Battery Charging in Lieu of Preconditioning

[AKgrampy]

I have been reading many of the threads here on the Forum to learn as much as I can before my Mach arrives. A “Seven seconds in a man’s head” thought that occurred to me is if I could just chose to charge my battery in lieu of preconditioning. I drive my wife to work daily at the same time and probably drive 20 - 30 miles a day. I am figuring that would be a 1 to 2 hour charge daily on a Lvl 2 charger so if we leave every day at 7 AM I could set the daily charge time from 6 to 7 AM. My thought is this would warm the HVB up a bit and I would also not have to use additional electricity to precondition. I looked around to see if this type of operation was discussed and could not find a thread. Probably just overthinking things but I am retired with plenty of time on my hands! If it has been discussed please point me in the right direction.

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[Stang68]

Interesting thought. We've all been clamoring for a "precondition now" button in the app, instead of having to set up a departure time every single time we want to leave the house.
So I wonder if tapping the "charge to 100%" button and letting it do that for, say, 25-30 minutes would also be like a "precondition now" button, allowing the battery to warm up.

Does anyone have any further insight on that?

 

[generaltso]

Level 2 charging really doesn't heat the battery all that much, and won't heat the cabin at all if that's your intention. What's the goal you're trying to accomplish with preconditioning? If you're not trying to get absolute maximum range, I don't personally think it's necessary.

 

[SnBGC]

Interesting thought. We've all been clamoring for a "precondition now" button in the app, instead of having to set up a departure time every single time we want to leave the house.
So I wonder if tapping the "charge to 100%" button and letting it do that for, say, 25-30 minutes would also be like a "precondition now" button, allowing the battery to warm up.

Does anyone have any further insight on that?

Don't we have that button now?
Is that what this is for?

 

[SnBGC]

Don't we have that button now?
Is that what this is for?

Never-ending. I presses the button. Just takes me to a bunch more jabbering.

 

[RickMachE]

I have been reading many of the threads here on the Forum to learn as much as I can before my Mach arrives. A “Seven seconds in a man’s head” thought that occurred to me is if I could just chose to charge my battery in lieu of preconditioning. I drive my wife to work daily at the same time and probably drive 20 - 30 miles a day. I am figuring that would be a 1 to 2 hour charge daily on a Lvl 2 charger so if we leave every day at 7 AM I could set the daily charge time from 6 to 7 AM. My thought is this would warm the HVB up a bit and I would also not have to use additional electricity to precondition. I looked around to see if this type of operation was discussed and could not find a thread. Probably just overthinking things but I am retired with plenty of time on my hands! If it has been discussed please point me in the right direction.

As noted, level 2 charging isn't going to heat the battery much. In fact, level 3 charging takes a long time to heat it, which is why Ford may add a pre-conditioning feature tied to navigation to pre-warm the battery before level 3 charging.

The problem with setting your charge time to a tight window like that is that the car will then determine if it can get to the selected SOC by the end time. When it decides that it cannot, it will start charging early.

If you live in a cold environment, it's best to set a departure time (there is no option to "pre-condition, it's either setting a departure time, which does pre-condition, or selecting Remote Start, which has negligible pre-conditioning it is believed). The question arises as to how much electricity is used in doing so. If you care, you could monitor and figure this out. In my non-scientific observations, it's about 6kWh, which for me is about 70 cents.

Given your short drive, there is no reason to try and increase range, so if it were me I would simply do a remote start 10 minutes before leaving, or if the temp is very cold consider setting a departure time.

 

[MachTri]

I do exactly that.
Since my schedule is kind of erratic the scheduled precondition doesn't really work out for me. So, on cold mornings. I do just what you described. My car is set to only charge to 90% at my house. I hit the charge to 100% button and start (preheat cabin) about 15-20 min before I'm ready to leave. I haven't any idea if this effects range, too many variables to exclude (temperature, time of day, traffic etc) but I figure it's worth a try. Would be nice if the car reported battery temp. My commute is about 22 miles. I don't have a garage and I use the Ford provided charger on 220 Volts.
Note: When you hit "Charge to 100%" the FordPass app doesn't update the current charge level properly. It gets stuck at whatever it was set as the max or what the value was before you hit "charge to 100%". But I usually notice a 1% gain when I get into the car before I start my commute.

 

[Motomax]

So I’ve done this test before in mild temps and it seems to help. I add about 22-23kW to the battery each weekday and finish charging about an HR before preconditioning starts.
in low-mid 30s temp, preconditioning without charging previously used about 5-6kWh. Preconditioning an Hr after charging in same temp used 2ish kWh. The difference between the Mondays where the car doesn’t charge and the rest of the week are definitely consistent, in current warmer temps the difference is 0.8-1kWh.
This isn’t a definite test and it’s just an observation of my energy use. I have no way of knowing where that energy is actually going. If you’re in a much colder environment, the vehicle will warm the battery when charging as well so it could be a definite bonus to wait.

 

[RickMachE]

I do exactly that.
Since my schedule is kind of erratic the scheduled precondition doesn't really work out for me. So, on cold mornings. I do just what you described. My car is set to only charge to 90% at my house. I hit the charge to 100% button and start (preheat cabin) about 15-20 min before I'm ready to leave. I haven't any idea if this effects range, too many variables to exclude (temperature, time of day, traffic etc) but I figure it's worth a try. Would be nice if the car reported battery temp. My commute is about 22 miles. I don't have a garage and I use the Ford provided charger on 220 Volts.
Note: When you hit "Charge to 100%" the FordPass app doesn't update the current charge level properly. It gets stuck at whatever it was set as the max or what the value was before you hit "charge to 100%". But I usually notice a 1% gain when I get into the car before I start my commute.

I am of the belief that hitting "Charge to 100%" and then "Remote Start" is simply remote starting your car, because it won't charge to 100% while started. Yes, if you remote start while connected to the wall, you may gain a 1% in battery SOC, but that has nothing to do with you pushing "Charge to 100%".

 

[AKgrampy]

Level 2 charging really doesn't heat the battery all that much, and won't heat the cabin at all if that's your intention. What's the goal you're trying to accomplish with preconditioning? If you're not trying to get absolute maximum range, I don't personally think it's necessary.

I am also thinking that preconditionining may be something I can pass on and was just seeking other owners experiences. My Mach will always be in a garage at around 50 degrees in the winter. In my case I think more about the thermal mass of the battery rather than range. It is below freezing for 6 months of the year so just considering how gain some thermal advantage. I do realize the best solution may be to move to Florida but that is not an option! Thanks for the feedback.

 

[generaltso]

I am also thinking that preconditionining may be something I can pass on and was just seeking other owners experiences. My Mach will always be in a garage at around 50 degrees in the winter.

My car is in an unheated garage that's a lot colder than that, and I don't leave it plugged in or precondition. That may not be the best for long term battery health, but that doesn't bother me. I make up for it by never DC fast charging.

 

[RickMachE]

My car is in an unheated garage that's a lot colder than that, and I don't leave it plugged in or precondition. That may not be the best for long term battery health, but that doesn't bother me. I make up for it by never DC fast charging.

Since none of us know what keeping it plugged in does for battery health, nor what never DC fast charging does for battery health (as compared to infrequent DC fast charging), none of us know what any of this does for long term battery health...

 

[generaltso]

none of us know what any of this does for long term battery health...

That's why I'm not going out of my way to baby the thing.

 

[RickMachE]

That's why I'm not going out of my way to baby the thing.

I understand that. There are a lot of people that seem to really be concerned about their long term battery health without having any true knowledge of the impact of their actions on their long term battery health.

 

[BillPitman]

I recently bought a Data Logger to monitor the output of my Mobile Charger.(Volts/Amps to KW)
I have noticed that in cold weather, one instance, temps below 40, the battery called for a warming of the HVB.
Data shows charging of 18 mins,at an avg. of 7.5kw, at 3:30am, for an approx cost of 44 cents, based on our rates of 19.45 cents/KWh.
In the winter, I do leave the car plugged in, as I believe maintaining good battery chemistry is important.....just my thinking..
I don't know what the proper higher battery temp is, so may even plug in when temps are 85 or above.....? regards, Bill Pitman

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