Preconditioning at a 20A Wallbox Charger Setting

[Misterrobot]

Hey, big nerd here. I charge my 23 sel std range at 20A with my Fisker-Wallbox charger. I set the charger at 20A on the 40A unit thinking it charges more efficiently, less power loss at 20A than 40A. I ran the numbers because I am a nerd.

Anyways... In the past the battery preconditioned and warmed the cabin in the morning allowing near summer range on my 17 mile interstate commute. The last couple of charges are getting winter range. The cabin is nice and warm but the battery is reading 32d on the OSB scan tool. 32d is about the temp of the garage.

While composing this email in my head on the way to work today I think I have it figured out: The times the car was preconditioned properly the charger must have set to 40A. I set to 40A when I need a quicker charge to to top off the car.

Thoughts? Did I answer my own question? Did I just start an argument about 20A vs 40A charging?

Have a great day!
Capt Ron

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[RickMachE]

I believe you're correct, insufficient power. Raise it to 32amp and prove it.

 

[silverelan]

I believe you're correct, insufficient power. Raise it to 32amp and prove it.

^ what he said.

 

[Maquis]

20A cannot fully power the 5KW heater and run the pumps.

20A charging has lower I^2R losses, but there are fixed loads that have to draw power for twice as long. There is a thread on here where somebody logged the total energy input required to charge and the higher rates were better. The curve flattened above 40A, so 48A didn’t give much benefit.

 

[Rocky29670]

How do you precondition the car? Are you talking about the climate settings on the Ford Pass app?

 

[Misterrobot]

How do you precondition the car? Are you talking about the climate settings on the Ford Pass app?

Rocky, using the DEPARTURE TIME function in the app that does its thing while plugged in to the wall.

 

[HuntingPudel]

How do you precondition the car? Are you talking about the climate settings on the Ford Pass app?

He’s talking about preconditioning the battery. This is done via user-selectable Departure Times. The climate controls precondition the cabin. Although there is a way to use the climate controls to trick the car into preconditioning the battery. @Mach-Lee posted a thread on this. ??

 

[Mach-Lee]

Agree with the other posters, EVSE should be set to at least 30 amps to provide full heater power for battery preconditioning.

40-48 amps charging is the sweet spot for overall grid-to-battery efficiency. If you throttle the charge rate back, the running losses increase because it takes about 300W to keep the car on during charging.

And to precondition the battery, you need to set a departure time on the car's screen or using the FordPass app.

 

[CarlSagan82]

I have only level 1 charging so departure times are useless.

I am able to click climate controls in the app and put it to the lowest temp setting all the way to the left. (Also extend). It must work to heat the battery enough to get rid of all the jail bars except two. Normally when I just use climate to warm up the cabin a bit before leaving it has nearly half jail bars with 80% battery because the cold temp is under freezing.

I have done this all winter many times 10-15 degrees F outside and just 10-15 minutes of climate control like that knocks down the jail bars to two.

Btw I only have a 10 minute commute so it doesn’t really matter I just find it interesting.

 

[dalola]

OK, so how do you know if the battery is "preconditioned"? I'm charging at 16A, with set departure times, everything seems to be working fine. Car is always warm & ready to go ar 6:50AM.

 

[Misterrobot]

OK, so how do you know if the battery is "preconditioned"? I'm charging at 16A, with set departure times, everything seems to be working fine. Car is always warm & ready to go ar 6:50AM.

I use a OBD2 reader and noticed the temperature of the battery was the same as the garage.

 

[dalola]

I use a OBD2 reader and noticed the temperature of the battery was the same as the garage.

Is this the only way to verify? If this is so important, seems silly there is no other way to confirm it. Which scan tool are you using?

 

[Misterrobot]

Is this the only way to verify? If this is so important, seems silly there is no other way to confirm it. Which scan tool are you using?

App is https://apps.apple.com/app/id1259933623

Scanner is OBDLink CX Bimmercode Bluetooth... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NFLL3NT?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

 

[Misterrobot]

An update to all you groovy kids out there. I set the Wallbox charger limit from 20 to 40amps and the battery was 60d F toasty warm in my 30d garage this morning. Almost, close to, purd-near Summer time energy usage on my 17 mile commute - after pulling over to close the Charger door that popped open…

 

[Snakebitten]

It's NOT cold here, compared to you Fargo frigid folks, but we are experiencing 30's the previous few nights. So I finally had the opportunity to witness the affects of a cold battery on an EV, and it was interesting.

Anyways, for the last 3 mornings I have used the Departure Time feature and the car consistently pulls 27 Amps on the Emporium. And the battery is right at 60F (Highest temp pid) at departure.

Range/efficiency at that temp is still a little bit less than normal, but negligible for my daily commute.

I really enjoy the car's welcoming interior though, the most.

Note: the Mach-E started drawing power from the EVSE at 8:44 for a 9:30 departure time. I'm curious what parameters determine that?

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