Method for operating a cooling element of a vehicle air conditioning

The method involves computing water load capacity of a cooling element based on air temperature, air humidity, air mass flow before and after the element or estimating the load capacity based on air temperature gradation and under consideration of actual active air cooling capacity of the element and/or fading characteristics of the cooling capacity after reducing the cooling capacity. A start value for the load capacity of the element is estimated after interruption of a cooling operation of the element. Temperatures of the element and the air are influenced by changing the cooling capacity.