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Comment by rectang | Hacker News Reader

Sometimes. Managing that issue was definitely something I thought about, and it affected where I parked and what direction I would point my parked car to avoid the sun. Usually I just rolled the windows down a few inches, though, instead of running the AC. I live in a temperate area and I have more tolerance for temperature swings than some. And I was usually setting my alarm for 20 minutes, so I wouldn't be there that long.

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I feel guilt for this where I work. It gets to 120f outside here during the summer. It's not great to run the car for just ac, but I benefit from the alone time.

Cars consume very limited amounts of fuel idling so you shouldn't feel guilt for that anymore than you should feel guilt for driving to a restaurant on the way home.

Just avoid doing this in a closed space like a garage, because carbon monoxide can kill you... Otherwise I also use my car as a "calm down" place (for 5-10 mins before coming home, about 5 minutes away from my home), or before having a meeting and so on. Sometimes also for the naps (during work or after work).

For some reason my brain thinks it's dangerous to run the AC when the car is stationary. I don't think this is the case and I'm complecting it with something else - is anyone able to shed some light?

How do you think it is dangerous? ACs do not emit any gases themselves, so except for the CO2 produced by the engine to keep it running it should not be dangerous.

I think CO and CO2 are what I'm thinking of. Maybe if you sat in your car in the garage...?

CO and CO2 produced by the engine is going to come out of the exhaust at the back. Your AC will take in air from the front of the car. In a parking lot or other well ventilated areas, I don't see a big cause for concern.

Also modern cars produce orders of magnitude less emissions its actually somewhat difficult to kill yourself with one now, you essentially have to run a hose from the tailpipe to the cabin.

You still have an engine that is producing a certain amount of power, and this is associated with a minimum rate of production of CO2. Some of the other interesting emissions are greatly reduced in modern engines, but the CO2 production hasn't fallen that much.

I was just going off what I heard from a EMT to be honest, he said those types of suicides were much more successful early in his career.

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