As anyone who's burned their hands grabbing a steering wheel that's been baking in the sun knows, the inside of a car can get mighty hot during the summer. All that UV exposure can fry your upholstery -- and your skin -- and blasting the AC to cool down a molten interior can play havoc on your fuel economy.
British company Solar Guard has developed a colorless window film that it claims blocks 99 percent of the ultra-violet rays hitting your car and cuts the amount of solar energy entering your car by 40 percent. And that, it says, will make your car cooler while saving fuel.
Solar Guard says the film uses millions of microscopic particles to block infrared radiation. It gives the stuff the highfalutin' name "nano particle coating" and claims it won't interfere with the electronic signals entering the car. And since it cuts down on the need to run the air conditioning, it can improve your fuel efficiency.
About 5.5 percent of the gasoline burned annually by America's cars and light trucks - 7 billion gallons - goes to run air conditioners, and government tests have shown that running an air conditioner on high can decrease a car's fuel efficiency by as much as 25 percent.
Now we can quit carrying oven mitts in the glove compartment.
*Photo: Flickr / leonnie_sun
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