Auto Climate Control Appreciation

Lol. I have it and have had it on many cars and never use it. I don’t like the Ac Going on when I don’t know it is- kills some power and uses more fuel- that’s just me

 

i've never used it in 17 years, i'm going to have to give it a try!

 

Auto HVAC is wonderful. I miss it when I'm in a rental without the feature.

 

When I first got my GMC SUV, equipped with auto HVAC, I kept wondering why I would intermittently loose power and can't seem to keep my interior warm (duel A/C system climate control). The A/C was on; assuming acting as a dehumidifier. Switched over to manual mode, toasty cabin and everyone was happy. Bonus; lowered gas consumption....
I must be a control freak. I keep my Prime in manual mode - don't like how auto steps the fan up and down.

 

Yep, the GMC A/C compressor is belt driven off of the engine pulley. The default is auto with A/C on; every time I fire it up; I need to toggle to manual and the AC off.

Prius A/C units are electrically driven, so there's no engine power lost - Just a bunch of electrons moving around.

 

Those electrons come from somewhere, though. In an ordinary Prius (not a PiP or a Prime), they all ultimately come from the gasoline engine. In a PiP or a Prime, they can come from there or from the plug.

The Prius A/C electric compressors are variable speed/power, and can suck down anywhere from around 250 watts at the lowest power, to more like 2500 when running all out. One HP is about 746 watts, so you're paying something from around 1/3 HP to a bit over 3 HP depending on how hard the A/C is running.

Well before the Prius, engineers were often designing circuits that would drop out the A/C compressor momentarily when you demand hard acceleration, so all the engine power is available for that. The Prius ECUs know that trick too.

 

I have had the Prime 2+ years and never used the auto feature once. Only to see what it would do.

 

I have had the Prime 2+ years and never used the auto feature once. Only to see what it would do.

 

Agreed, Prius was the first car I purchased that had Auto AC. I use it all the time. DW hates it though because it blasts you in the face on a hot day when you first start the car. I heard there some vehicles that allow you to limit the fan speed for Auto. That's what I'm hoping my next vehicle to have.

 

That's been around for decades, but it is not always understood by the driver.

The Prius will do it. Push auto, then set the fan speed where you want it. The system will still be automatic except for fan speed. It will still do everything else automatically to hit the target setpoint. Using your preferred fan speed means it will take more time to hit the setpoint, but in theory this is a desired trade-off.

 

Odd, that's exactly what auto on my Gen 3 does not do. When I start the car, it doesn't start the fan at all, gives the A/C compressor time to cool the coil down, and then slowly spools up the fan as cooling becomes available, so it avoids ever doing that initial blast of hot air my old non-auto vehicle would do.

It works the same way in the winter, doesn't run the fan much until the heater is warm, then slowly spools the fan up, so there's no initial winter blast of cold air either.

In older cars, I used to do all of that myself ... get in car, turn fan off, start car, watch temp gauge, start turning fan up one notch at a time ... I kind of like having the car do that for me so I don't have to.

 

I recall that if you change fan speed, Auto is turned off as well. The air coming out will be the set temperature but fan speed will never decrease. That's manual mode, right? I'll give it a try on my way home.

Yes, you're right, it takes a moment but eventually will start blasting air in your face. Yes, same with the heater. That is a very welcome feature to heat up or cool down before blasting you in the face. Better than nothing but it will start blasting.

 

The 'auto' indicator disappears to show that the system isn't fully automated, but it is still doing several things automatically. When you see the 'auto' indicator that just means that every detail is under automatic control, not just most of them.

 

I will have to take your word for it. It's not what I experience in the vehicle. At any rate, it doesn't really matter. Whatever the semi auto mode is, that is how DW operates the HVAC. And it's annoying to both of us. She adjusts the fan speed manually. And I suffer the air blasting my face in full AUTO. First world problems...

 

Yep

I don’t like not having control of the AC coming on if in cool enough

 

Couple of things I’d like Toyota to do:

1. make it possible to easily set vent mode WITHOUT taking your eyes off the road.

2. add a windshield-only vent mode.

 

Sure, we could do that but then we'd have to reposition them afterwards to hit our bodies where we like it. Your post is about a set it and forget it auto climate control. I can do that with a few minor quibbles like blasting me in the face when the car is outside on a hot day. I don't mind it but my wife does.

So we can reposition the vents and we can adjust the speed and then readjust when temps reach comfortable which means it's no longer set it and forget it climate control. It's still leaps better than not having auto climate control. Hence, first world problems.

 

@mmmodem you had me thinking: even luxury cars with multiple climate zones don't allow independent fan speeds. Large vans with multiple air handlers do allow for different fan speeds per row of seats, but that's about as good as it gets I reckon.