Nevada doesn't have much humidity though does it?

My wife and I were in Vegas in 2003 in June and I remember it being 93 degrees at 8:30 in the morning, but it never felt like it does here.

95-100 no humidity and I could ride with the windows down too...I swear it makes it so much worse

 

I cant stand having my windows down...........the wind noise drives me insane. Ill use my hvac and control my environment to my likeing......tyvm.

 

We have been having high humidity and dew points here, most days for the past 2 or 3 wks have had heat indexs of 103 to 110, one day it was a heat index of 115!!. So, yes A/C on in my car and in the house. Had 2 bad cases of heat exhaustion back from my military days, so I really fell the heat now. And plus when you travel with two Bernese Mountain dogs in the car, a/c needs to be on.

 

I agree..the wind noise can be a problem in the HHR. I closed my Sun Roof because it started to sprinkle a little and the noise is much worse.

The problem I have with A/C is it gives me a headache, but I am so hot natured that I wear shorts pretty much anytime its above 40 out side, so its a double edge sword.

I am a long time motorcyclist and never even owned a car until I met my wife when I was 23. Ironically riding in 100 degrees on a motorcycle with wind noise, humidity, you name it, isn't as bad :)

 

Did anybody see the mythbuster episode that showed you got better gas mileage running the AC than having the windows down?

Granted, they didn't use an HHR, and maybe our cars don't give the same result but I am running the AC.

My car losses 2 MPG with the AC running. That's less than a penny per mile. Well worth the expense in a St. Louis summer.

 

A couple of random but related facts. Your car will run better when it's cooler due to denser air regardless of ac use, though the compressor does indeed draw horsepower. Another thing, on the window up/down issue, yes, the vast majority will get better mpg at highway speeds with windows up, ac on vs windows down no ac. Also, modern vehicles are designed around aero considerations and meant to be driven windows up, windows down disturbs the airflow dramatically reducing mpg and creating noise. My '67 Impala SS is not much louder with the windows down than up and the airflow through the car is smooth, modern vehicles buffet badly with one window down, older cars don't, it's all about the aero and design parameters.

 

Not sure exactly how many HP the AC takes, but my feeling, is the HHR AC is pretty efficient. I can feel a slight difference when its really hot out, but not that much, so it seems. This in a 2007 with a 2.2 and a five speed.

 

DO you guys run the front window defroster in the winters? It uses the A/C pump to remove the humidity from the heat so you can actually have a hot DRY window. That is why you get less mpg in the winter as well.

I for one run the A/C all the time in the heat. Usually because if I didn't... I'd just ride the bike.

 

The seat of the pants dyno is the least reliable one.
These style compressors use roughly 8-12 h.p. vs the old large style GM compressors of the 60's-'70's that could draw 30-40 h.p. The difference in power between 70 degrees and 100 degrees can be 10%+ depending on engine, induction type, pcm programming, etc...

 

I miss 'vent windows', they helped control the buffeting imo..