It is quite hot this weekend and I noticed for the first time that the Karma is much cooler than my other car (Audi). Both are sitting in the sun and both have black leather inside. The Audi is like a hot oven. The Karma is still warm inside, but a lot less. On the outside I can hear a small fan running, which is blowing the hot air out. Proof: I can smell fresh leather outside, which is how the inside smells. The car is not plugged in and not losing range, so the fan is running on solar power alone.
Karma cooler in the sun
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would love to know how you got the cabin pre-conditioning to work. I am in AZ and have had the car since Feb- always sunny and NEVER have heard the fans on or seen evidence that the cabin pre-conditioning works at all.
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Stefan,Stefan said:
I think there may be some confusion on terminology:
Cabin Preconditioning is the feature whereby the user can press and hold a button on the fob and the car will enagage the heater or air conditioning to bring the car to the desired temperature before you get in. Cabin Preconditioning is not working. Fisker has acknowledged as much and has committed to addressing it once they stabilize the more pressing driveability/safety/mechanical issues they have been addressing.
What *IS* working is that if the car is parked in the sun and the 12V battery is fully charged the car will use the electricity generated by the solar panels to run a circulation fan in the vehicle to help cool the interior. This does not engage the compressor or heater, and it does not target a particular temperature, it's just a fan. There's nothing you need to do to engage this; it happens automatically.
Brent
Spot on, Brent. There's no setting for this (it works automatically), it doesn't involve the Cabin Preconditioing (which is still not functional and will be addressed with one of the future software updates) and it does not involve the AC. It's just a matter of a fan circulating the hot air inside the car and, judging by the smell of fresh leather outside, also expelling some of that air.
To add to Brent and Dutch discussion, I was waiting in my car this morning while my wife ran into the kids school to drop something off. Car is completely powered down, with about 14 miles of electric range left. After a couple of minutes, I feel a cool breeze on my face. The windows are all rolled up, and so I put my hand in front of the air vent, and I could feel it blowing lightly.
It was 69 degrees outside, and the air felt cool, and as I waited another 5 to 10 minutes, it kept on lightly blowing. So, I get this is automatic -- I didn't press anything other than the off button when I stopped the car several minutes earlier. And, it explains why when I have come to the car after leaving it in the sun, it has felt cooler than the usual oven of my other cars on a similar hot day.
It was 69 degrees outside, and the air felt cool, and as I waited another 5 to 10 minutes, it kept on lightly blowing. So, I get this is automatic -- I didn't press anything other than the off button when I stopped the car several minutes earlier. And, it explains why when I have come to the car after leaving it in the sun, it has felt cooler than the usual oven of my other cars on a similar hot day.
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Our fan has always worked when the car was in the sun, and the temperature difference is definitely appreciated.
Hmm... that's interesting. Is there a thermostat anywhere in that loop? Say it's 10 degF outside, though sunny, and you'd probably like a little greenhouse heating in the cabin. Will the fan come on regardless, thus making it both freezing inside as well as out? Or is it smart enough to only turn the fan on when the interior is above a certain temperature.JSPONSLER said:
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We shouldn't need to have to consult a wigi board to figure this out. There is a Fisker engineer somewhere who knows the answer and should be able to tell us.
In the meantime, maybe we should get these and attach them to our car air vents and see if any air motion is detected. I would suggest taking the disgustingly sweet perfume out first.
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In the meantime, maybe we should get these and attach them to our car air vents and see if any air motion is detected. I would suggest taking the disgustingly sweet perfume out first.
Hmm... that's interesting. Is there a thermostat anywhere in that loop? Say it's 10 degF outside, though sunny, and you'd probably like a little greenhouse heating in the cabin. Will the fan come on regardless, thus making it both freezing inside as well as out? Or is it smart enough to only turn the fan on when the interior is above a certain temperature.
I have not ever noticed it before when much cooler outside temperature so I would assume that there is a thermostat inside that triggers at X degrees (where X is maybe 80?).
I have not ever noticed it before when much cooler outside temperature so I would assume that there is a thermostat inside that triggers at X degrees (where X is maybe 80?).
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No More Debate. Solar Ventilation Confirmed
Not that I don't enjoy the "does it", "doesn't it" debate, but I finally decided to see if I can set up a simple experiment that will would prove if the ventilation was actually happening.
So on a bright cool San Francisco day, when the sun was at its zenith, I parked my car in full exposure to the sun and used the power flow screen to verify that the solar panels were generating full power, closed off all but the two central air registers in the car, and then attached light bits of string to these registers, locked the car, and waited.
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As I waited, the car went to sleep mode and the "P" on the gear selector went dark, and then a couple of minutes later, this is what I observed:
The strings in the passenger side air register actually blew off and the the ones on the driver side showed a fair amount of air flow. As you can see in the this photo, the car is in deep REM sleep with the "P" on the gear selector as well as the command center dark.
So, put away the Wigi board. There is no need for further speculation or debate. The solar-powered venting definitely works in 615. To be clear, this is not "Cabin Preconditioning" which is currently not enabled. This is just solar-powered fans blowing fresh air into the cabin
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Not that I don't enjoy the "does it", "doesn't it" debate, but I finally decided to see if I can set up a simple experiment that will would prove if the ventilation was actually happening.
So on a bright cool San Francisco day, when the sun was at its zenith, I parked my car in full exposure to the sun and used the power flow screen to verify that the solar panels were generating full power, closed off all but the two central air registers in the car, and then attached light bits of string to these registers, locked the car, and waited.
As I waited, the car went to sleep mode and the "P" on the gear selector went dark, and then a couple of minutes later, this is what I observed:
The strings in the passenger side air register actually blew off and the the ones on the driver side showed a fair amount of air flow. As you can see in the this photo, the car is in deep REM sleep with the "P" on the gear selector as well as the command center dark.
So, put away the Wigi board. There is no need for further speculation or debate. The solar-powered venting definitely works in 615. To be clear, this is not "Cabin Preconditioning" which is currently not enabled. This is just solar-powered fans blowing fresh air into the cabin
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