Don't use air condition in the car
I get pretty annoyed by all the air conditions in every car. Especially in New Zealand it isn't that hot, that you would need it. Just turn down your windows a bit and the hot air is going out the car. Not that it brings you fresh air in your car, it also saves fuel! The engines are consuming much more fuel if the heating or air conditioning is on. Open windows instead!
More fuel means using valuable resources, blowing more toxins into the air, more green house gases => climate change!
If you worry about your hairs, just turn down the windows in the back seat, both of them, then there is not that circulation in the front, but you still get fresh air!!!!
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Actually, it is well
Actually, it is well documented that the extra Parasite drag caused by having the windows down in many cases causes higher fuel consumption than using A/C!
use of heater
actually heaters in cars do not use any extra gas and can actually help to more efficient cool your engine. The heater core takes coolant from the system and pulls it through what is basically a mini radiator, and adds additional cooling power to the cooling system for the engine. I agree with the AC use though!
If going 100ks, what I would
If going 100ks, what I would do is switch the air con on for a time, then off for a while, and so on. At high speeds, maybe 80+ks, then the drag caused by leaving the windows open will offset the saving made from having air-con off. The more modern / rounded your car, the more extreme the problem!.
I'm actually adding air-con to my car (retrofit from a scrapyard), as I don't like the heat in the NZ summer, but despite this I actually make huge savings in fuel usage by using 'hypermiling' driving techniques :)
P.S. At 60ks or below, just open the windows. Definitely try to avoid air-con in heavy traffic jams!. Also consider switching off the engine if stopped at a junction for more than 30 seconds (you make a saving after about 5 seconds if you switch off the engine, but you don't want to overheat the starter by starting all the time). It is worth noting that a warmed-up, idling engine, uses enough petrol to go at about 20km/hour if you were using that petrol to actually do something...
Aircons
What is hypermiling? sounds intriguing.
hypermiling
Hypermiling is basically a driving philosophy where you aim to use the least fuel possible to do a certain journey.
Simple techniques include changing up to 5th gear as soon as possible when driving, and also only using half throttle to accelerate (because, engines inject 50% too much fuel on full acceleration to stop the engine 'overheating' (detonating). You can avoid this with moderate acceleration. Other techniques include switching off the engine at stoplights / intersections (because an idling, warmed up engine uses enough fuel to do 20km/h... except you are wasting the petrol by not moving).
Slowing down also helps a LOT, e.g. do 90km/h in a 100 zone. This is usually only possible on dual carriageways or quiet roads, and even on DCs people still come up behind and get mad, rather than just overtaking, which is odd. This even happens on quiet 3-lane motorways at times.
Medium techniques include hidden aero-modifications to remove drag (noting that, at 100km/h, air drag accounts for about 66% or more of all resistance (wasted fuel)). Other techniques include removing unnecessary weight from the car.
A very good technique is to fit an engine block heater (high-power 2-3kw) to your car, use it 15 minutes in the morning, and avoid the VERY inefficient first few minutes of engine warmup (where the car uses 3 the amount of fuel, easily). I used a 'Kenlowe Hotstart' in the UK. Overall, you trade a small amount of power station CO2 for a lot of petrol emissions at the start of a journey (and you also reduce engine wear).
Extreme techniques including using the engine to either accelerate (moderate), or just switch it off and freewheel! You can get very good savings from this (I got nearly 3 times the mileage in an 80s turbo Nissan, thereby beating a generation-3 prius, using this method). However... you shouldnt try this right away. You need to be aware of the changes to brakes, steering, what to do in an emergyency etc, or you could have/cause an accident.
Other extreme techniques include extreme aero-mods. Type 'aerocivic' into google to see what I mean (note the tail is a similiar shape to a plane). This car looks odd but uses only a fraction of the fuel it would normally use! http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/01/more-details-ab.html
The final aim of all this is to reduce CO2 emissions thereby helping the environment. And save money with ever-increasing petrol prices. The forum where I am a member, www.gassavers.org, is a very good overall site for 'hypermiling'.