How do I turn on the fan (without the AC)

I've been getting rather frustrated with this. Now that the weather is cooling off here in Phoenix (some days didn't even hit 100!) I would like to just run the fan to get some air movement (don't want the noise and drag of a cracked window). However, I cannot figure out how to do this. Even with the AC in the off position, as soon as I turn the fan on even just one bar, the climate control meter jumps to 1-1.5kW. There is *no way* the fan is using that much power - even at full blast. All I can imagine is the air compressor is starting up, too. Auto climate control is off. AC is off. Anyone have success turning on the fan without adding a large (>1kW load on the battery)?

Yes, the compressor is almost certainly coming on. I don't know of any way (short of modifying the car or turning off climate control) to prevent it from turning on the a/c AND believe it or not the heater!

It's counterintuitive, but the lowest consumption I've gotten is by turning off auto, setting the fan to recirculate, turn the temperature ALL the way down, then setting the fan and vents to the most comfortable.

This way will usually pull 1.5kw for about 2 minutes of driving (as it cools the evaporator to the desired temp and dissipates the heat through the condensor), then it will drop to near-nothing once the evap hits temp. Apparently the compressor only works as hard as needed to keep the evap cool, and if you're blowing low-speed, recirculating air, it doesn't take much. Of course, this gives you really cold air coming out, so as it gets cooler I guess I'm going to end up giving up on the fan and opening a window...

The stupid climate control in the car, if you have the temp higher, will try to MIX heat and a/c to get the climate air to the desired temp - so if, instead of setting to 60, you set it to 75, it will likely have BOTH the compressor and the fluid heater going! completely incomprehensible why they would do that...

==addendum==
Answer: Turn the temperature all the way down to 60 and you can use the fan.

But that made me wonder.
I see that the Temp Up/Down IS the Heater Power On toggle much like the AC button is the AC Power On toggle.
Turn the Temp Up/Down up high enough compared to the interior temperature and the heater kicks in.
Until it gets below 60 degrees in my car I won't know if the 60 degree setting is truly Heater OFF or will it still kick on the heater at the 60 degree setting when it is 50 degrees inside the car. Anyone know the answer to the question?

If the interior is 50 degrees and the temp up/down button is set to 60 and you turn on the fan only, will it force the heater to turn on?
If the answer is yes, then there are some situations where you just won't be allowed to use the fan as only a fan.

This is part of the problem when EV builders don't drive EVs, it's about as stupid of a design you can have on an EV. Turn your temp down to about 60, turn on the fan and then turn the AC button on. As long as the temp is set colder then the cabin and outside the heat will stay off and you will get air cool outside air only.

Thanks for the tip. I will try this. A bit counter-intuitive to lower the set point to get the AC off. One more reason to hack the OS...

TickTock said:

Thanks for the tip. I will try this. A bit counter-intuitive to lower the set point to get the AC off. One more reason to hack the OS...

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They should of had the auto mode do this BS and had a separate heat button. I am almost positive BS like this is because the people who designed this car never drove them. There are many mistakes on this car that are clearly a result of lack of EV knowledge, Nissan even asked EV folks before the car was done about certain things and they did not make the adjustments.

Having the heater on while running the AC compressor does suck a lot of juice (mostly the heater) but it does provide good defogging! The EV1 couldn't do this as the heater was the AC running in reverse as a heat pump (gen1). There was a heated windshield which kinda worked.. Sort of..

I'm not sure how to keep the heater off other than setting the temp low, but I don't think the AC comes on if the AC light is not illuminated.. Right?

Hm... I guess that makes sense as a reason to use this system instead of a heat pump, but I still think the car could be a LOT more intelligent about when the heater comes on. Select defrost, heater on, otherwise let the user select heat/cool/fan!

As for the A/C compressor, I don't know ... When I got so that I could consistently make it draw nearly no power, I didn't mess with it too much after that. Now that it's getting cooler, though, I guess I'll have to figure that out I'm betting the original poster's problem is the heater, though

GregH said:

Having the heater on while running the AC compressor does suck a lot of juice (mostly the heater) but it does provide good defogging! The EV1 couldn't do this as the heater was the AC running in reverse as a heat pump (gen1). There was a heated windshield which kinda worked.. Sort of..

I'm not sure how to keep the heater off other than setting the temp low, but I don't think the AC comes on if the AC light is not illuminated.. Right?

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No the AC will not.

Noticed something weird yesterday. I ran the fan and had the AC off and the temp set to 60. The climate controle energy meter was showing 0 KW, but the mileage guesstimate dropped by 10 miles as if the AC was on even when the meter was showing 0. Must be a software glitch. :shock:

What I do is lower the thermostat far enough to prevent the heater from coming on, press the fan speed up button, and then if necessary press the A/C button to turn off the A/C. With this technique, I've never had problems with anything coming on except for the fan. The display might say something like, turn off climate control for +2 miles, but I ignore that - since I know the fan alone uses no energy to speak of.

+1 Agree with johnr ...

johnr said:

What I do is lower the thermostat far enough to prevent the heater from coming on, press the fan speed up button, and then if necessary press the A/C button to turn off the A/C. With this technique, I've never had problems with anything coming on except for the fan. The display might say something like, turn off climate control for +2 miles, but I ignore that - since I know the fan alone uses no energy to speak of.

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That's my method also for the moment which works great except for the extra button pushes. I tend to check the energy gauges, just to make sure it's doing what I think it is. I haven't run into the heater coming on yet. I think it's hot enough outside and I set the temp to the high 70's, so I thing a temp setting of 75- 78 tends to avoid the heater problem, and you just turn the AC off. It seems to remember when I get back in the car, so once you figure it out it's not bad. But a straight Fan/Vent Only switch would be nice.

Incidentally, I presume the fan on it's highest setting must consume over 100 watts, which should be enough to show up in the Climate Control or Other systems energy consumption displays. Yet I can't see any difference in the displays whether I have it on the highest setting or off. I do see the energy change when I turn on the LED headlights, though that's a bit more power than the fan I'd guess.

Presumbly fan only will have close to 0 impact on you range if it's not even showing in the energy consumption.

ususally setting the in cabin temperature gauge to near the outside and turning off the AC button gets my desired results. The comppressor kicks in sometimes, but usually the energy screen shows climate control at 0 with a bump up every once in awhile.

I did a speed read through this thread, but there is no useful summary of how to achieve this. It sounds like:

1. There is no way to turn off the AC and have just the fan

2. There are "multiple" ways to achieve a close enough result

Can someone help write up a neat summary so that this thread becomes a useful reference that is searchable and a how-to guide?

Thanks!

Yeah, there is. Set the temp to 60, turn on the fan at the setting you want and then hit the A/C button unitl the screen says A/C Off. Then its just fan.

Bassman said:

Yeah, there is. Set the temp to 60, turn on the fan at the setting you want and then hit the A/C button unitl the screen says A/C Off. Then its just fan.

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Yep, that's the way I've had to do it as well. Also, be aware that switching between outside air and recirc tends to turn the AC back on. Sometimes I don't notice until I start feeling too cold.

Bassman said:

Yeah, there is. Set the temp to 60, turn on the fan at the setting you want and then hit the A/C button unitl the screen says A/C Off. Then its just fan.

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Thanks! I tried this and it works.

Now, what happen if the outside temp is say 50? Will the fan continue to blow whatever cold air from the outside?

I did this test today: It was about 78 degrees out this morning when we left and all I wanted was the fresh air with the fan on. I wanted to know how high the thermostat could go (started with 60) and still keep the heater off. When I upped it to 84, the heater kicked on. Lower than that (83), zero on the climate control. So I proved it isn't necessary to take it all the way down to 60 or even close to that. Obviously it will depend on your outside temp.

LEAFfan said:

So I proved it isn't necessary to take it all the way down to 60 or even close to that.

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FWIW, I've seen the same thing - as long as the temp is within ~5*F of ambient the HVAC power draw gauge seems to go to zero.