how much power does an air conditioner consume?

"peter" wrote

"A little bit" ;-) It really depends on your a/c. My a/c takes about 0.2 litres / hour (small a/c for station wagon in Germany), but perhaps your a/c needs 1 litre (tropiced a/c in our indian van).

If you can read german I can send you articles concerning a/c from sources like Mercedes or ADAC (or look and search at their websites yourself).

Yes, but not neccesary linear. And electronic can shut off (or reduce) a/c when you need all the engines power for driving (at certain rpm or pressure of accelerator). So you might not see any difference when driving.

Thomas

They're quite powerful. About as much as a small window air conditioner (1000-1500 Watts?) I suspect the compressor gets easier to turn the faster it goes, but not quite enough to guarantee constant power consumption, owing mostly to increased friction.

Between 3 and 5 HP depending on the system size. Power consumption is variable depending on system efficiency, demands, temp, etc.

And the system >Approximately how much power does a typical car air conditioner consume? If

Likely depends significantly on the system in question. It will also differ depending on the cooling load and head pressure in the system (especially with a variable-displacement compressor system like the Delco/Delphi-Harrison units on most GM cars)..