13th May, 2019

We find an answer using actual science!

 
 

Own a car? Live in Queensland? Then this is for you!

 

The reality of getting into a furnace of a car after its been parked in the summer sun is sometimes unavoidable. Sure, blasting the air conditioning can provide relief, but the root of the issue lies within the heat-soak trapped within the confides of the vehicle. Don’t have AC in your car? Then prepare to sweat it out!

Cars are obviously sources of heat on their own accord, however when parking in direct sunlight, windows allow heat to get trapped within interior materials. Dashboards are usually the main offenders, with windscreen glass magnifying heat into the material, sometimes to the point of being too hot for human contact. This is the main issue, as whilst AC/windows down will combat air temperature, its far more difficult to remove the temperature heat soak can cause.

How do we solve this monumental life problem, we hear you ask?

 

One cheap and rather effective way to mitigate this issue is a good old fashioned reflective windscreen visor. Normally this is something you’d find in your Grandmothers car (along with sheep skin seat covers and a few lawn hats on the parcel tray), however these things can really keep a lot of heat out of your car.

 

How much heat do they actually keep out?

 

We conducted a little experiment to prove exactly this. We took two identical cars, and put them outside in direct sunlight for 2 hours – one with a reflective sun shade, one without.

 

 

We then measured the temperature of each dashboard – this was the car with the sunshade:

 

 

And this was the car without the sunshade:

 
 

 

After 2 hours of punishment, the sunshade managed to keep out 25+ degrees of heat out of the dashboard compared to the car that didn’t have it – the results truly speak for themselves!

 
 

Why use a windscreen sun shield?

 

1. Minimise Heat Soak = Maximise Driver Comfort

 

2. Increase in Air-Conditioning efficiency = Small Increase in Fuel Efficiency

 

3. Preservation of Your Cars Interior – Minimising the deterioration impact of extreme heat cycles.

Convinced? Pick one up from somewhere like Supercheap Auto for less than $15! Money well spent we say!

 

Another helpful article brought to you by the Autohouse Team 🙂

 

Thanks for reading!