| answer....first a little A/C background: Our cars use a compressor that has 5 small pistons in it and they have variable stroke. It's called a variable displacement compressor. The advantage is that the compressor doesn't need to cycle on or off due to the temp on the cooling unit inside the car. On cars equipped with the standard, fixed displacement compressors, the clutch will disengage to stop the flow of coolant through the system which stops chilling down the cooling unit. When this happens, the clutch cycles off and the engine idle speed drops. With our variable displacement compressors, the stroke of the pistons gets shortened to reduce the flow of refrigerant through the system rather than shutting it off all together. When more cooling is needed inside the car, the stroke of the compressor is increased. But the clutch doesn't cycle on and off so there isn't a sudden load when the clutch engaged. It allows the engine to operate at a more consistent steady state condition. So....when you have the fan set to high it is moving more air across the evaporator which puts more "heat load" on the a/c system. In response, the compressor will go to it's maximum stroke which equals more load on the engine. On the other hand when you reduce the fan speed, the evaporator isn't shedding as much cold into the cabin and the cooling load is reduced - compressor goes to minimum stroke. Now, there could be cases where higher fan speeds do not mean that the compressor is operating at it's maximum capacity. If you have your windows up, the recirculation on, and there isn't much sun load, the temperature in the cabin will equalize faster and there is not as much "greenhouse" effect going on inside the car which would require more work from the A/C system. Sorry for such a long response, but the answer to your second item is a yes for most situations as you described in your post. Dave
Little did Bob realize that Harold discovered the elusive "brown note" and was about to put the theory to test
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