Take a close look at your car’s dashboard and you’ll notice it has tiny vents that never blow hot or cold air. So what do they do?
The Autopian recently published a short article explaining why these vents exist — and the answer might surprise you.
The vent is there to provide airflow to a small sensor that lives behind the dash. It’s the cabin temperature sensor, and it does exactly what its name says. It’s there to monitor the vehicle’s interior temperature. You’ll mostly only find this sensor on modern vehicles from the last 40 years or so, and only on ones with proper climate control. […]
If you’re unfamiliar, climate control is a step up from basic heating and air conditioning. In a regular setup, you tell the car you want hot air or cold air and set the fan speed, and that’s what you get. Climate control is fancier. It lets you set a temperature and the system figures out what to do. It changes the output from the heater and air conditioning as you drive to maintain your selected temperature in the cabin.
To achieve this, the HVAC system needs to know what the actual temperature is inside the cabin—hence the need for a cabin temperature sensor. […]
The vents are often clearly noticeable as three small slits in the dash. This is a combination of the fact that little airflow is needed, and that designers will never draw one line where three will do. By and large the consensus seems to be it looks neater and more intentional.
Mystery solved! The vents are part of the HVAC climate control system, but don’t blow air. Instead, they provide a sensor access to the cabin to determine what the temperature is so that it can make adjustments accordingly.
To read the full article, as well as a really cool breakdown of how cabin temperature sensors work, check out: Here’s What Those Three Holes In Your Car’s Dashboard Are For.
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