A320 battery switches

Battery 1 and 2 switches on A320neo are set to on but they are not actually on, I have to press them to turn off and then press again to turn on.

Cold & dark or when starting on the runway.
How do you know that the batteries are actually off?

There is a whole “confusing” logic to the battery switches in the A320. And, there is no on and off - It is “AUTO” and “OFF”. The battery switches are “OFF” if the physical switch is flush with the panel. If recessed, they are in “AUTO”. There is no light on the switch when the batteries are in Auto. “AUTO” is due to some logic which has the batteries disconnected most of the time but will connect and disconnect with certain conditions. Also:

  • If the batteries and AC power is off, the battery “OFF” light does not illuminate. That is because the light on the switch is DC powered. If you were to click on one of the batteries, the other battery switch would then get DC power and display “OFF”, while the one you pressed would have no light since it is now in “AUTO”

  • If AC power has been established but battery switches are selected off, you will see the battery “OFF” lights illuminate.

Here’s a great resource for the batteries and electrical system of the A320: http://a320dp.com/A320_DP/electrical/sys-3.7.2.html

It’s not that confusing. In some airlines the AUTO position is even called ON.
For you as the pilot it’s simply a ON/OFF switch.

It’s the same with most switches in the A320, e.g. the fuel pump switches.
Pushed in (recessed) is the normal ON or AUTO position with no lights.

Agree, it shouldn’t be, but to the OP, barring a technical issue/bug, the switches appearing “dark” or “off” to the pilot is perfectly normal, which may have been confusing to the OP if they didn’t understand this logic. It’s not like other aircraft - Boeing - where the BATT ON switch stays illuminated.

For the OP, the other way to tell if the batteries are ON is look at the ISIS system, the landing gear down lights should also be green and illuminated.

Cold and Dark.

Before the last update I would press the switches once and all the instruments would light up.

When I hover the mouse cursor over the switches they also say they are on.

Now I need to press them, which switches them to off and then press them again to on.

This is on the default a320neo on xbox.

Sounds like a bug in the settings for cold & dark. If the switches are defauted to “auto” the aircraft would not technically be cold & dark, yet it is, hence the reason you have to turn off/auto the switches again.