Effect of AC on engine output?

[M400DPC]

Took the old girl for a blast this evening and forgot I had the air con blasting away on level 3. When I finally realised, I turned the AC off completely, hit the loud pedal and the increase in power was astonishing. Does anyone know roughly how much power the AC robs when you're giving it beans?

[M400DPC]

Seriously without the aircon I'm a sweaty mess as soon as I get the car up to temp, but faced with a 15% power loss, its a no brainer!

[M400DPC]

sundance02 said:

sundance02 said:

ThatPhilBrettGuy said:

SimonJW said:

Stating how much power it takes as a percentage of engine output is daft. Clearly aircon will use roughly the same power sat at idle as when flat out.

How? a/c does not work properly at idle. Also if you have the a/c on full it will draw more power. The bigger the pump the more power it would need the higher the fan speed the more power it will draw.


As I said would you like a wager? Im willing to put my money where my mouth is, and if im wrong fine, but it makes it interesting.

Edited by sundance02 on Monday 19th July 11:14

Edited by sundance02 on Monday 19th July 11:19

From a technical point of view I have no idea what is being affected but there is a noticeable increase in torque when I switch the AC off. Whether the decrease in bhp is de minimis or not, the AC definately saps power somewhere along the line... If no-one else is experiencing this to the same degree it could be something to do with the mods on mine?