AC Question

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scott1686

Member
Joined
Jun 15, 2018
Messages
23
This might be a stupid question, but if I have the AC set to 74, and then later on the outside temperature goes down to 72, does that mean it will start heating the car because the temperature control is set to 74? If so, is there a way to set it so that it just switches to outside air as soon as it goes below the desired temperature?

Thanks.
 
scott1686 said:
if I have the AC set to 74, and then later on the outside temperature goes down to 72, does that mean it will start heating the car because the temperature control is set to 74?

Viewing the climate screen and looking at power usage (%), will likely answer this for you (I'm guessing yes).


scott1686 said:
If so, is there a way to set it so that it just switches to outside air as soon as it goes below the desired temperature?

Thanks.

Short answer, no, not automatically.
 
As long as you DON'T have the climate control set to AUTO it will not try to heat the car.

So in short, turn off auto feature on the climate control and it will only cool the vehicle.

Turn on the AUTO feature and it tries to maintain the set temp by both heating and cooling the car AUTOmatically.

Keith
 
boatbum11 said:
As long as you DON'T have the climate control set to AUTO it will not try to heat the car.

So in short, turn off auto feature on the climate control and it will only cool the vehicle.

Turn on the AUTO feature and it tries to maintain the set temp by both heating and cooling the car AUTOmatically.

Keith

Thanks for the info! So how do you turn on the heat then? Do you need AUTO enabled to heat the car, or does the car basically know that it needs to heat up if you have the inside temperature set to something that's a lot warmer than the outside temperature?
 
boatbum11 said:
As long as you DON'T have the climate control set to AUTO it will not try to heat the car.

So in short, turn off auto feature on the climate control and it will only cool the vehicle.

Turn on the AUTO feature and it tries to maintain the set temp by both heating and cooling the car AUTOmatically.

Keith

I don't think that's true. If the Temp light is lit, the car will try to achieve the set temperature using the AC or Heater. The Auto function lets the car control vents, fan speed, and re-circulation. Even if all of those are manually set (no Auto), the car will still activate the AC or heater to try to maintain the set temperature.
 
CCIE said:
boatbum11 said:
As long as you DON'T have the climate control set to AUTO it will not try to heat the car.

So in short, turn off auto feature on the climate control and it will only cool the vehicle.

Turn on the AUTO feature and it tries to maintain the set temp by both heating and cooling the car AUTOmatically.

Keith

I don't think that's true. If the Temp light is lit, the car will try to achieve the set temperature using the AC or Heater. The Auto function lets the car control vents, fan speed, and re-circulation. Even if all of those are manually set (no Auto), the car will still activate the AC or heater to try to maintain the set temperature.
I believe you are correct.
 
I stand by my post. I have run the AC with the AUTO feature disabled and never seen the car try to heat the vehicle. I watch the power consumption meter like a hawk and would immediately notice a 6-8kw drain. Have never seen this, except when I am asking the car to heat the vehicle. How ever I live in a climate where you either are cooling or heating not doing both.
 
boatbum11 said:
I stand by my post. I have run the AC with the AUTO feature disabled and never seen the car try to heat the vehicle. I watch the power consumption meter like a hawk and would immediately notice a 6-8kw drain. Have never seen this, except when I am asking the car to heat the vehicle. How ever I live in a climate where you either are cooling or heating not doing both.
I have been thinking about this question. In the manual mode - AUTO turned off - the AC or heater will work to adjust the cabin temperature to the set point. In a cold climate, the heater will apply sufficient heat to bring the cabin up to your set temperature. The amount of heat being supplied will diminish as the cabin temperature approaches the set point until the set point is reached at which point no additional heat is supplied. If outside air is activated, the heater will continue to work to heat the outside air as it comes into the car until the cabin temperature reaches the set point. The same is true for AC use in hot temperatures.

Page 168 of the 2016 Spark EV Owner's Manual states, regarding automatic operation of the climate control system, "The system automatically controls the fan speed, air delivery, air conditioning, and recirculation in order to heat or cool the vehicle to the desired temprature". Basically, set it and forget it.

Perhaps the real question is how the AUTO functions deals with high cabin air humidity in both hot and cold environments. There is a plastic cover near the rear-view mirror. Under this cover is a moisture sensor. It seems possible that the AC could be used to remove moisture from the air even though the cabin is being heated. This may be one feature of the AUTO setting.
 
I just got to test this a little bit. My AC was set to 75 this morning, and then it was parked out in the Florida sun all day. Right before I left for work, we had a bad thunderstorm and the temperature outside was 74. I kept the AC at 75 and it still kept blowing cold air, most likely because the inside of the car was still really hot. So I guess it depends on the interior temperature rather than the exterior. Is there a way to see the actual interior temperature, or is it only the desired temperature and the outside temperature?
 
scott1686 said:
I just got to test this a little bit. My AC was set to 75 this morning, and then it was parked out in the Florida sun all day. Right before I left for work, we had a bad thunderstorm and the temperature outside was 74. I kept the AC at 75 and it still kept blowing cold air, most likely because the inside of the car was still really hot. So I guess it depends on the interior temperature rather than the exterior. Is there a way to see the actual interior temperature, or is it only the desired temperature and the outside temperature?
I believe the temperature of the exterior air entering the car will be adjusted by the AC or heater to match the temperature to which the desired cabin temperature is set.
 
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