Parking Climate

[key76]

I'm new to Volvo after 10+ years of Mercedes ownership, and althoughI got the car in February, with lockdown and working from home I have only done 2k miles in it so far, so I'm still getting used to some of the features.

I'm struggling to get to grips with parking climate to keep the climate on after I park up.

I'm my last two E Class Mercs, I had a similar feature and I just pressed button when parked (engine off) and it kicked climate control on with last settings and ran until I stopped it or until the battery hit a certain level.

I "think" that is what Parking Climate should do when I press the Keep Climate Comfort button, but 99% of the times I have tried it has been greyed out and unavailable even if I pressed it straight after stopping. And sometimes I go into the menu and it is there, but in the second it takes me to get my finger over the button it greys out and vanishes.

Am I doing something wrong, or expecting something this doesn't do?

[CocoPops]

Never had it working in my B5 XC90 either.
Doesn’t work from app either.

[Ringthane]

I’m not. Sure how it functions in a T8, but Parking Climate, specifically the Keep Climate Comfort subsection, uses residual heat to warm the cabin, when the engine is off, and below 20 degrees C. The manual also talks about “when it is warmer”, it blows fresh air into the cabin.

The key is below 20 degrees. It’s not clear in the Manual, but the implication is that it only works below 20 degrees. because the AC would have to have the compressor running, and I’m pretty sure it is run off the engine, not electrically.

Either way, Parking Climate is not clearly defined in the manual and I’ve only ever used it in winter.

[key76]

I must confess I found the manual very confusing around parking climate, so just assumed it must work like the similar feature in Mercedes had.

Only working <20C is pretty useless to be honest. I was sat waiting for my wife last week one day and it was scorching hot. In my Merc I would have pressed it and fresh air would have blown in with a cooling effect from the residual cold of the air con I had been using. As it happened, in the Volvo it wouldn't let me use it at all and so I ended up running the engine to keep cool, wasting fuel and creating emissions - doesn't seem to sit with the whole eco friendly credentials of Volvo.

The Mercedes never ran the engine to use the function. It was always just blowing fresh air in. If you had the air con on before stopping then the air would be cool as it blew over the cold components. In winter when you'd had the heating on, the same but warmer air blowing over the warmed components.

Doesn't seem all that useful at all in the Volvo.

[Lexman8]

Parking Climate and Pre-conditioning work perfectly for me, including blowing outside ambient air through the car to cool it as well as heating it without the engine being on. Afaik, both these functions require the Auxiliary Heater option to be fitted (standard on the T8).

Both heating and cooling can also be switched on remotely via the app when the aux heater is fitted.

There is a (chargeable?) software upgrade to allow blow-through ventilation on cars without the aux heater but I'm not sure if it's available for the UK market.

The aux heater option is no longer available in the UK which is a pity as I reckon it's probably the most useful option on my car, especially in winter. Once you've had it...

[dling]

I also have a T8. Parking climate does work both with A/C or heating, but only when launched from the VOC (or scheduled from Sensus). What OP is complaining is the keep climate comfort button in Sensus... which I can confirm 99% is grayed out during the summer... so I guess it can only maintain the warmth in the winter... or I am missing something...

[MikeGMT]

I've had my car just over a year now and still getting to grips with all the features. Reading this thread and this is a feature I have not tried so gave it a go this morning, and it worked. Stopped in a lay-by, switched the car off and selected the Keep climate comfort option. Getting back in the car a few minutes later and it was still working. Outside temperature at the time was 14ºC

[Ringthane]

So, here’s a thing...

I was mucking about with my Sport Key (I don’t really use it, and it’s never had a profile associated with it) and while I was going through the process of turning on and adjusting all the settings; moving icons etc. I looked at the Climate options, specifically Parking Climate, and indeed, the Keep Parking Climate option was greyed out.

The outside temperature was 25 so given what I understand about how it works, that didn’t seem odd. Because I was in button pressing mode, I then pressed Preconditioning, and after a short delay, the fans started and because I had just finished a drive to the shops, the air blew cold.

So to give full context, I had been driving, pulled on to the drive, turned the engine off and set Preconditioning to on from the Sensus screen. The air was cold until the residual cooling from the AC was exhausted and it then just blew fresh air in from outside. I don’t have the Aux Heater, but I do have the Clean Zone Interior Package, which if I remember, wasn’t available on all models.

As an aside, I seem to remember a member mentioning that they had a sport key profile, as part of their list of profiles. Was this because they set it up or was it included in the list as standard? I have three programmable profiles and a Guest Profile.