Air con working whilst on hook up?

Ruddster · Thursday at 11:18 AM

Hi all, just back from a very lovely road trip from Santander to Normandy via the South of France, the Alps and Paris.

Whilst in the roasting, but very beautiful, South of France the portable fans we had did a commendable job of trying to cool the van but weren't really good enough for a comfortable night's sleep. It got me to thinking whether (by someone with much more of a clue than me) the air con of the van could be rewired/reprogrammed to work whilst on electric hook up.

I know there are portable options available but they seem large and cumbersome in terms of venting and space in the van. I have used a local auto electrician in the past who is excellent so I am tempted to ask him what might be capable but thought I would ask the wisdom of this group/forum in advance of that in case it's simply not possible.

Thanks

Adam

stoobthealien · Thursday at 12:13 PM

Ruddster said:
Hi all, just back from a very lovely road trip from Santander to Normandy via the South of France, the Alps and Paris.

Whilst in the roasting, but very beautiful, South of France the portable fans we had did a commendable job of trying to cool the van but weren't really good enough for a comfortable night's sleep. It got me to thinking whether (by someone with much more of a clue than me) the air con of the van could be rewired/reprogrammed to work whilst on electric hook up.

I know there are portable options available but they seem large and cumbersome in terms of venting and space in the van. I have used a local auto electrician in the past who is excellent so I am tempted to ask him what might be capable but thought I would ask the wisdom of this group/forum in advance of that in case it's simply not possible.

Thanks

Adam

Sadly the AC unit is belt driven so if the engine isn't on then it won't work. On newer EVs (and indeed on the ehybrid T7 calis) the AC unit is run off high voltage so will work (albeit on the current T7 ones it's limited to 30 minute stints, on the upcoming facelift it'll do 8 hours)