Dual climate control

  • Thread starter Thread starter glockgirl
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glockgirl

glockgirl

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I just got my clarity plug in a few days ago. Still trying to learn all in and out. I noticed that when the a/c is running, it decreased the EV range quite a bit. It was 80 degrees outside, I had the ac at 72-74, it drained EV way faster then if no ac is running, but living in FL, that's not an option. My question is: is there a way to just run the driver side ac and have passenger side completely off? I drive by my self a lot, so it makes more since to just cool myself and not empty space.
 
AC will still work to cool the entire interior of the car - regardless of which side of the dashboard the cold air blows. And doing it slowly will just keep the AC working longer. One solution might be to raise the thermostat to 78º or so.
 
I thought running in Econ mode was supposed to limit the AC to the drivers side mostly. Not true?
 
I think the purpose of Econ and eco mode is to reduce the amount of electricity going to the AC/Heating system. So I think maybe that's as good as it gets. However, I'm surprised to hear of that kind of reduction in EV range. We've had abnormal heat in the far southwest corner this winter (though the past week feels like a nice, warm spring week BACK EAST) since daytime temps haven't gone much above 55ºF. Even then, I rarely see the EV range dropping much as a result of AC or Heat. The things that really seem to eat EV range fastest are high speeds (over 70MPH), driving in Sport mode at any speed, extended uphill climbing (as in a few thousand feet over 10-15 miles). That's where I can literally watch the numbers fall. But around town, even with AC or heat on, I'm still getting at least 50 miles of actual EV range per charge.
 
Here is what I found in the manual regarding Econ Mode related to the climate system:

Page 195
"While ECON mode is active, the climate control system may have reduced cooling performance."

Page 388
" The ECON mode helps you improve your energy economy by adjusting the performance of the climate control system and the accelerator pedal response."

"While in the ECON mode, the climate control system has greater temperature fluctuations.
When the ECON mode is active, the driver’s side seat heater functions according to the status of the climate control system. If you want to use only the
climate control system, press the seat heater button to OFF."
 
I'm going to guess that Florida humidity requires more cooling energy than for the Southwest.
Latent heat of condensation I believe it's called.
 
When I lived in FL we called AC “Life Support” as I you would die if it wasn’t working. Lots of the effort is in pulling out the humidity.
 
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