How much juice does vent fan consume? GOM says lots.....

[cdherman]

Ok, I tried searching. Not quite clear how to search this question, but I am certain I am not alone....

Lately (I had 2 year bat check a few weeks ago, perhaps this was occurring before, but I never noticed it), when I just turn on some cabin air flow (blower motor) I see a definite drop in the GOM estimation of my range. About 4 %.

In fact, just turning on the blower fan to bring in some outside air seems to cause the GOM to reduce its range estimation as much as turning on the AC. In otherwords, if I have the AC running, and I hit the AC button to turn the AC off, the AC seems to shut down, but the GOM stay the same. Its as if the AC compressor consumes zero electricity, but the ventilation fan will still consume 4%.

If I am going along with the climate control off, hit the fan control to low with the AC off, I still show 3-4% range loss. Just from fan...

So, the question: Is the GOM just stupid as usual? Or is the AC or heating coils running in the background for some unknown reason (in spite of all the lights being off) and sucking my battery?

Now that I am one bar down, I am starting to care more......

 

[LeftieBiker]

Most likely the GOM doesn't know if the A/C is on or off, only whether the climate control is on or off. Seems odd, but not that odd for Nissan...

 

[garsh]

Most likely, the leaf was heating up the coolent fluid used for heat. Was the outside temperature around 60° F or less? It does this whenever the temperature is around or below this level. Yes, even if you turn your desired temperature the whole way down. And yes, even when you select A/C. It doesn't care. It thinks it has to be prepared to deliver heat at a moments notice. It's quite annoying.

I added a switch to completely turn off the heater (option #2 from this thread), and I pretty much leave the heater off all the time. Now I can turn on the fan to my heart's content without affecting the range one bit. It also turns out that the AC doesn't affect the range by more than 1 mile when the car isn't trying to heat up the coolent at the same time, so I'll also turn on the AC to help defog the windows when necessary.

I suggest switching the center console to the Energy Info display to get a better idea of what's happening.
When you see the Climate Control needle start going past 0.5, that indicates that the car is heating up the coolent.

 

[MikeinDenver]

I can't say that I have ever noticed this with just the fan on. I watch the energy screen over any other display.

 

[camasleaf]

2011-2012 do not have the fan only option, unless a mod is done. On my 2011 the GOM will remember some sort of average of the last use of climate control. If I use the heater one day, it will take days of fan onlly usage (mod switch) to lower the range reduction estimation with climate control ON.

 

[bbrowncods]

2011-2012 do not have the fan only option, unless a mod is done. On my 2011 the GOM will remember some sort of average of the last use of climate control. If I use the heater one day, it will take days of fan onlly usage (mod switch) to lower the range reduction estimation with climate control ON.

Nissan fixed that. 2014 the fan causes no drop on the GOM.

 

[kovalb]

Nissan fixed that. 2014 the fan causes no drop on the GOM.

2013 and newer

 

[Pipcecil]

its totally the GOM's fault. If you manually turn up the fan, but turn off the AC, the car still thinks your are running AC and/or Heat. You aren't pulling any power (you can check your energy usage screen).

That said, you CAN pull phantom energy. For some reason, the heater will still turn on (you cannot turn it off like you can the AC) in the 2011/2012 cars. So if your cabin temperature is set high enough it (compared to the outside air) it WILL turn the heater on and you cannot do anything about it.

Without the special modification you can get mostly around it.
- Do you normal manual turning on the fan and turning off the AC
- Turn your temperature down as low as it will go (60).

This will assure the heater won't come on unless it gets pretty cold outside (somewhere in 40-50's I don't always pay attention - your energy screen will tell you). The GOM will still be dumb but you won't be pulling the power. Usually by the time the heater kicks anyways its (to me) too cold to leave the fresh air on and I just put on recirculated because of the cold.

 

[cdherman]

I will need to do the modification. I drive in the winter with the outside air circulating to keep the windows defogged. I wear ear muffs and driving gloves, and leave the heat off, as well as the defroster.

I think I had not realized this behavior in my first two winters. Now that I am officially down a bar, I am going to have to be more careful.

 

[LeftieBiker]

I guess the good news is that if you install the heater power switch, you will get about the equivalent of a bar back in Winter...