just something that made my mind wonder ...

is a white car more fuel efficient than a black car, especially in a hot climate?

the reason being, the white car absorbs less heat than the black car (less solar gain), thus needs less energy in the form of Air-Conditioning to cool the interior of the car down.
So, when a car needs less energy to cool it down, automatically, the engine has less burden on it.

does it make sense, or am i smoking pot here?

 

Down here in the tropics a white or at least a light-colored car is MUCH cooler - in two ways. First, a good deal of the heat comes from the glass, that transmits IR unless tinted for that purpose. Underway, heated outside air "wipes" the glass, preventing the buildup of a boundary layer that helps provide insulation in still air.

A black car does not reflect incident light, but absorbs it. "Color" is the result of the wavelength of radiation being reflected from the surface, white is the result of all visible colors being reflected equally. Assuming that this reflectance continues down into the IR band, white will also reflect heat.

I've had this proven pretty convincingly when I painted a white car a deep green. On the way from the paint shop in slow-moving freeway traffic, I nearly passed out. I had an aftermarket AC installed the next day. Similarly, we had my wife's van repainted from a dark blue to a light blue. The result was not only attractive, but a MUCH cooler vehicle in which the AC didn't have to struggle to keep up. We had the headliner pulled out and a layer of reflective foil adhered to the top, followed by heavy insulation, and a new headliner. Got limo tint on all windows - right up to the legal max. The result is a 15 year-old van that you can hang meat in. My wife, Nanook, is very happy.

 

maybe on the most neglegent level ...

 

a/c compressor will be running anyway....so no difference.

 

I spend more energy washing black cars more than white cars.

 

+1 and more money on car products and professional detailing

 

I can see where your coming from, but black still looks cleaner (in a subjective sense not in a physical sense, cuz we all know black is the hardest to keep clean ).

 

black is good ONLY if it's clean...a little scratch here and there and you're royally screwed

 

you also forget to mention the swirls, bird etchings, ding mark reflections, rock chips, and just plain old dirt.

 

But black can also reflect on how caring you are to things, though it doesn't help getting girls, but it shows when a clean black car rolls around everyday you'll know how much care they've took to keep it that way.

I've been thinking also, since things like Dynamat are silver reflective like a aluminum foil, wouldn't it also help reflect heat?


BTW, here in Winnipeg, dust is my problem, I almost have to wipe it down daily...