Climate Control Solution - Gain Control of your Heater!

[AP1]

Lucky you, paid Thursday morning and no sign of it yet

 

[hgoudey]

(We would appreciate a review here from any of you that have your units installed already, both for installation ease and function.)

I am very happy with the climate control upgrade. I purchased it at the March BayLeaf meeting. Thanks to the clear installation video, I was able to pop the unit out of the car I drove to the event in under 5 min (parked at the side of the street). Phil swapped it for one of his modified units and I reinstalled it in less than 5 minutes for the drive home.

Today was a perfect example of the need for this kind of modification. Driving through a misty rain at 50F, condensation would have been an issue with two passengers breathing on the windshield, but I was able to run the fan gently through the defrost vents and avoid any visibility issues, without the heater kicking on.

Thanks Phil,

Howdy

 

[lenny]

Today was a perfect example of the need for this kind of modification. Driving through a misty rain at 50F, condensation would have been an issue with two passengers breathing on the windshield, but I was able to run the fan gently through the defrost vents and avoid any visibility issues, without the heater kicking on.

Yeah, it was great the last few days.

I was surprised at how much power the wiper motors draw. I had mine set to intermittent, and every time it wipes, the power bar jumps.

 

[Ingineer]

Lucky you, paid Thursday morning and no sign of it yet

I'm not sure of which order is yours, but we'll be happy to check on it for you if you email or call us. Because we can only have a limited number of units in circulation, we depend on our customers returning the units quickly, so we can upgrade them and send them out to the next customers in line. Unfortunately not everyone returns them immediately, and some are located far away, so shipping time adds to the delay. We are filling the orders as fast as possible, but we have had a large initial interest, so we would like to ask for some patience. We try to let customers know a realistic expectation for delivery whenever we can, but I apologize if you were subject to a delay you didn't expect.

In addition to the video, We include printed instructions with every unit. If anyone has any suggestions for improving the process, I'd love to hear them!

Thanks!

-Phil

 

[lenny]

I returned mine yesterday and got my refund today, which means you received my old ECU. So I'm not to blame for holding anyone up

Between the instructions and video it was pretty straightforward. I didn't quite understand the part about the metal clips in the printed instructions (returned it to you to reuse if you wish so I can't refer to it again) so I decided to just do what you did in the video.

If I have to do it again, I believe I can do it in under 10 minutes - again being excessively careful because I'd hate to break or scratch anything.

 

[TomT]

It's a 1/10 hp motor so no great surprise. I think a lot of what you are seeing is the expanded scape of that particular power meter, coupled with the initial start-up surge of the motor. If you run it in constant mode you'll see the meter fall back some...

I was surprised at how much power the wiper motors draw. I had mine set to intermittent, and every time it wipes, the power bar jumps.

 

[AP1]

Today, the outside temperature was 52F and I was able to turn on the fan without having the heater go on! Woohoo!!! I got the unit at around 11am and was at UPS to return the original one by noon. Everything went according to plan. All I would add is to place a soft towel around the shift knob area to prevent scratching (I did that and did not have any ). Thanks Phil for fixing one of the most annoying faults in an otherwise great little car. A++++

 

[EdmondLeaf]

Today, the outside temperature was 52F and I was able to turn on the fan without having the heater go on! Woohoo!!! I got the unit at around 11am and was at UPS to return the original one by noon. Everything went according to plan. All I would add is to place a soft towel around the shift knob area to prevent scratching (I did that and did not have any ). Thanks Phil for fixing one of the most annoying faults in an otherwise great little car. A++++

unfortunately in the same condition my heater was ON because I do not have this upgrade, it was very hard to fight fogging today with rain pouring

 

[TomT]

The thing that amazes me about this is that Nissan could have fixed it easily with literally one line of code:
If temp = 60 then heater = off

But then again, all the Nissan stupidities are good for Phil's business!

Today, the outside temperature was 52F and I was able to turn on the fan without having the heater go on! Woohoo!!!

 

[EdmondLeaf]

pure and simple MANUAL mode should be manual mode fun, heat and AC they way I want but this is still AUTO mode

 

[SierraQ]

The thing that amazes me about this is that Nissan could have fixed it easily with literally one line of code:
If temp = 60 then heater = off

I find it amazing that they gave us control over just about everything except the most energy-hungry device in the car! Seems like an oversight to me brought about by conventional thinking that climate control systems don't have a "heat" button.

 

[Ingineer]

My theory is that the team that designed the climate controls re-used a lot of existing tech along with existing thinking. In their entire careers heat has always been "free", so I suppose they just don't seem to fathom that in the the EV world every watt counts. There are many more systems in the Leaf that could use some optimization as well, but the Heater is the big one we all have to live with. I also noticed that for the Climate Control Fan, rather than efficient PWM, they are using a wasteful linear mode to control the speed. :?

Personally, I would rather have spent my time on LEAFSCAN and other future endeavors, rather than fixing this major oversight on Nissan's part, but it was too annoying to let lie.

We've delivered a good number of these now, and I'm glad to see (so far) everyone is very satisfied at having full HVAC control returned. Another batch went out today, so hopefully we'll get some more interesting reports soon!

-Phil

 

[downeykp]

I just finished with the CC upgrade. It took 30 minutes including boxing the unit back up. The video was very easy to follow. I watched a section paused and did the work. It was really easy. Another great product from Phil. Hail to the king.
I have already asked but please put me down for a Leafscan.

 

[Yanquetino]

I am considering sending in my Climate Control for this upgrade, but am unsure what the exact problem is that needs fixing. In reading through these threads, I thought that perhaps it wasn't possible to use solely the vent fan. After playing around with my new Leaf, however, I think (?) that is not necessarily the case, depending upon the temperature.

For example, if I turn on my CC when the temperature is higher (say, 68°) than the CC's setting (the lowest possible is 60°), then I can push the A/C button to turn it off and the fan still vents outside air just fine. In that scenario, I see no any energy drain registering on the CC graphic, so the fan must be one of the "Other Systems"...?

The problem must be when it is still comfortable inside the vehicle, but the temperature is lower (say, 50°) than the CC's lowest setting (60°) . In that case, the heater kicks in --and, unlike with the A/C button, there is no way to turn it off. This apparently would be a real problem when it is raining or humid and one merely wants to defog the windshield with vented air instead of draining the battery pack.

If my above assumptions are correct, I surmise that one solution might be for Nissan to reprogram the CC to allow one to turn the desired setting down to a truly "uncomfortable" level (say, 40°?) before the heater would kick in. Unless and until they do that (if it is even remotely possible), I can see why those in wetter climates would need this upgrade.

However, in a dry climate like mine, with average daytime temperatures in winter between 55° and 65°, I'm not sure how crucial it really is...? I suppose those who live in a similar desert (say, Phoenix?), could attest if such is the case.

 

[Reddy]

Yes, dry climates seem to be much easier as long as the temps are above 40 F. However, when you get below that, even a small amount of exterior air flow for a long period of time can be difficult. I don't have any real discomfort until the outside temps are below 40 F. However, my drive is very short, so I can even tolerate below zero without heat (although why be uncomfortable when it's not necessary?). I would be fine if they just included:
1) another mode that blows air on the window without hitting the feet
2) the ability to turn on the fan without CC

I think that's what Phil's mod does.

Reddy

 

[Yanquetino]

I would be fine if they just included:
1) another mode that blows air on the window without hitting the feet
2) the ability to turn on the fan without CC

I think that's what Phil's mod does.

Reddy

1) Hmmm. Doesn't the defrost button do that? I'll have to experiment with it, I guess.

2) But... I can turn on the fan without CC --well, without A/C-- as long as the designated setting is lower than the actual temperature. I just have to push the A/C button off. If, however, the designated setting is higher than the actual temperature... the heater fires up, with no way to turn it off (unlike with the A/C button).

Or am I missing something here? Wouldn't be the first time!

 

[Ingineer]

My upgrade disables the HEATER on command, as there is already a way to shut off the A/C. Right now there is no way to shut off the Heater if Ambient is below 60 unless you want to kill the whole climate control. (and thus no fan) Once the upgrade is installed, shutting of the heat is a one-button operation, just like the A/C is now.

There is no mystery, the function of this has been proven time and time again and posted here over and over in many threads. Before releasing, I waited for this last software upgrade to see if Nissan was going to fix it, and they didn't. We had a good conversation with the engineering team about it on December 3rd of last year, and even Mark Perry admitted it's annoying. But for some reason it's not on Nissan's list of things to fix. For some people my upgrade is needed to make it home in the winter, or suffer having a safety issue (fogged windows).

The main cost of this upgrade is us having to buy and maintain stock of expensive climate control modules purchased from Nissan. Once everyone gets the upgrade that wants it, we will be stuck with them, so the cost had to be amortized over all upgrades sold.

-Phil

 

[Yanquetino]

My upgrade disables the HEATER on command, as there is already a way to shut off the A/C. Right now there is no way to shut off the Heater if Ambient is below 60 unless you want to kill the whole climate control. (and thus no fan) Once the upgrade is installed, shutting of the heat is a one-button operation, just like the A/C is now.

Thanks, Phil! That clarifies that my assumption was correct: the problem only occurs when the ambient temperature is below 60°, yet there is no need to have the heater wasting electrons. I'll reiterate what others have said: an easy fix for Nissan, probably with one line of code, but so far they choose to ignore it. You'd think with all the anxiety over range, it would be worth the effort, but I guess they're putting all their eggs into the 2013 improved heater...? It does make me wonder if perhaps that change might also find its way into the next (alleged) software update to improve the GOM.

 

[palmermd]

Thanks, Phil! That clarifies that my assumption was correct: the problem only occurs when the ambient temperature is below 60°, .

Not entirely true. I've had my A/C set to 78 degrees in the summer (it was about 100F outside at the time, and I did not want to waste energy cooling too far down) and when the interior of the car dropped below 78 the heater came on!!! very frustrating. I did not feel the heat immediately because it took a few minutes at 5000 watts just to heat the water in the system. By the time I noticed I'd burned a lot of range heating my car in the summer.

 

[Yanquetino]

Not entirely true. I've had my A/C set to 78 degrees in the summer (it was about 100F outside at the time, and I did not want to waste energy cooling too far down) and when the interior of the car dropped below 78 the heater came on!!! very frustrating. I did not feel the heat immediately because it took a few minutes at 5000 watts just to heat the water in the system. By the time I noticed I'd burned a lot of range heating my car in the summer.

Huh. That's weird! You'd think that, if you had the CC set to 78°, the A/C would stop when it reached that temperature. Yet it lowered it even more? So then the heater kicked in to raise it back up? Yow! A quintessential tug-of-war! How far below 78° did the CC keep cooling so that the heater kicked in? Not a very accurate thermostat in that CC, then. No way should the A/C and heater both do battle at the same time, back-and-forth.

I guess that's yet another software fix that Nissan could implement: maybe... turn OFF A/C at 1° above the desired setting, and turn ON heat at 1° below the desired setting. When at the desired setting... nada. Just fan.