In the summer time when you’re with the family having a good time at the beach or the ice cream parlor, the least remembered thing is the car. Parked under the simmering sun, temperatures on the inside can climb up to obscene temperatures that render it impossible for you or your family to be comfortable on the journey.
There are a myriad of ways to keep the interior of the car from becoming an oven, tarnishing surfaces and thus reduce the car rating. These are elaborated below so that the summer can be an enjoyable time at any phase of the earth’s rotation around the hot sun:
- Shaded parking is the easiest way to keep your car feeling cool on the interior. If you cannot find a lot with an erected shade, spots under trees also work just fine. Where there are trees, there is high chance of cool breeze as well so being on the lookout for these areas is a huge plus. It also helps that you keep the windows slightly cracked so that the cool air can seep in and keep the cabin cool.
- A sunshade or a UV Heat shield is also a handy tool to have in your car if the summer heat turns out to be unbearable. This is posted on the inside of the windshield; front and rear if possible. It reflects the incoming heat as well as the direct sunlight that would not be welcome in the car. To further protect your sensitive belongings like CDs and tapes, a blanket thrown over them would do the trick. The dash can also be protected by using a dash cover that shields the vinyl on here from sunlight.
- The workings of the internal combustion engine are prone too much heat, an ironic byproduct of their mechanisms. It is for this reason that coolant is added to the radiator so as to keep the engine as cool as possible to keep it functioning. In the summer the heat can be too much and as such one has to check that there is always enough radiator coolant to ensure that the engine is functioning at the best temperature.
- In the summer, the ambient temperature will always be a little warmer than one would normally like. It is at this point that the air conditioning unit of the car comes into play. On entering the car on a hot summer day, turn the AC setting to Fresh Air so that it brings in cool air. Once the interior is at a temperature that is to your satisfaction, you can now set the AC to Recirculation so as to maintain this temperature. Preowned cars may not have efficiently functional AC and so getting one in is ideal. Before you buy any car you should therefore check this out.
- Still connected to the AC, is the style in which it is used to cool down the interior. Since hot air is lighter than cool air, it ‘floats’ above it. The most efficient way of cooling down the interior is therefore by opening the bottom most AC vents and letting the incoming cool air drive out the hot one.
