Climate Control - AC always on?

[AnonymouseDriva]

Hi All. I have a question about the A/C button / light on the "Automatic Temperature Control" system
Simply - the question is - is it normal for A/C to always be on when the system is set to AUTO?

and for the longer explanation...
This may be 'fluid terminology' or a loss in translation in the manual but it's a little confusing.
To me, an A/C means Air Conditioning which would generally both cool and dehumidify.
The manual refers to the A/C button (and display) as 'Air Cooling' (or, to be specific, just as "Cooling", so therefore if I have set the system to 'Auto' it's not unreasonable to assume that this would be on if the system needed to cool the cabin, and switch off if I crank the temperature goes off.
The manual seems to use the term 'Air Conditioning' to describe the whole system (which, I assume does consist of heating, cooling and dehumidification, although I don't actually see dehumidify referred to in the manual). This is supported by the note 'The air conditioning system should only be switched by the on/off button' (not sure how else you would do it?!) whereas A/C is switched on and off via the AC button.

Admittedly, it's only been 9 days since I got the car, and it's been hot and humid for most of that.

Oh, and for context, this is number 2 of my top 2 issues. Number 1 isn't that much bigger. Properly loving it, and genuinely thrilled that my questions are about such minor things!

 

[Neil Fellows]

I think you just press the button on the left in (the temp control) and that switches it all off completely. And for reasons known only to MG, turns recirculate on

 

[AnonymouseDriva]

I think you just press the button on the left in (the temp control) and that switches it all off completely. And for reasons known only to MG, turns recirculate on

Yeah, I get that bit. I 'm guessing that they make the assumption that you turned it off to stop fumes / smells coming in (and really wanted to steam up all your windows!).

Mu question though is about the AUTO function. I would expect that it would turn 'Cooling' off if the cabin temperature is lower than the target set, but in my car it seems to stay on all the time.

It seems a bit strange that even with 'AUTO' off, I'm still setting a target temperature, so all the AUTO really seems to do is turn A/C (cooling) permanently on, and adjust the fan speeds and directions.

 

[Neil Fellows]

AC isn't just for cooling, it's just as important for heating and I'd expect it to be 'always on' regardless of temperature with Climate Control. It has very little impact on range so I'd personally just leave it on and forget about it.

As you've mentioned, the windows steam up pretty quickly under the right conditions, in the winter I always left AC on in 'heating mode' and the windows stay free of mist.

 

[AnonymouseDriva]

AC isn't just for cooling, it's just as important for heating and I'd expect it to be 'always on' regardless of temperature with Climate Control. It has very little impact on range so I'd personally just leave it on and forget about it.

As you've mentioned, the windows steam up pretty quickly under the right conditions, in the winter I always left AC on in 'heating mode' and the windows stay free of mist.

Thanks. Yeah - sat in the car with the fans and AC on it's only drawing 1A. I thought that might be the case, especially as the 'cooling' A/C function does provide the side effect / function of dehumidifying the air, I just wanted to make sure that my experience with this was the same as others, and not a fault.

That now leaves me with only one (minor) fault with the car. It's in at the dealers to look at that tomorrow.