In a world increasingly focused on the health of our environment, automobiles have become a major focus of green initiatives, as they are seen as a major source of many of our current global pollution concerns. Beyond owning a hybrid vehicle, there are steps drivers can take to ensure their vehicle, regardless of make or age, reduces its impact on the environment. These steps that reduce the vehicle’s impact on the environment involve the following: window tinting, air conditioning, and vehicle tire management.
Car window tinting can have a very large impact on the amount of energy used by the vehicle and therefore the amount of emissions emitted by the vehicle. It is known that when a vehicle has tinted windows, it protects passengers from UV rays and reduces the overall heat absorption of the vehicle and therefore reduces the amount of air conditioning required inside the vehicle. This reduction in the use of air conditioning inside the vehicle reduces the amount of stress on the engine itself and therefore has a positive impact in decreasing the amount of fuel used by the vehicle. This decrease in fuel reduces the impact of vehicles on the environment, all because the driver invested in tinted windows.
Coming back to in-vehicle air conditioning, it is important to note that this feature of the car can be managed to the point where it has a positive impact in reducing the load of the vehicle on the environment. For example, it is obvious from the above that using air conditioning inside the vehicle puts more pressure on the engine, which in turn consumes more fuel. This information leads to the simple inference that not using automotive air conditioning will greatly reduce the vehicle’s impact on the environment. The natural solution is to roll down the vehicle’s windows and let natural air flow through the car, cooling the passengers inside without overloading the engine. However, it is very important to note that when traveling with the vehicle windows down, after the vehicle reaches a certain speed and then drives above it, the vehicle’s engine is actually more stressed than when the vehicle travels with the windows rolled up. This is largely due to the reduced aerodynamics of the car when the windows are down and the increased air friction around the vehicle when the driver accelerates to the desired speed. In general, driving with the windows down on the highway reduces the energy efficiency of the vehicle’s engine.
A final area where a driver can manage their vehicle’s impact on the environment is managing their tire pressure. It can be very obvious that a vehicle’s tires have a direct impact on the car’s fuel efficiency. For example, tires that are under-inflated increase the effort the engine needs to work with to move the vehicle and therefore decrease the vehicle’s fuel efficiency. Simply keeping your tire pressures constant at the optimal fill level will ensure that your tires do not increase your vehicle’s impact on the environment.