Does air conditioning work harder in a small car?
That will depend on the size of the engine your vehicle has. The smaller the engine, the less horsepower it has. When you are driving your car without the air conditioner on, all of the horsepower can be used towards the speed of the car. When you turn the air conditioning on, you will now have a percentage of the horsepower being used to power the compressor. If you are driving a car with a large amount of horsepower, you will not notice much of a change in the performance, once the air conditioning is on. When you are driving a car on the lower end of horsepower, you will notice a significant difference in the performance of your vehicle. It will take more gas and rpm’s to get it back to the same speed it was at, before you turned the air conditioning on.
A car with a smaller engine will definitely work harder when the air conditioning is turned on, as opposed to when it is off. If you live in an area that is hot and requires normal use of the car’s air conditioning, you should make certain the car you choose has the power to support it with ease. This will save you wear on the car as well as cost in fuel.