Optimum Car Cabin Temperature

[mawallace]

Having just bought a car with climate control, I wonder if members had a view as to the optium cabin temperature for the UK?

[christopherwk]

Looking at the handbook, it recommends 22c.

22c is also in the middle of the dial in the car, which has a range between 16c and 28c.

[jont]

Whatever makes you (and your passengers) feel most comfortable?

[Gareth]

Whatever helps to keep the driver most alert - passengers be damned!

The number on the control isn't much help since the actual result will vary from car to car. There's no certainty that it will be accurate, nor any knowledge of exactly what it is measuring if, indeed, it is measuring anything at all. Even if the system is well designed, there is likely to be some temperature variation within the whole of the cabin region, and this will be as a result of external stimuli such as sunlight through the windows or the external air temperature suddenly dropping.

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

I tend to use 19.

My current car has a tendency to misting up, and that automatically invokes the aircon, so although I prefer not to have aircon on permanently, currently I have little choice. Of course then the air coming out of the vents is freezing, so often I have to have the temperature set higher than I would really like, to stop my arms / face from getting frostbite.

[michael769]

I tend to use 19.

My current car has a tendency to misting up, and that automatically invokes the aircon, so although I prefer not to have aircon on permanently, currently I have little choice. Of course then the air coming out of the vents is freezing, so often I have to have the temperature set higher than I would really like, to stop my arms / face from getting frostbite.

I find that when you use aircon it tends to leave the car in a state so that it is more prone to misting up than when you don't use it for a day or so afterwards. My car develops the same problem as you when the climate control is on, so I prefer to have it on manual and control it myself, which I find give me a more comfortable result without the sudden shifts in humidity that the auto setting causes.

(Now if only I could do the same for the office - our heating/cooling system is what they had in mind when the term "sick building" was coined!)

[Mr Cholmondeley-Warner]

Your car probably doesn't leak water into the driver's footwell ...