would divert coolant back to the engine without going through the heater core unless the selector switch is set to hot. One of these valves would solve that problem, but would cost more money. An electric/vacuum switch could be used to allow a dash switch to open/close the valve on demand.

Two (low tech) thoughts:

1) As another person said, buy those window screens, and put them in your windows whenever you stop. And put some thought into which ones you get (the ones that look like reflective silver are generally more effective then the ones that just block light). That will make a HUGE difference in how hot the car warms up when sitting in the sun.

2) And if you have any easy option to do so (garden hose? car wash?), wet down the car before taking off. Wetting down the car will have two very useful effects on heat. First off, the water itself will cool down the metal of the car a noticeable amount. So you get an immediate cooling right there. And secondly, some of the water that remains on the car will dry/evaporate as you drive down the road. And that evaporation process will also cool the car/cabin.