ACC mode = no climate control (but fan works)

Over here http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=3262&start=60 it was pointed out to me that the heater and the AC do not work when you are in ACC mode. The fan will "blow", but neither the heater nor the AC will function. This may be obvious to other people, but it wasn't so to me. Hopefully this hasn't been discussed before.

From one side, I get it - this is how a ICE car works, and my GUESS is that when you are in ACC mode you aren't dealing with the traction battery yet - just the 12v.

From a user perspective though it's a little odd. In an ICE you understand that the heater and AC will not work when the engine is off - because the engine is what makes those things function. But in an electric car the expectation (for me anyway) is that if it is 'on' then it should be able to do anything that requires power.

I discovered this initially when the car was plugged in and I wanted to make sure the heater worked. But since then I've realized this does create one limitation: spontaneous people will not be able to be able to pre-condition their car off the grid if they do not have Carwings (either no AT&T signal or chose not to pay for it after the 3 years is up).

I do not have a schedule where it makes sense for me to put the preconditioning on a timer. I also live out where phone signals are not always the greatest. I figured if I had problems with Carwings that I could walk out to the car, turn it "on" (ACC), turn on heater/AC and go finish my morning routine. I would then come out in 5-10 minutes to a heated/cooled car, unplug the car and drive off. Looks like I won't be able to do that so I guess I better hope that AT&T will be reliable out here (my first few days of testing have not proven promising).

I figured I would pass this on in case anyone else encountered this.

Edit - modified subject and message to clarify that fan works but AC/Heat doesn't - Bill's post made me realize I did not actually state that, but only thought it in my mind

JasonT said:

From a user perspective though it's a little odd. In an ICE you understand that the heater and AC will not work when the engine is off - because the engine is what makes those things function. But in an electric car the expectation (for me anyway) is that if it is 'on' then it should be able to do anything that requires power.

Click to expand...

I actually think this makes sense. In ACC, you get only accessories. No windows, fan/AC/Heat, etc. This is what we've gotten accustomed to over the years...

Now, as far as your pre-conditioning issue goes, you could always go out to the car and change the timer for the next minute (or is it 10?) so that you don't have to leave the car in "ON". If your car is in a garage though, you can leave it "ON"...

Bill

Electric4Me said:

I actually think this makes sense. In ACC, you get only accessories. No windows, fan/AC/Heat, etc. This is what we've gotten accustomed to over the years...

Now, as far as your pre-conditioning issue goes, you could always go out to the car and change the timer for the next minute (or is it 10?) so that you don't have to leave the car in "ON". If your car is in a garage though, you can leave it "ON"...

Click to expand...

You're mostly right about ACC - I think I've gotten ACC confused with "ON" in my old ICE. HOWEVER, the one difference in the Leaf is that you DO get fan in ACC mode. Guess I should have made that clearer - it blows (hah), but it's neither cold nor hot. That is why I ended up thinking my heater was broken.

So maybe the real problem here is that the fan goes on when in ACC mode, when it shouldn't.

It's not a matter of leaving the car "ON" - it's that I can't turn the car ON. I would rather precondition using grid power, not traction battery power. I may mess with the timers though and see if I can come up with a backup if AT&T craps out on me.

This behavior has changed (unless my experience is unique). Now you can run the air conditioner in accessory mode and even while plugged in. See here: http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=5063

Maybe Nissan has been making over-the-air firmware upgrades? (I noticed a few other small changes as well)

The windows also operate in ACC mode.

Are you sure you guys are talking about ACC mode? That's when the center console is lit up but the dash is still black. ON is dash lit up but the car with the double arrow is missing. READY is with that car, and that's the only time you can drive.

Which leads to the possibility that JasonT might consider leaving his car in ON (not READY) mode for preconditioning. Hit the power button twice without your foot on the brake.

Ray