Air Con: V50 Air con

[ThomasG]

Yes, I'm aware of distinction between "set temp", and temperature of air blown out of vent.

Yet, I think freezing evaporator may have something to say anyway.

[phutyle]

Originally Posted by ThomasG

It is... A bit difficult for me to believe..

Unless one of points below is met:

You're NOT in Europe (or have car imported and not checked on import)

Or

Thermometer is bad.

To the best of my knowledge no car in Europe is permitted to blow conditioned air even a small bit below 16 degrees Celsius. Legal matters. (I think I know where it came from, but its not that relevant- boneheads, in short)

Which is it?

I’m in Ireland, and the car is an Irish model (not an import), which likely makes it no different to a UK one, except for the speedo and trip computer in KMs. 2010 1.6D DRIVe V50.

I actually calibrated the thermometer before I took the reading, and then checked it against 2 other thermometers in my house. The reading I got is 2°. It’s possible it’s out by a degree or two, so I’d be willing to accept that it’s actually 4°. No way is it out by 14°.

10 mins sitting in a glass of ice water, and reading exactly 0° as you would expect.



If you’ve ever put your hand on the vent of a car with functioning aircon set to its coldest, you will instantly know that there is no way it is anything near 16° C. It’s cold enough to actually hurt with moderate exposure right at the vent. That thermometer is a specific one for checking car aircon, and the green section from about 1° to 7° is the indicator for the properly functioning range.

You either misremember some actual regulation, or have fallen for some bonehead anti EU pub talk with no basis in reality.

[phil1968]

Originally Posted by ThomasG

You may well be right on this one, yet I've never seen any car that would allow temp setting below 16.
And there's good point re- evaporator freezing/ice cover.
Essentially, by thumbs logic, to blow air at ~5-6 deg, coils would have to be in the "minus" temperature range, as the air passing trough cooling element will never achieve temperature as low as that element, and also other way around (easier to check- use home radiator) air passing trough heating element will never achieve temperature as high as that element.

I may have difficulty confirming it with actual numbers of paragraphs or whatever it is called, but I can see logic behind it. Thus, I do believe there is such law.

Yes, I don't think you quite understand how A/C works. The evaporator (the element behind the dashboard that does the actual cooling) will be at or just above 0 deg. C when cooling is called for & air is being passed through it for cooling, it needs to be at least 10 degrees below the ambient temperature for it to do any useful cooling. Hence why you will be getting in the region of 5 deg. C from the vents. The 16 deg. setting is what the manufacturers give as a realistic lowest interior temperature setting that the A/C could achieve on a hot day in normal conditions.

[ThomasG]

OK.
I may be learning something here.
But, as uninterested of it as i was only few hours ago (and by the look of it the net reult was that i believed what i was told)- I`ll dig and read.

If I`m to admit a mistake, I want (for myself by myself) to know and confirm that I`ve made mistake.

Tomorrow, hopefully.theres a lot of specs to check

[Clan]

Originally Posted by phil1968

Yes, I don't think you quite understand how A/C works. The evaporator (the element behind the dashboard that does the actual cooling) will be at or just above 0 deg. C when cooling is called for & air is being passed through it for cooling, it needs to be at least 10 degrees below the ambient temperature for it to do any useful cooling. Hence why you will be getting in the region of 5 deg. C from the vents. The 16 deg. setting is what the manufacturers give as a realistic lowest interior temperature setting that the A/C could achieve on a hot day in normal conditions.

well you might be interested to know that the lowest temp on the climate temperature knob is 17 C perhaps someone is getting confused with this ..
there is a further uncalibrated setting LO which is the last step down … in other words MAX cooling

[phil1968]

Originally Posted by Clan

well you might be interested to know that the lowest temp on the climate temperature knob is 17 C perhaps someone is getting confused with this ..
there is a further uncalibrated setting LO which is the last step down … in other words MAX cooling

I've never actually set it that low in my C70, so didn't know lol. It's 16 degs. C on my van climate control though.

[ThomasG]

Down to 16 on my "2 zone" control (V70 MY2003)

As per photo (if link works/not actually from my car, but these knobs are virtually same, HU unit isnt.)

[Welton]

My S40's lowest 'requested' cabin temp is 14 deg C and then 'LO' on the temp control display

Air at the face vents should be between 5 and 8 deg C and this is common to all manufacturers, the evaporator temp should not be allowed to freeze as it will ice over and block airflow until it thaws out.

In this example the air at the vents is around 2 deg C this can indicate an incorrect amount of refrigerant (by weight) in the system.

[phutyle]

Just to put the idea that you can’t set a European car to less than 16° to bed.

[ThomasG]

Defeated on all counts.

There. You have it

But it does feel kinda of.. good.. to have information in your head straightened up.

Thank you all.