To be honest I didn't read through the thread, so perhaps someone has already mentioned that the type of AC system we have (two compressors, one 75cc traditonal belt drive, and one 15cc electric) works most efficiently with an automatic climate control system.

I can say that my only dissapointment with the automatic climate control (spring and fall issue) is that if I desire full auto operation with the a/c off, and the vehicle is running, when I switch to full auto the a/c kicks in immediately.

All else with the automatic climate control is fine by me...

 

noflash,
Auto sets the vents to the floor and I believe windshield. It does that because it is heating the surround air in the cabin. Problem when it is set to front vents is it heats you up faster than the cabin resulting in "you" turning the heat off eventually...


* I am using "you" as a loose term referring to anyone not just noflash per say

 

Why is this such a problem? push AUTO, set the temp where you want it using the left ****. If you want to be sure the compressor(s) are off, hit A/C OFF, if you want air to come out of the dash hit mode 3(?) times and leave it alone. It will stay there everytime you start the car, putting it on HI does NOT warm the car up any faster than putting it on LO cools the car off in the summer.
The HCH must be a really great car if this is your biggest complaint.

 

Here's how I do it:
Bundle up like I'm going outside, without a car. Could include any combo of Gloves, Thick Coat, Thin Coat, Thermal Underwear, Multiple "Undershirts", I'm sure you get the idea...

Park in the garage, so it's cold, but not as cold as outside! About 40F in the garage, 28F outside. (Sadly no block heater yet as I'm hung up on a "National Back Order", is it like this every winter? ).

The HVAC/Climate Control does not get turned on in the cabin during winter until one of two things are true. 1: We've reached normal operating temperature. 2: The windows are becoming fogged to the point of being hazardous.

In either case I set the Climate Control to AUTO+62F. Due to the fact that AUTO uses the floor+front defrost vents, it instantly cures the fogging and I can turn it right back off in under ten seconds if the car is not at a decent temp yet. 62F is warmer than outside but not warm enough to make me break out into a sweat with my winter gear still layered on. 62F is also about where I notice that my nose, ears, and/or fingertips no longer feel *frozen*.

The auto puts air out of the front defrost/front windshield vents for probably a hundred reasons. Here's what I can figure out.

As arbittan also mentioned, this prevents the occupants from getting cold or hot in discomfort before the rest of the car has reached the desired temp. In extreme weather it feels great to be a different temp than the rest of the cars' interior (YES YES, BLOW IT IN MY FACE!!! AHH!!) but quickly you reach the comfort level and beyond, while the rest of the car is nowhere near the temp you are. This almost always results in the the temp being changed frequently as you feel the air on you vs the actual ambient temp battling each other.

Another reason that those two vents were chosen is the way the air circulates when using them. There are two very different, but equally important paths they take. The floorboard vents bounce all around the bottom floorboard compartment (as you know, your toes and fingers get cold much faster), slowly making it up to the lower area of your body and then your mid section and all over the cabin from there. The front windshield conditions the window from fogging before it happens, continues along the curve of the roof over your (front occupants) head(s), to the back seat (rear occupants?) and into the cabin intake for the electric motor.

PHEW! Does that make any sense at all?

 

My only complaint is that the temp setting **** conflates two separate functions: warmth of air coming from vents (how the system mixes hot air or AC with outside vent air), and overall temp setting the system maintains on auto.

So, if I want to feel warmer air, I have to crank the temp **** up -- but the system misinterprets my desire and is as likely to boost the fan speed as the temp of air coming from vents. So now I have lukewarm air at hurricane force, when what I really wanted was toasty warm air at a mild speed.

So the only thing for it is to set the fan speed manually, and then that forces the auto system to try to hit the desired temperature by changing the blend of cold outside air and heated air. On my non-auto-climate vehicles, there's a temp **** and a fan **** and life is easy.

Another way of saying this is that the auto climate control thinks what matters is the meaningless temp number. What actually matters is whether I'm too warm or too cold. They've given me easy control of the meaningless number at the cost of more complicated-than-necessary control of the thing that actually matters to me.

But my choice on the poll was "okay," because in other respects I like the system -- for instance, I usually like its choices of which particular vents to funnel air to. And I often like the auto fan management, and I really like the "security" of the idea that, if you leave it to auto, it will control climate in a way that's healthy for the battery pack too.

cheers --
doug

 

This is my first car with 'AUTO' mode. I rarely use it. If you have a problem with it, just do it in manual mode.