適切な状況下 (または場合によっては不適切な状況) では、最高級の車でさえ、息苦しいほど暑い車内の悲惨さから逃れることはできません。
外が灼熱のとき、何時間も直射日光の下に駐車された車に乗り込むのは、決して楽しい経験ではありません.
小さな危険物でいっぱいのうだるように暑い車内に迎えられたいのは誰ですか?シートベルトのバックルがやけどしたり、レザー シートが熱くなったり、触ると不快なほど熱くなるダッシュボード、ハンドル、ギア シフトなどについて話しています。
この記事を読み続けて、車のキャビンが熱くなる理由と、今年の夏に駐車中の車を涼しく保つためにできることを見つけてください。
では、太陽の下で駐車している車内は、暑い晴れた日に屋外で感じるよりもずっと暖かく感じるのはなぜでしょうか?
それは「温室効果」のせいかもしれません。
地球の大気がどのように熱を閉じ込め、地球が生命を維持できるようにするかに関連して、温室効果について聞いたことがあるでしょう。
温室効果は、暑い日に車やトラックがオーブンのように感じる理由でもあります.太陽の熱が窓から車内に入り、車内に閉じ込められて温度が上昇します。
温度上昇は、車を太陽の下に駐車した後の最初の 15 ～ 30 分が最も高くなります。シート、カーペット、ダッシュボードなどの車内の物体も、その熱の一部を吸収します。
スタンフォード大学の研究によると、気温が 72°F から 96°F (22°C から 35°C) の範囲の晴れた日には、車内の温度は平均で 40°F (8°C) 高くなります。屋外よりもテストされています。
暑い車は不快なだけでなく、安全でもありません。
残念なことに、怠慢な親が子供を暑い車の中に放置し、時には致命的な結果をもたらすことがあります。ペットが高温の車内に放置されていることも、よく耳にする別の問題です。
HeatKills.org は、暑い車内に子供やペットを放置することの危険性についての意識を高めることに専念している組織です。下の図は、車内がどれだけ早く熱くなるかを示しています。
外が猛烈に暑いときでも、駐車中の車を涼しく (または少なくとも涼しく) 保つためのいくつかの簡単なヒントに従うことは難しくありません。
耐えられないほど暑く、空に雲一つない日には、駐車時に日陰で暑さを和らげることができれば、車に戻るのがずっと快適になります。
理想的には、駐車場を見つけたいと思うでしょう。それができない場合は、駐車場の端にある木の下や建物の陰に駐車すると、車が涼しく保たれ、余分に歩く価値があります。
周囲が最も安全でない場合、特に暗くなってから車に戻る場合は、駐車場のより人里離れた場所に駐車することはお勧めできない場合があることに注意してください。
また、駐車する場所、時間帯、車に戻る時間も考慮してください。午前 11 時に日陰に駐車しているからといって、午後 3 時になっても日陰に駐車しているとは限りません。
駐車中の車を涼しく保つ方法として自宅のガレージを使用するためのヒントを与えると、「ありがとう、明らかに船長」と思うかもしれません.
しかし、いつでもガレージに駐車できますか?また、友人や近所の人が私道にフルタイムで車を停めていることに気づきましたか?
あなたのガレージの主な目的は駐車ですが、多くの住宅所有者はその機能のためにそれを使用していません (または使用できません)。次の統計を考慮してください:
家にいるときは、駐車中の車を涼しく保つ最良の方法として、ガレージ駐車に勝るものはありません。 Even if you come home and plan to go out in an hour or two, parking in the garage is smarter that staying parked in the sun in your driveway.
Aside from staying cooler, there are plenty of other big benefits to making space in your garage for parking.
The risk of vehicle theft or burglary is significantly reduced and your vehicles will be protected from the exterior elements that can shorten their life. Parking closer to your home’s entrance (via the interior garage access door) is also more convenient.
Simply parking in your home garage is an obvious solution for keeping your car cool, but something many homeowners are unable to do.
Despite the fact that they do help keep a car’s temperature down by blocking the primary entry point for the sun, some drivers simply hate the look of those windshield sun shades. The hassle of using them is a turn-off for some people as well.
Most sun shades you see in parked cars flatten out with an accordion-style design and admittedly look rather unattractive. Their foil-like, reflective covering doesn’t exactly help them call less attention to themselves, either.
It’s completely understandable that you might not want your luxury vehicle’s sharp looks being spoiled by a cheaper-looking sun shade (or something like this laughably tacky Golden Girls sun shade).
There are more expensive, but much nicer-looking windshield sun shades out there that can help to keep your parked car cool. Some companies even offer hundreds of custom models that allow for a perfect fit and vehicle color match.
Higher quality sun windshield shade models also tout better heat-absorbing materials. This makes them more effective at reducing the entrance of thermal and ultraviolet rays into a car’s cabin.
If a windshield sun shade is a total non-starter for you as a car cooling option, covering up the parts of your vehicle’s interior that get the hottest is another way to go.
There are plenty of models of car dashboard covers to choose from. Like the windshield sun shades, shop around for a higher quality product that provides a good fit and effectively complements your car’s interior décor.
Your steering wheel and leather seats (especially darker colored seats) are the other interior parts you’ll want to cover up to prevent them from baking in the sun. If you’re wearing shorts or a dress, your bare legs will thank you.
If you have dark leather seats, it might even be worth using lighter colored fabric seat covers during the hottest months of the year.
For a less elegant method of covering your parked car’s interior parts, even using a blanket or two will help (make sure to use a lighter colored blanket).
In most cases, window tints are effective at helping to keep a parked car cool.
Better quality tints are designed to allow for a good amount of light to pass through the tinted window, while blocking out the sun’s thermal rays. The latter is sometimes referred to as the “high heat rejection rate” of the tint.
Good window tints also cut down on the sun’s harmful UV rays.
Now here’s where car window tints can get very tricky – there are widely varying laws in the U.S. and Canada for how they can be used.
Some states and provinces don’t allow any tint to be on a windshield, such as Illinois and Alberta. Other have a requirement that tints allow a minimum of 70% of the sun’s light through the windows.
It gets even more complicated if you’re driving outside of your state or province. What’s legal with your window tint where you live may very well get you a ticket when you’re away travelling.
The American Automobile Association has a handy resource that provides a state-by-state and province-by-province breakdown of vehicle tinting regulations.
A lot of drivers still swear by the old practice of leaving a car’s side windows or sunroof open a crack to keep their vehicle’s interior temperature down.
This does let the built-up heat escape and helps to facilitate some airflow through the car’s cabin, but only a fairly modest amount.
You have to ask yourself, however – is the meager reward of a car interior that’s just a few degrees cooler worth the risk of leaving your car more vulnerable to theft or vandalism?
If you leave your car windows or sunroof open even just an inch, a skillful car thief could potentially get inside the vehicle. ABC News reports that for one thief “a car with a window cracked opened was an unlocked car”.
If you’re willing to risk cracking your windows, once again be conscious of your surrounding area. Park in visible areas close to other vehicles, ideally where there’s a decent amount of vehicle and foot traffic. Parking in view of a surveillance camera also doesn’t hurt.
And let’s not forget the other hazard of leaving your windows slightly open – the risk of a sudden rainstorm making a mess of your car’s interior.
The last of our car cooling tips is to try a solar-powered ventilation fan, which you may not be familiar with.
The fan attaches to the outside top of one of your rolled-up window and has an outward facing solar panel that powers it. The fan blows out the hot air from inside the car, while pulling in the relatively cooler air outside the car.
Using two fans set up on the two side front or rear windows should increase the cross-ventilation airflow and decrease the temperature even more.
Higher-powered, more effective models can be purchased that have a larger solar panel that sits on your dashboard and powers the fans.
The quality and reliability of this product seems to vary widely. Some online reviews dismiss cheaper models as too gimmicky and not very effective. Consumers who left reviews for other fan models praise them as ingenious and highly effective.
Using one of these car cooling methods or, even better, a combination of them will keep a parked car cooler.
But if they’re still not cooling to your satisfaction, there are a couple of other ways to get the heat out of a parked car faster.
If you don’t mind getting some strange looks from passersby, one simple method involves fanning your car door to push out the heat.
Just fully roll down the passenger side window and fan the driver side door about 6-8 times. It might sound primitive, but it’s simple physics and it works!
Follow these simple tips and you’ll be able to keep your parked car cooler and more comfortable to drive.
We can help you to transform your garage into a much more attractive area of your home that makes better use of your space for storage. That means you can use it for keeping your vehicles cooler and safer.
Schedule a free design consultation with Garage Living to start getting a lot more out of your garage space.
Please share this post if you found it useful.