How's your AC?

[islandbayy]

My AC just doesn't seem to maintain the temp I set it for. Everything is in auto. I set it for 73 and it seems much warmer as evidenced via the app. The fan speed never seems to "kick in" to bring the temp down either. Is this my car or typical?

Personally, I've been feeling the same way. The fan speed doesn't seem as strong as it was when I got my car.... Sort of. What I would explain it as, the fan speed that I get when using re-circulation of the air, is much higher then when using outside air. When I got my car, it was the same, however, the fan speed from using outside air was more closely matched with re-circulation. I think they have been tweaking it just a bit. I think some of their tweaks have been bringing the car backwards. Just like forcing to see either % or Miles, but cant show charge rate in kw while range in miles any longer. That one drives me bat crap crazy. I like my charge rate in kWh because charge rate in miles is a average, and I like my overall range in miles, not %.....

 

[mknox]

Did you get the "fix"? I haven't heard it since they installed the sound deadening cover. Then again, I didn't hear it often before.

Yep, and it helped a lot... especially from outside the car. Inside I still get noise and vibration through the steering wheel and even when I touch the 17" screen. Not as bad as before the "fix" but Range Mode mutes it down quite a bit from there.

 

[jerry33]

Yep, and it helped a lot... especially from outside the car. Inside I still get noise and vibration through the steering wheel and even when I touch the 17" screen. Not as bad as before the "fix" but Range Mode mutes it down quite a bit from there.

I'm guessing that the difference is either from individual car variances, or how we use the A/C controls. I generally start with the setting between 24 and 26 depending upon the outside temperature, and then lower it as I drive. The "fan blades" seldom show more than two. I don't know what the fan speed is because I seldom look at that.

 

[mknox]

I'm guessing that the difference is either from individual car variances, or how we use the A/C controls. I generally start with the setting between 24 and 26 depending upon the outside temperature, and then lower it as I drive. The "fan blades" seldom show more than two. I don't know what the fan speed is because I seldom look at that.

I find that on Auto, the fan speed is somewhat lower than I would prefer, especially at startup when the interior is hot, and definitely slower than past cars with Auto a/c systems. I leave the temperature at a fixed setting and have my right steering wheel scroll wheel defaulting to "Fan Speed". I can scroll the speed up or down as desired, then click it to return it back to Auto once the cabin gets comfortable.

 

[Nevek]

I find that on Auto, the fan speed is somewhat lower than I would prefer, especially at startup when the interior is hot, and definitely slower than past cars with Auto a/c systems. I leave the temperature at a fixed setting and have my right steering wheel scroll wheel defaulting to "Fan Speed". I can scroll the speed up or down as desired, then click it to return it back to Auto once the cabin gets comfortable.

That is what I have defaulted to as well. I'd prefer not to have manually adjust the fan speed, but the auto speed adjustment simply does not have the responsiveness needed.

Its funny that in other cars I just leave the climate control on full auto year around and don't give it another thought. My wife always sets the temperature in other cars to maximum initially, prompting the perennial discussion that maxing the temperature setting doesn't allow the car to warm or cool any faster and we should just leave the climate controls to do their thing. My climate control argument is weakened with the S and its fan speed.

 

[spottyq]

I find that on Auto, the fan speed is somewhat lower than I would prefer, especially at startup when the interior is hot, and definitely slower than past cars with Auto a/c systems. I leave the temperature at a fixed setting and have my right steering wheel scroll wheel defaulting to "Fan Speed". I can scroll the speed up or down as desired, then click it to return it back to Auto once the cabin gets comfortable.

An excellent idea to that is to have an 'aggressiveness' setting. In the Renaul Scénic for example, the auto setting can be "Slow Automatic", 'Automatic', or "Fast Automatic". I know VW also does it, and I'm sure other automakers also do. AFAIK (I didn't really looked up how it worked since it does it job quite well on the 'slow' setting) it essentially allows you to set the fan speed 2 steps slower (or faster) than the amount calculated by the computer.

 

[Ingineer]

This is disappointing. Building a decent auto climate control is not rocket science, or is it? Maybe Elon can grab a few of his environmental engineers from SpaceX for a field trip up North.

 

[Barry]

This is disappointing. Building a decent auto climate control is not rocket science, or is it? Maybe Elon can grab a few of his environmental engineers from SpaceX for a field trip up North.

I've driven during several sunny 90+ degree days and there's no problem cooling the car. The only problem is the calibration of the temperature setting. I'm very comfortable with the AC set to 67. Perhaps Tesla should simply introduce an optional offset setting, like speed notification. Set it to +5, then your 72 will feel the same as my 67. Would that make you feel better? :smile:

Think of the setting as an arbitrary reference number, no different than radio volume. If you set volume to 4, do you think to yourself it really sounds like a 2?

 

[techmaven]

Yeah, I discovered that I have to set the temperature setting in the Tesla to a lower value... the A/C is plenty strong, but I think Tesla doesn't use the temperature settings the same as other manufacturers. So in other cars, I might set it to 75 or 78, but in the Tesla, I set it to 70-72. I also think the fan speed is about 1-2 setting stops lower than I would like on automatic. I'd love to be able to bias the automatic setting slightly.

 

[jerry33]

This is disappointing. Building a decent auto climate control is not rocket science, or is it? Maybe Elon can grab a few of his environmental engineers from SpaceX for a field trip up North.

My best guess is that this was a cost cutting measure from the early days when they were trying to keep the $50K promise. As far as I know there is only one temperature sensor in the Model S (maybe two, but only one where I know the location). The Prius had five plus a solar sensor and a humidity sensor (and people still complained).

 

[Ingineer]

The system in my 2008 Prius worked perfectly. Basically set and forget. My 2011 LEAF is good as well, but had to modify the system to not run the Electric heater when in auto. (With only about 21kWh available, you need every watt!) Nissan finally listened to us and in 2013 added not only a manual control, but also a heat pump which greatly reduced the load.

 

[AudubonB]

Now I'm really scratching my head.

I set-and-forget the controls, too. In the past two hours, I went out for a drive; observed temps varied from a low of 109ºF/43ºC to a high of 114ºF/46ºC. My AC is set to "Lo", "On", and Recirc.

And it stays nice and comfortable.

Just what seems to be the problem all are mentioning?

??????????????????

 

[Nevek]

Now I'm really scratching my head.

I set-and-forget the controls, too. In the past two hours, I went out for a drive; observed temps varied from a low of 109ºF/43ºC to a high of 114ºF/46ºC. My AC is set to "Lo", "On", and Recirc.

And it stays nice and comfortable.

Just what seems to be the problem all are mentioning?

??????????????????

So you don't need any fan adjustment with those settings? I use the same ones often as well, but have to tweek the fan periodically.

 

[LetsGoFast]

I set my car to "Max Cool" (temp LO, fan speed 11) using Remote S while I was wrapping up dinner the other day. It was still 102 outside. When we lingered longer than I expected, the car was cooled down to 59 degrees. However, it is certainly the case that on the default logic, it never seems to reach the target temp -- so I leave it set to 67 and it seems to hover around 70. On a long trip, it will actually overcool the target. Clearly the control logic is not so perfect, but the compressor itself seems more than capable.

 

[beeeerock]

Just what seems to be the problem all are mentioning?

??????????????????

Here's an example, with numbers recorded just to answer your question! :wink:

After work yesterday, car parked in the sun (no shade in the lot at 5 PM). Using the app for interior temperature and all other readings as reported by the car display:
Interior : 42
Exterior : 33
HVAC Setting : 19
All settings on Auto.
Fan went to 7 and remained there.

When I arrived home, the interior of the car was reported as 35.5. Not a long drive home, but I still felt a bit sticky. Fan still set automatically to 7.

Later in the evening, the sun was low and behind a fairly heavy overcast. Car was parked in what would have been shade if the sun was visible. This time:
Interior : 34
Exterior : 31
HVAC Setting : 19
All settings on Auto.
Fan went to 10 and remained there.

I can't understand why the fan would be higher when the temperature delta was much lower and the solar load was essentially non-existent. There doesn't seem to be much repeatable logic to the settings in my opinion... today in similar warm and sunny conditions, the fan ramped up to 9.

In my Benz, any significant temperature delta would have caused the fan to come on full and slowly ramp down as the desired temperature was approached. It worked very well and I never felt like it was being stingy on comfort. My sense of things is that the Model S will behave somewhat like the Benz, but only once in a while, and never with the fan all the way to the top.

I've turned off the habit learning function to see if it thought 'hey, he's going home and that only takes 10 minutes - no reason to work the HVAC hard, even though I know he's going to plug me in right away and can afford the power'.

 

[AmpedRealtor]

Yep, and it helped a lot... especially from outside the car. Inside I still get noise and vibration through the steering wheel and even when I touch the 17" screen. Not as bad as before the "fix" but Range Mode mutes it down quite a bit from there.

Did you have the AC mount TSB applied to your car? There are two TSBs, one for noise (sound insulating blanket) and one for vibration (revised bracket).

- - - Updated - - -

Someone should ask Elon one of these days why the HVAC logic sucks so bad. The system itself is fantastic and very powerful, but the software behind it seems to have been programmed by someone who has no experience with climate controls. Things get changed quickly when Musk is put on the spot publicly about something.

 

[beeeerock]

Someone should ask Elon one of these days why the HVAC logic sucks so bad. The system itself is fantastic and very powerful, but the software behind it seems to have been programmed by someone who has no experience with climate controls. Things get changed quickly when Musk is put on the spot publicly about something.

+1!

 

[Ingineer]

Who is going to Tweet him?! =)

 

[mackgoo]

Now I'm really scratching my head.

I set-and-forget the controls, too. In the past two hours, I went out for a drive; observed temps varied from a low of 109ºF/43ºC to a high of 114ºF/46ºC. My AC is set to "Lo", "On", and Recirc.

And it stays nice and comfortable.

Just what seems to be the problem all are mentioning?

??????????????????

The problem? No real problem just in adequacy. I set the "climate control" to 73 and the system maintains 81 perfectly. I got the answer to my question though, thanks.

 

[pgiralt]

I think something has changed in the firmware from a year ago to now. Yesterday, the car was reading 114 degrees inside and the AC was set to 69 degrees. The fan speed would not go higher than 7 unless I set it to LO. It's almost as if it thinks it's in Range mode. I'm pretty sure that in the past two summers, when it would be hot, the fan speed would increment automatically to 11 for a while until the car cooled off.