How to Minimize Climate Control Energy Use In Summer

[Nekota]

The heater in the Leaf uses water, its adapted from a standard BEV heating system.. the Volt uses a similar system. Not sure you would smell the antifreeze solution since its not a pressurized system like ICE cars use... no microscopic leaks for you to smell.

How come no Leaf owner ever talks about using electrically heated vest and gloves?.. very common in the motorcycle world. Its not a lot of power, 200watts in a vest would roast you.. and its instant heat.

sounds like a good idea - any links and what is the power source?

 

[DaveEV]

One thing I've noticed is that even just using "fan" mode (turn on fan, turn off AC, set temperature below ambient) still appears run cooling fans/pumps somewhere under the hood.

You can easily notice this when pulling into a garage, for example. Then push the HVAC on/off button to turn things off fully and you'll hear the fans spin down.

I really hate the automatic HVAC sometimes and really just wish it had a couple on/off buttons/lights for the heater/AC so we knew what was going on and able to simply turn on just the fan for fresh air! Most of the time I end up cracking the windows a bit for the fresh air, but when it gets cooler I know I'm going to want to run the vents instead.

 

[smkettner]

Yes I would prefer an 'auto heat' and separate 'auto cool' buttons.

 

[Herm]

sounds like a good idea - any links and what is the power source?

They run on 12V, but make sure you get one that is adjustable or you will roast. Do a search using "heated motorcycle vest" in Amazon.com

 

[qcar]

Yesterday on my 40 min commute home it was about 79 degrees out. I put the Ac down as low as it would go and fan on one bar and as you point out the energy usage for the AC was cut in half. Indeed at times it indicated that there was no energy at all being used on the AC as the usage dropped to 0. I typically have kept it at 70 with the fan at one or two bars.

 

[TomT]

That is because the compressor is variable speed and must be throttled back if you slow down the fan to prevent the evaporator from freezing up. You are not really saving anything though (except perhaps a few watts on the fan, which pulls very little to begin with) as it requires a given amount of energy to maintain a given temperature. It's the law of physics. All you have done by slowing down the fan (and thus the compressor as well), is effectively move the temperature set point higher.

Yesterday on my 40 min commute home it was about 79 degrees out. I put the Ac down as low as it would go and fan on one bar and as you point out the energy usage for the AC was cut in half. Indeed at times it indicated that there was no energy at all being used on the AC as the usage dropped to 0. I typically have kept it at 70 with the fan at one or two bars.