How long does pre-conditioning last?

[tuminatr]

So you're preconditioning, at midnight, with no intent to drive the vehicle between midnight and your next preconditioning time in the morning? I don't get that at all.

My car lives outdoors, it can get -40 here.

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[RickMachE]

My car lives outdoors, it can get -40 here.

You're simply wasting money. The car will pull juice when it's cold and it wants to heat the battery. There is zero reason to precondition at midnight when you're not planning on driving.

 

[tuminatr]

You're simply wasting money. The car will pull juice when it's cold and it wants to heat the battery. There is zero reason to precondition at midnight when you're not planning on driving.

Maybe but I have a separate meter for my EV charger. The rate is 2.9 cents per Kwh at night. The bill on that meter is less than $30 a month for all the charging so it's not making much of a difference.

 

[ArthurDOB]

My car lives outdoors, it can get -40 here.

I'm on the other side of the Metro. The coldest I can remember here in the last 20 years was roughly -25 F on two different occasions, and not for very long either time. Save your money!

 

[Mach-Lee]

Battery stays warm for like 3-10 hours after a departure time while parked (depends how cold it is). If you’re driving it cools off much faster from the wind.

Per my other article, if you have an irregular schedule you may want to set a daily departure time in the morning and/or afternoon to keep things warm. But bare minimum leave the car plugged in at night.

 

[Electric Goat]

One other take on this is if you have a GT/GTPE there is a huge difference in performance. Don't precondition gets lota of jail bars in the cold.

I precondition twice a day 8am and midnight. To converse energy I don't heat the interior though.

I have my GT set to pre-condition at 7:45 AM and 4:45 PM Mon-Fri and a little bit later on the weekends. I almost never see jail bars now. I feel like you're just wasting a pre-condition time slot by doing it at midnight.

 

[RKinWA]

I had never used the departure time feature, as I work at home and just leave when I want to go somewhere. This morning as a result of this thread I decided since I was leaving around 1030 and it was only 40 degrees out, I would try it. It really made a difference, not only in having a nice warm interior when I left, but I was getting 4.5 mi/kWh at one point. After an 80 mile drive it settled down to 3.5 mi/kWh, which is unheard of in my normally 2.7 mi/kWh world. I will definitely start using it more now. Thanks thread!

 

[luckie]

Battery stays warm for like 3-10 hours after a departure time while parked (depends how cold it is). If you’re driving it cools off much faster from the wind.

Per my other article, if you have an irregular schedule you may want to set a daily departure time in the morning and/or afternoon to keep things warm. But bare minimum leave the car plugged in at night.

Sorry to resurrect this thread from the dead from almost two months ago, BUT, I'm curious, if you did not precondition BUT suddenly knew you have to roadtrip somewhere in 1hr, perhaps hitting the "Charge to 100%" button(?) in FordPass might both add to the battery SOC and warm it some?

 

[Mach-Lee]

Sorry to resurrect this thread from the dead from almost two months ago, BUT, I'm curious, if you did not precondition BUT suddenly knew you have to roadtrip somewhere in 1hr, perhaps hitting the "Charge to 100%" button(?) in FordPass might both add to the battery SOC and warm it some?

That will charge it only. It will not warm more. In that situation you should set a temporary departure time for 1 hour in the future.

 

[Luke]

Is there any difference or benefit from using a scheduled departure time vs remote start via the Ford app to warm the car and batteries?

Yes. Warming the cabin does almost nothing to heat the battery, and it is just about 15min and you can extend for 15min more. Checked with ODBII.
Scheduled departure starts heating the battery almost one hour before the departure time. Uses about 5kwh (in my case with 25F temp.)

 

[CarlSagan82]

What if you are not hooked up to a level 2 charger and instead only use 120V in garage daily. Does that draw enough juice to precondition?

 

[Mach-Lee]

What if you are not hooked up to a level 2 charger and instead only use 120V in garage daily. Does that draw enough juice to precondition?

No, not really. The car wants 6 kW for heat but Level 1 only provides 1 kW.

If you live in a winter climate, you almost have to get a Level 2 charger.

 

[ChasingCoral]

I don’t have a regular schedule and have never preconditioned my ER battery. If EVs are ever going to be mainstream drivers are going to treat them like transportation and not worry about tricks to get an extra 10% here and there. Kind of reminds me of the old days when people had to warm up their ICE cars before driving them.

If you’re not going to use the whole battery, there’s not much need to precondition the car. Preconditioning costs you about 7kWh of shore power.

 

[Mach-Lee]

If you’re not going to use the whole battery, there’s not much need to precondition the car. Preconditioning costs you about 7kWh of shore power.

Usually only takes 2-3 kWh on my car, depends how cold the battery is to start.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Usually only takes 2-3 kWh on my car, depends how cold the battery is to start.

Thanks. I stand corrected.

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