Drivers in the cold seat

12 Mar 2006 | News
Save energy, cool your seat.

Could this story feature in the igNobel Prizes next year? "The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has demonstrated that ventilated automotive seats not only can improve passenger comfort but also a vehicle's fuel economy. That's because ventilated seats keep drivers and passengers cooler, so they need less air conditioning to be comfortable."
 
Our first thought on ventilated seats conjured up a completely different issue. But perhaps we shouldn't poke fun. "If all passenger vehicles had ventilated seats, we estimate that there could be a 7.5 percent reduction in national air-conditioning fuel use."

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