Does Preconditioning Really Matter?

Colorider

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How much of an impact does preconditioning make? Here is a quick test: same route, same climate settings, and roughly the same 20 degree temps, on two different days. The first I have PC set to Medium and no PC the second. As you would expect, I saw 9% decrease in efficiency without PC.
Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? A5EF8260-50F3-4DBB-89B2-A6F926C8E616


Preconditioning definitely improves your Mi/kWh efficiency and driving range, but does it save electricity? Probably not. If I add the .67kWH that it took to precondition, my energy from that first drive would be 5.73kWh, a 2.9% increase over no PC. That $.07 is a small price to pay for a warm butt and arguably better battery life, but if you are going for maximum efficiency, it is something to consider.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? 717C73FB-A016-4156-AB66-A406270E4DF0


Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? 367755A9-EAEB-4C94-9F1B-48B57406B4ED


Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? EC2726FD-300F-402C-8DBF-FE4AACA0EBE0
 
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RickMachE

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Good stuff!
 

Nklem

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Thanks for Sharing!
 

Aquar33f

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How much of an impact does preconditioning make? Here is a quick test: same route, same climate settings, and roughly the same 20 degree temps, on two different days. The first I have PC set to Medium and no PC the second. As you would expect, I saw 9% decrease in efficiency without PC.
Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? EC2726FD-300F-402C-8DBF-FE4AACA0EBE0


Preconditioning definitely improves your Mi/kWh efficiency and driving range, but does it save electricity? Probably not. If I add the .67kWH that it took to precondition, my energy from that first drive would be 5.73kWh, a 2.9% increase. That $.07 is a small price to pay for a warm butt and arguably better battery life, but if you are going for maximum efficiency, it is something to consider.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? EC2726FD-300F-402C-8DBF-FE4AACA0EBE0


Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? EC2726FD-300F-402C-8DBF-FE4AACA0EBE0


Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? EC2726FD-300F-402C-8DBF-FE4AACA0EBE0
Nice Work!

It definitely makes a difference in terms of available power. On the”powerbar” in the GT I get about 33% of gray bars in the power side until the system warms up. It Only get 1 if any at all if I precondition.
 

Murse-In-Airy

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Some will describe their max efficiency in terms of how far the car can go once they leave the house. For them preconditioning matters. Wanting to devote every kwh in the battery to miles. This will be me if I am off for a long drive.

Some will describe their max efficiency in terms of how much it cost to drive the car, as you have above. So accounting for all the electricity used for anything will matter. This is me for 95% of my drives because honestly, my range almost never matters on a day to day basis.
 


hawkeye3point1

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Very helpful and confirms my philosophy when it comes to precon. especially since our kWh costs just increased by $.10 and are now almost 2.5 times yours, thanks.
 

Jimrpa

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This tells me that I want a comfortable cabin environment when I leave in the morning ?
 

sockmeister

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How much of an impact does preconditioning make? Here is a quick test: same route, same climate settings, and roughly the same 20 degree temps, on two different days. The first I have PC set to Medium and no PC the second. As you would expect, I saw 9% decrease in efficiency without PC.
Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? EC2726FD-300F-402C-8DBF-FE4AACA0EBE0


Preconditioning definitely improves your Mi/kWh efficiency and driving range, but does it save electricity? Probably not. If I add the .67kWH that it took to precondition, my energy from that first drive would be 5.73kWh, a 2.9% increase. That $.07 is a small price to pay for a warm butt and arguably better battery life, but if you are going for maximum efficiency, it is something to consider.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? EC2726FD-300F-402C-8DBF-FE4AACA0EBE0


Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? EC2726FD-300F-402C-8DBF-FE4AACA0EBE0


Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? EC2726FD-300F-402C-8DBF-FE4AACA0EBE0
Awesome -- for clarification, when you say "preconditioning", are you...
  • Setting a departure time and waiting an hour or so for the battery to heat (preconditioning the battery), or
  • Just using remote start (preconditioning the cabin only)?
 

breeves002

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This does make sense. Pretty much below 32ÂşF it will help more because it can have the battery warm enough to not worry about before you leave.

You're also right though it is less efficient in terms of total power consumption than just getting in and driving.

Good data, thanks.
 
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4TangledKites

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How much of an impact does preconditioning make? Here is a quick test: same route, same climate settings, and roughly the same 20 degree temps, on two different days. The first I have PC set to Medium and no PC the second. As you would expect, I saw 9% decrease in efficiency without PC.
Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? EC2726FD-300F-402C-8DBF-FE4AACA0EBE0


Preconditioning definitely improves your Mi/kWh efficiency and driving range, but does it save electricity? Probably not. If I add the .67kWH that it took to precondition, my energy from that first drive would be 5.73kWh, a 2.9% increase. That $.07 is a small price to pay for a warm butt and arguably better battery life, but if you are going for maximum efficiency, it is something to consider.

Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? EC2726FD-300F-402C-8DBF-FE4AACA0EBE0


Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? EC2726FD-300F-402C-8DBF-FE4AACA0EBE0


Ford Mustang Mach-E Does Preconditioning Really Matter? EC2726FD-300F-402C-8DBF-FE4AACA0EBE0
Interesting to me that your "Ext. Temp" usage didn't change. To me this suggests only the cabin was "preconditioned" and not the battery. Was the car cold soaked at 20F for these tests, or in a garage?
 

sockmeister

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Interesting to me that your "Ext. Temp" usage didn't change. To me this suggests only the cabin was "preconditioned" and not the battery. Was the car cold soaked at 20F for these tests, or in a garage?
it can have the battery warm enough to not worry about before you leave.
That's why I'm wondering if OP actually preconditioned the battery, or just used remote start, which does NOT precondition the battery (only the cabin).
 

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If I only paid 7cents per kWh I would just leave my car running all the time ?.
I precondition on the warm Setting and it uses anywhere from 1kWh(45F) to 5kWh(32F). There is something to be said about ideal battery temp but idk if it really matters at the end of the day.
 
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Colorider

Colorider

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Awesome -- for clarification, when you say "preconditioning", are you...
  • Setting a departure time and waiting an hour or so for the battery to heat (preconditioning the battery), or
  • Just using remote start (preconditioning the cabin only)?
The former: I have a preset departure time of 6:15 set on day 1 and based on my ChargePoint it looks like I unplugged at 6:21 so I was a tiny bit late. You can tell from the CP graph that it wasn’t charging for an hour before though.
 
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Colorider

Colorider

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Interesting to me that your "Ext. Temp" usage didn't change. To me this suggests only the cabin was "preconditioned" and not the battery. Was the car cold soaked at 20F for these tests, or in a garage?
I was surprised by that and also surprised that my driving efficiency was higher without. It was in the garage both days and the garage stays about 50 degrees.
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