When it comes to dealing with the summer heat, most of us will do anything to help cool our vehicle off quickly. For the majority of us, that means using a sunshade. We’ve all seen them in the windshields of peoples cars, almost blinding us as we walk by. But apart from keeping nosey pedestrians from peeping through your windshield, what exactly are the benefits of using a sunshade?
In short, car sunshades help prevent the interior of your car from becoming excessively hot during the summer. They also help reduce the amount of time it takes for your vehicle to cool down via AC, as well as protect your dashboard, leather seats, electronics, and other valuables from damage due to extreme temperatures.
Being that sun shades work to help reduce interior temperatures of your vehicle by 30 degrees or more, most people find that using one is arguably one of the most effective methods for keeping your vehicle cool during the summer. If you’d like to know more about the benefits a sunshade has to offer, keep reading to learn more.
Benefit #1: Reducing Interior Temperature
The interior temperature of your car can skyrocket in no time when sitting unprotected from the sun. In less than one hour, on a sunny day, the temperature in your car can raise 30 degrees or more. Imagine how much higher it climbs over the course of a 8-hour workday.
Coming out to a hot car is never a fun experience. And if you’re forced to park your car in an area with no shade, your pretty much at the mercy of the sun.
However, if you keep a sunshade in your windshield, the overall heat that your vehicle takes on will be reduced dramatically. As mentioned before, sunshades can reduce the interior temperature of your vehicle by 30 degrees or more. This obviously varies depending on the temperature and how well your particular sunshade performs.
Sunshades work by reflecting or absorbing the light that comes into your vehicle through the windshield from the sun. By reflecting or absorbing these light rays before they have a chance to get trapped in the interior of your vehicle, your car will remain much cooler.
Whenever light passes through your windshield, or any windows for that matter, the light gets absorbed by the interior of the car in the form of heat. Once the light becomes heat, there’s no way for it to escape. That’s why the best way to protect the interior of your car from extreme heat is by preventing the formation of heat in the first place.
Benefit #2: Reduce Cooling Time
Its a lot easier for your air conditioning system to cool down an interior that’s 90 degrees than 150 degrees. By keeping a sunshade in your windshield, you effectively reduce the amount of heat that’s able to build up in your car, thus reducing the overall amount of time it takes for your vehicle to cool down.
Some people attempt to reduce this time by rolling their windows down as soon as they get in the car. While this does help let the trapped heat escape, its always better to prevent that heat build up as much as possible. In doing so, your vehicle not only cools off quicker via AC, its also less likely that any interior components such as your dashboard, leather seats, or electronics will be damaged.
Benefit #3: Protecting Your Interior
When sun light makes its way through the windshield of your vehicle, often its the dashboard that takes the worst of the assault. In extreme heats, the dashboard can easily reach temps of close to 200 degrees. Not only does this make them too hot to touch, that heat also radiates throughout the rest of your vehicle, making your interior unbearably hot.
Along with this heat usually comes damage to your dashboard and leather seats, if exposed for too long. Because the dashboard absorbs a lot of the heat that makes its way into your vehicle, its prone to drying out and cracking over time. Same for your leather seats. Because leather is a raw material, typically made from animal skins, it can also dry out, crack, and lose its color due to excessive heat.
The best way to ensure you won’t have to make any repairs to your dash or seats, is by preventing them from being exposed in the first place.
Benefit #4: Protecting Your Electronics
Most electronic devices work best between 70 to 80 degrees. Anything over this and they can begin to overheat. Subject to too much heat, and they can become damaged and in need of repair.
Storing your electronics in a hot car can be risky and isn’t advised. However, there are some times where this isn’t going to be possible. For example, some employers not allowing employees to bring cell phones inside the workplace can leave some people without a choice.
In these circumstances, the best way to keep your electronics cool in a hot car is by taking measures to keep the vehicle as cold as possible, which is exactly what a sunshade will do. This is not to say that the interior of your car won’t exceed the optimal preferred temperature for your device, but it should keep it cool enough to prevent any damage.
In Conclusion
As you can see, there are lots of benefits to using a car sunshade. There are also lots of other ways to keep a car cool without AC during the summer as well – using a sunshade is just one of them.