Range and AC usage

[alohart]

got in hot car today
90 degrees outside and car was sitting in sun, so cabin was hot
turned on Auto and A/C OFF
System blew cold air with somewhat high fan rate - not as fast as Max cool

The Owner's Manual states that pressing Auto also turns on cooling and thus the A/C LED. From your experience, it seems that as long as Auto is on, cooling will occur regardless of whether the A/C LED is on and that turning off the A/C LED does nothing. If this is the correct behavior, it's a very poor user interface.

 

[flyboy320]

I wonder if the fact the car will cool the battery when it starts to go over a predetermined temperature is influencing the cabin temperature. I don't think the battery cooling circuit is separate from the cabin cooling circuit, so maybe if you deselect the A/C button, the cabin is still cooling because the battery is running the A/C compressor?

 

[alohart]

I wonder if the fact the car will cool the battery when it starts to go over a predetermined temperature is influencing the cabin temperature. I don't think the battery cooling circuit is separate from the cabin cooling circuit, so maybe if you deselect the A/C button, the cabin is still cooling because the battery is running the A/C compressor?

The battery and cabin cooling circuits are arranged in parallel, each with electrically-controlled expansion valves just upstream of the evaporator heat exchangers (see the I01 Heating and AC Systems Training Manual for details). It is likely that these expansion valves could be closed to shut off one of the cooling circuits while the other continues to operate. If battery cooling is required but cabin heating isn't, or vice-versa, it would be wasteful to circulate refrigerant through the cooling circuit that isn't being used.

 

[gt1]

got in hot car today
90 degrees outside and car was sitting in sun, so cabin was hot
turned on Auto and A/C OFF
System blew cold air with somewhat high fan rate - not as fast as Max cool

The Owner's Manual states that pressing Auto also turns on cooling and thus the A/C LED. From your experience, it seems that as long as Auto is on, cooling will occur regardless of whether the A/C LED is on and that turning off the A/C LED does nothing. If this is the correct behavior, it's a very poor user interface.

Damn, I had no idea.

 

[jadnashuanh]

The manual says something like, pressing Auto enables a/c regardless of whether you'd turned off A/C. If the system is turned off, and then you press (most) any other HVAC buttons, it turns back on. You'd want to reread that section to see if yours is operating as it says...it might not be as you expected. The condensation sensor will also turn it back on, if I remember correctly.

 

[alohart]

got in hot car today
90 degrees outside and car was sitting in sun, so cabin was hot
turned on Auto and A/C OFF
System blew cold air with somewhat high fan rate - not as fast as Max cool

The Owner's Manual states that pressing Auto also turns on cooling and thus the A/C LED. From your experience, it seems that as long as Auto is on, cooling will occur regardless of whether the A/C LED is on and that turning off the A/C LED does nothing. If this is the correct behavior, it's a very poor user interface.

I just tried pressing the A/C button after the Auto button was pressed which turns off the A/C LED. Cool air continued blowing for a couple of minutes but gradually warmed to the cabin temperature. On our i3, it appears the turning the A/C LED off while the thermostat setting is lower than the cabin temperature turns off the heat pump compressor.

I should be able to confirm this by pressing the Auto button while in our parking stall with the thermostat setting lower than the cabin temperature, listening for the heat pump compressor which should be running, pressing the A/C button, and listening for the heat pump compressor to turn off which I suspect that it will do.

 

[getakey]

interesting
If I press AC Off, it continues to blow cool for a long time and does not stop
In any case, will be on your island in 30 days

 

[jadnashuanh]

Depending on the outside temperature and how long the thing has been running, you could get cool air for awhile. From the outside (and inside if you listen very carefully) you can usually tell when the compressor is on...from inside, it might require opening a window.

Based on the operator's manual, there's more than one way to enable it again, so be careful what buttons you press.

 

[getakey]

It was in the mid 90s when I was experimenting with A/C on and off.
It continued to blow cold air for more than a few minutes. I kept it off the entire drive of 20 minutes or so