[swissfraser]

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

I know I'm weird. Strangely you would think I would love the heat of summer but actually much prefer winter! Just like it hot indoors otherwise I freeze!

Anyway the heating system is unique certainly, but most of the time it does the job I want it to so maybe I should stop trying to work out what it's doing and just let it do it!

If you're wanting the system to pump out warm air, make sure your A/C is turned off. When its on, the car will attempt to make sure the heat does not go above the temperature you have chosen. So if you've set the temp to 25 and its 7 degrees outside, its not going to be doing much as its already below 25, it certainly wont be blowing much warm air around. Try it out and see!

If I cranked mine up to 25 I'd be asleep at the wheel in no time...

[Pottsy]

Turning the AC on and off should make no difference to the output temperature of the air (unless it's warm outside). The AC is there just to reduce the humidity of the air, which helps comfort, alertness and it stops any misting. Keeping it on also prolongs the life of the system.

[swissfraser]

Originally Posted by Pottsy

Turning the AC on and off should make no difference to the output temperature of the air (unless it's warm outside). The AC is there just to reduce the humidity of the air, which helps comfort, alertness and it stops any misting. Keeping it on also prolongs the life of the system.

As I said, try it and see. If you want warm air blasting out your vents, you wont get it with the A/C on.

Definitely true that keeping it on is best to extend the life of the aircon system though.

Might be worth the OP spending money on some thermals

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by swissfraser

As I said, try it and see. If you want warm air blasting out your vents, you wont get it with the A/C on.

Have you got something wrong with your climate control?

If you set a cabin temperature say to 22C and the ambient is 5C, the CC will heat the cabin to 22C as efficiently as possible. How does having the A/C on (or off) change the request to heat the cabin to 22C? You are not requesting a cooling function when the cabin is below 22C. I see no difference in heating the inlet air from say 5C ambient temperature across the evaporator (when A/C is off), or across the evaporator running 5C with the A/C on, the heating side of the HVAC must perform the same function to fulfil a request to heat the cabin to 22C.

What is your reasoning for the A/C function blocking the heating requirement?

Mine heats effectively from low temperatures with A/C left on for dehumidifying and conditioning the inlet air flow, as I expect it to. As have all the cars I've owned with climate control.

HighlandPete

[Gordon4499]

Originally Posted by HighlandPete

Mine heats effectively from low temperatures with A/C left on for dehumidifying and conditioning the inlet air flow, as I expect it to. As have all the cars I've owned with climate control.

HighlandPete

Yip... Same here.

[Piers]

^^ I am in agreement with Pete and Gordon, my climate is on all the time, and if I ask for hot air, my vents will blow really hot air

[dicky.hillary]

I have this... and it doesn't seem right, none of the other BMW's I've owned over the years have done this... Can we see if we can figure out if it is an LCI thing... build date thing etc?

Mine is a Sept 2014 build with the B47 engine.

[swissfraser]

Originally Posted by HighlandPete

Have you got something wrong with your climate control?

Aircon works by taking in air, cooling it, then heating it again accordingly. If you remove the cooling part from the equation by turning off the A/C, you'll find that you can heat your car a lot quicker.

http://www.bmw.com/com/en/insights/t...ditioning.html

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by swissfraser

Aircon works by taking in air, cooling it, then heating it again accordingly. If you remove the cooling part from the equation by turning off the A/C, you'll find that you can heat your car a lot quicker.

Yes, I understand how it functions, so what is the difference...

Originally Posted by HighlandPete

... I see no difference in heating the inlet air from say 5C ambient temperature across the evaporator (when A/C is off), or across the evaporator running 5C with the A/C on, the heating side of the HVAC must perform the same function to fulfil a request to heat the cabin to 22C.

If the evaporator is at 5C, with or without A/C on, (ambient air is flowing over the evaporator at that temperature) how can the cabin heat faster with A/C off? The heater core (after the evaporator) still has to do the same job. OK, there may be a slight difference as the ambient air warms up, but not at the low temperatures where we have the greatest heating demands.

As I understand HVAC function, it is only really more efficient in heating, if the ambient air is above the evaporator working temperature range (>8C) and not being cooled down first by the A/C function. At higher ambient temperatures heating is not so critical anyway, as the temperature differential is less, so heating is more rapid.

If I'm missing something here please enlighten me.

HighlandPete

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by dicky.hillary

I have this... and it doesn't seem right, none of the other BMW's I've owned over the years have done this... Can we see if we can figure out if it is an LCI thing... build date thing etc?

Mine is a Sept 2014 build with the B47 engine.

I wonder if the heating/cooling strategy has been changed on late models to get more benefit from Eco-Pro functions.

We'd also need to see if it only a basic CC function and/or with the extended features CC.

HighlandPete

[Piers]

Mine is a Nov 13 LCI, no issues here as mentioned

[325_bucks]

So i was testing this out again yesterday. I set the heating to 27, hot even by my standards. But the car was already warm, i wasn't uncomfortably cold or anything, but nevertheless the heating on my side was 27 passenger 25.

I closed the middle vents to rule them out of the equation. My drivers side right hand vent was blowing cold air, not freezing, but certainly not 27. I'd guess somewhere around 19.

Like i said, the air in the car was not cold overall, so whether the vent SHOULD have been blowing cold air is what I'm asking. I am presuming that it tries to main the set temperature in the car and therefore needs to blow cold sometimes if the car gets too warm. However it seems to always be blowing cold.

It's really confusing, I don't understand it and my last BMW didn't do this at all, I'm sure. If i wanted hot air, I got it.

Also, in any older car I've had without climate, if I turned the dial to Red, the vent would blow hot air. With climate in modern cars, can the same be achieved? I.e. can I, if i choose, have a face full of hot air without it trying to control the climate in the car? A steady, constant stream of air at the temperature that I choose?

Perhaps this is faulty, i don't know?

[325_bucks]

Also to add, there is a setting in the iDrive for eco pro climate, I don't know what this actually does and I have turned it on and off with no noticeable change but if someone could explain if they know...?

[gspannu]

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Also to add, there is a setting in the iDrive for eco pro climate, I don't know what this actually does and I have turned it on and off with no noticeable change but if someone could explain if they know...?

The ECO PRO setting just slows the whole climate system down and runs everything at lower settings (saving electrical power, thereby fuel).

A good way to test it is this:

On a cold morning...
Select ECOPRO Climate setting as enabled in iDrive (default)
Select ECO Pro mode
Turn on Front Seat heating to level 1.
Watch how long it takes to heat the seats !

Now, do the same without ECOPRO climate setting, the difference in seat heating is quite prominent.

The same is true for A/C heating as well. The car takes a lot longer to heat up with the ECO setting on.

Same happens with Air Conditioning, but you will really notice this in the summer. The A/C takes ages to cool with ECOPRO climate on.

I have turned the ECOPRO climate setting OFF; and my A/C runs all year (in fact, I have never turned the A/C off in any of my 5 BMW cars in last 10 years) - as the fuel saving (if any) does not commensurate with the aspect of a luxury executive car.

[325_bucks]

Thanks for that Gspannu, and I agree, I've also never turned the AC off in any of my cars that have had AC/Climate. The humidity reduction and all round niceness that it adds to the environment is worth the small reduction in economy to me!

[Piers]

Originally Posted by 325_bucks

Thanks for that Gspannu, and I agree, I've also never turned the AC off in any of my cars that have had AC/Climate. The humidity reduction and all round niceness that it adds to the environment is worth the small reduction in economy to me!

Agreed,

I drive on motorways quite a bit, and the number of people who drive with steamed up windows is odd to say the least!

[jakartakid]

The reason those people drive along the motorway, or any other road for that matter, with steamed up windows, is because they only ever look through the front windscreen to a point just in front of their bonnet. So they would have no idea that their rear windows/rear view mirrors were even there.

[AP]

I think its worth keeping the A/C on all the time as it needs to be run regularly to avoid issues later (reduction in gas leaking out)
it is after all an air CONDITIONER, not just for cooling in summer.

I too have tunred off A?C in the ECO-PRO settings, so the only benefit I get from it is from the throttle being "dulled" requiring more movement for set level of power and the gear changes where it changes up sooner.