Keep Your Parked Car Cool This Summer - 5 Tips That I Find Useful
Why does a car get hot when parked in the sun?
On a hot summer day, parking in the shade may not always be possible. When you park your car under the hot sun, the inside of the car gets super hot because of the large glass area (due to the greenhouse effect). The heated plastic and metal parts inside the car also radiate heat inside the car for a long time. Add to that a hot engine bay! All these result in your car temperature easily going to 120 degrees inside even if the outside temperature is less than 100 degrees. The heated plastic parts like the steering wheel and plastics can even burn your skin. If you have leather or false leather seats, it may become difficult to sit! Baby seats too become unusable. Wouldn't it be lovely to prevent this from happening!
Try these tips to ensure the car is cool when you start driving again. No guarantees that they will make your car polar-cold, but they will definitely help
My 5 favorite tips to keep the car cool when it's parked in the sun
These five tips I am sharing are what I find useful or have seen in other cars. They are definitely worth a shot.
1. Leave the windows open a little bit: If this is safely possible, it allows air circulation and can get some of the hot air out. Even a finger width gap helps – but ensure it is safe! A slightly open window is easy to break - so be sure you are in a safe place. Leaving more than one window open a crack can make this even more effective.
2. Use some reflective shades on the windscreen (front and rear) and, if possible, put some shades on the windows too. Cover as much of the glass area as possible as most of the heat is transmitted inside the car via this large glass area and is responsible for the greenhouse effect. Glass tends to get hot by itself and can be a source of heat radiation which can add to the heating.
These shades can be folded and stored in the boot when not needed and take very little space whilst not in use.
3. Try this when you open the car: Open both the front doors wide (or open the window on one side and the door on the other). Then grab one of the door handles and push the door in and out without actually shutting it. Technically this will ‘push out’ the hotter air via the other door and allow some relatively cooler air from outside to enter the car. This helps as the car temperature is easily 20 degrees more than the outside temperature. This may not look trendy and may draw a few stares, but is worth it!
4. When you start the car, keep the windows open a little bit (a few inches), switch on the AC blower, turn on the fresh mode (turn off the recycle air mode) and wait for a few moments. You can use just the fan blower without the AC too (The AC struggles at start up and this will strain the compressor). This again helps to displace some of the super hot air from inside the car to the outside via the window gaps. You can start driving like this for a few seconds, then turn the AC to a cooler temperature. Take off the fresh mode when you notice the car is cooler and roll up your windows. Doing this reduces the amount of time the car is unbearably hot.
5. Use those little solar fans – some people think it works! There are these small, solar powered fans that you can leave at the windows when they are open a slit. These fans promise to continuously remove some of the hot air from the car. They are small and not very powerful. Some people say they are useless, others say they are useful. They are inexpensive (less than 10$) and so they may be worth a shot! Make sure the solar panel faces the sunshine.
Those are my 5 little tips. There is no guaranteed way to make your car freezing cold quickly after parking it in the sun, but every little tip makes the rest of the journey a little more pleasant. Do share and comment!
