AC comes on when recirculation bitton is pressed...

[kjhansen]

Does anyone know if there is a way to prevent the AC from coming on when the recirculation button is pressed? This "feature" is very annoying and inappropriate especially when the cabin heater is activated.
I had a Civic Hybrid that had the same feature and there was a way to disable it by a combination of button pushing and toggling the ignition switch.

 

[f1geek]

Does anyone know if there is a way to prevent the AC from coming on when the recirculation button is pressed? This "feature" is very annoying and inappropriate especially when the cabin heater is activated.
I had a Civic Hybrid that had the same feature and there was a way to disable it by a combination of button pushing and toggling the ignition switch.

Do you understand why the AC turns on when you press the recirc button?

 

[Solandri]

Does anyone know if there is a way to prevent the AC from coming on when the recirculation button is pressed? This "feature" is very annoying and inappropriate especially when the cabin heater is activated.

In an ICE car, turning on the heater means the car pumps waste heat from the engine into the cabin.

In an EV, there is no engine to produce waste heat. On higher trim models of the e-Golf, the AC is actually a heat pump - an AC that can run in either direction. In AC mode it pumps heat from inside the car out. In heater mode, it pumps heat from outside the car in. It sounds like that's what you've got, and it's totally normal for the AC light to turn on when the cabin "heater" is activated.

(On lower trim models, turning on the heat turns on an electric heating element. This works to heat the air blowing into the cabin too. But since it's generating new heat instead of scavenging existing heat from the outside air, it requires more energy and will drain the battery quicker for the same amount of heat generated. I dunno how VW has wired up the indicator lights when the heating element is on. For consistency with the heat pump model, it may turn on the AC light even though the AC is not actually running. Mine has a heat pump, so owners without it will have to chime in)