Do you Think Car Color Affects FE?

[philmcneal]

Hi I was wondering if under the cirumstances of car colors, if there would be any difference in while at move or standstill while sitting under the sun:

a) car battery temperature since if the color is too dark, would it create hotter temperatures? I guess my concern is that hot temperatures kill a battery and is more important for those who hypermile than others using the battery once and then just charging it.

b) If the car is a darker color (like black) would sitting under the sun keep the engine compartments at high temperatues so that it doesn't need to have a cold start?

So in conclusion which color in the summer would net the best fuel economy? Would black help in the winter if the sun is shining on you? Hm...

Every so often one of the local stations (and local for me is Phoenix, Arizona) does a study to see how hot a car will get when parked in the open sun for 4 hours or so. They'll typically pick a white one and a black one and park them in direct sunlight by each other on a nice 105 - 110 degree, zero cloud day. Usually the white car will reach 150-155 degrees and the black one will be about 5 degrees hotter.

Underhood would likely actually be less since at least there's air circulation, unlike the interior. I'd bet underhood temps are less than 2 degrees apart thanks to air circulation. A bigger factor would be the hotter interior temps, which requires more A/C use to keep a black car cool in the summer, although granted that's more of an Arizona thing than a Canada thing.

[Sledge]

Another thought: the hotter a car is, the larger the car gets due to thermal expansion. This would potentially decrease FE at highway speeds due to greater drag caused by greater frontal area.

[philmcneal]

^ i didn't know that! oh man so far black is the worse color! and it looks like my battery is enjoying the hot old sun mmm....

oh wells i'm sure there's more science behind colors, but we still haven't found out which color is best for FE. Unless its white?

[Chuck]

I live in Dallas - need I explain?

Fortunately, this silver paint job lasts much better than ones fifteen or so years ago that fades so fast.

[philmcneal]

i thought white was cooler than silver?

[Chuck]

I wish white was available for the Insight