Summer heat and limousine AC

With high summer temperatures this June, the heat index has exceeded 100F making everybody miserable. Please consider the following:

1. Vehicles cannot offer the same cooling atmosphere as buildings. The size and power of the stationary commercial Air Conditioning unit (that can be found in any home or commercial building) is by far more powerful that any AC system that can be found in a given vehicle (even if it works properly).
   1. Let’s add that buildings have insulation that helps keeping the cool air, while vehicles do not offer insulation to ensure the temperature environment more stable.
2. Vehicle needs to be in motion for the AC to work properly. Stationary AC works consistently throughout the day, while vehicle AC runs much better when the vehicle is in motion. The compressor which pumps refrigerant through the system is driven by your engine. It pumps more refrigerant when it turns faster. It turns faster when the engine turns faster, IE when you are driving. (for more information follow this link )
3. The unique design on the limousine (interior and exterior) puts extra stress on the engine because all the extras that make limousine stand out (such as rear AC component, TV, second stereo, ceiling and bar neon lighting, etc) require additional voltage. These entire specialty items make the limousine susceptible to overheating when compared to your average vehicle.
4. Color of the vehicle makes a difference. Many vehicles are black in color and black attracts heat, thus increasing the interior temperature of the vehicle.
5. When opening the doors to get in/out, the hot air rushes inside the vehicle and allows the cold air to escape. So even if the vehicle was cold, by the time 20 people climbed in, the temperature will be significantly higher.
6. In the limousine, people seat very close to each to other, thus feeling each other’s heat. The overall perception would be that the temperature is not cold enough.
7. When waiting on the group, we try to park in the shadow if possible to keep the vehicle cooler, but it is not always possible.

Pickup times are arranged in confirmed before the trip, yet sometimes customer are not ready when the limousine arrives. In some cases, customer might need only extra 5 min; in other, customer might need up to 50 min to get ready. When waiting on the customer, driver has to make a decision:

• do we keep the vehicle running and AC going thus risking overheating, or
• turn off the engine to prevent vehicle overheating but that would cause the temperature of the vehicle inside to increase.

We have had complaints from parties no matter what measures we take to ensure the working order of the vehicle.

In summary, we would like to assure our customers that we do our best to maintain limousines in top mechanical shape; every vehicle is checked prior to dispatch.  NO matter how hard we work, some factors are out of our control: weather, traffic, state of the roads.