AC light off when AC is on

I think this quirk was discussed in a thread back when the gen5 first came out.
It could be how all auto HVAC systems are these days.

 

If you have access you can customize this parameter so that when the car is in Auto mode the AC compressor defaults to off until you turn it on with the button.

I think I might do it so I can keep the fan on on a hot day when I leave the car parked without having to consume as much power with the AC compressor running. I have yet to try it but am pretty sure that is how it works.

 

Notice that when you put it into AUTO, the fan speed, air direction and fresh air/recirculate indicators also go off, not just the AC light.

Anything being automatically controlled shows no indicator. If you touch that setting it is manually overridden and the indicator comes back until you reselect AUTO.

The AC button light cause the most confusion because there's no visual difference between auto and off. But you can find this somewhere on the climate screen menu - an on/off/auto three-way indication for the AC.

 

I believe 'ON' there means pressing AUTO switches the AC to auto, and 'OFF' means it leaves it alone, so leaving your manual on or off state.

 

I am not quite sure what you are saying. You are saying that auto climate button on and the ac button off does not run the ac compressor?

Let me add a little of my anecdotal experience. From running my climate control in room mode and using the Auto setting the while the car charger is attached to a power meter I have observed that in the Auto mode the AC compressor runs quite a bit if not all the time a draws close to 1 kW of power. I can be heard as well.

I will have to check that screen again. Not sure how it different from the setting in Techstream. Might be that the climate setting on the screen changes how the indicator light behaves while setting in Techstream changes the behavior of the AC compressor. Pretty sure I remember there being a little explanation in Techstream too that confirmed my experience that default from the factory the AC compressor is set to run most of the time when the climate auto setting is selected.

 

I'm saying the AC control has three states. On, off and auto. Pressing the physical AC button switches it between on and off.

Pressing the physical AUTO button will set AC to auto if the Techstream control to link the AUTO button is ON, as it is by default. (And isn't that also exposed as a setting in the UI too?)

The light on the button is off if AC is in auto.

If you press the AC button once or twice so the light is off, then that will set it to off and stop the automatic climate control from using the compressor for cooling. Although it will use the compressor for heating regardless in the PHEV.

And yes, auto does seem to run it a lot of the time. But it's still a distinct state in the control system. I think that's different from the G2 which seemed to only have off and auto. I think what's been added is the ability to force AC to run with the added 'on' state. Not super useful, while complicating the UI.

The setting in the UI I was referring to in my previous post was the 3-way indicator for the current AC state, expanding on the 2-way indicator of the button light. Not the 'does the AUTO button select auto AC' option.

 

Looking at the manual, the AUTO light also turns off when fan speed, for instance, is changed, but other auto functions still operate. Pressing AUTO again puts it back into full AUTO, controlling fan speed, etc.

I never use AUTO. I have default set to OFF in the multimedia screen, below. I set the temp and fan speed (and A/C) manually. And of course, FAN OFF for max mileage, lol.

 

Then, there are settings for keys. Not sure if I have that, lol.,
edit: Maybe if summer ever comes I will experiment.

 

That's because you have a Prime; it's battery pack is cooled by freon from your AC compressor.......

On a regular Prius, where the pack is under the rear passenger seat; the pack is simply air cooled and you sometimes get the question, "do you want to enable the AC to cool the pack?"

You guys need to be clear in car configuration and default options your talking about, because this can get messy really quickly.

Just my 2 cents....

 

I think I might be getting it:
With this selected OFF, A/C compressor doesn't automatically come on. So Auto is basically heat only unless A/C button is pressed? Of course, you Prime people are different....

You still have to hit AUTO I guess.