Preconditioning

[Snakebitten]

I tried pre-conditioning the other day for the first time. It's rarely ever cold enough here for me to even turn on climate 15 minutes before leaving, but I was curious about what really happens if it was cold.

So, when a few mornings ago we had temps in the 40's, about an hour before I was going to leave, I set up a departure time in FordPass. I chose the middle setting for cabin environment. (cool, medium, warm)

I then started monitoring the EVSE app to see if and when it would get taxed for shore power.

At about 35 minutes before departure time, the EV triggered, and was supplying 28 AMPs of 240V to the car. ?

Surely that's far more than the seat warmer, steering wheel, and cabin heater would consume?

At about 6 minutes before the official departure time, the shore power dropped to 6 amps. So was that evidence that the HV battery had reached some unknown (to me) battery temperature? (Car scanner reported ~68F for the battery when I got in the car)

I do have to admit that the car felt PERFECT for a 48F ambient morning. Wasn't cold. Wasn't hot. The seat and wheel were both nice and warm, but the cabin air temperature was mild.

I don't know what the minimum advanced time allowed for setting up departure time is, but for this experiment it was just a few more minutes than an hour. Maybe 70 minutes in advance?

Sponsored

 

[Deleted member 19354]

And so it shall be Rick. I'll stop fretting over it. Just get in and drive and if I remember I can turn on the heat a few minutes ahead in Pass app. Thanks! Lord knows I have no lack of battery operated tools and equipment around here but as they say in UP, EV's are a "whole nudder ting".

I sort of agree. I’m about conserving etc but I’m not turning off my hvac just to safe a few miles. I’ll plan accordingly. I had the car set at 72F seats and steering wheel warm. Do you notice that 3 on hearted seats get really HOT?

 

[RickMachE]

I tried pre-conditioning the other day for the first time. It's rarely ever cold enough here for me to even turn on climate 15 minutes before leaving, but I was curious about what really happens if it was cold.

So, when a few mornings ago we had temps in the 40's, about an hour before I was going to leave, I set up a departure time in FordPass. I chose the middle setting for cabin environment. (cool, medium, warm)

I then started monitoring the EVSE app to see if and when it would get taxed for shore power.

At about 35 minutes before departure time, the EV triggered, and was supplying 28 AMPs of 240V to the car. ?

Surely that's far more than the seat warmer, steering wheel, and cabin heater would consume?

At about 6 minutes before the official departure time, the shore power dropped to 6 amps. So was that evidence that the HV battery had reached some unknown (to me) battery temperature? (Car scanner reported ~68F for the battery when I got in the car)

I do have to admit that the car felt PERFECT for a 48F ambient morning. Wasn't cold. Wasn't hot. The seat and wheel were both nice and warm, but the cabin air temperature was mild.

I don't know what the minimum advanced time allowed for setting up departure time is, but for this experiment it was just a few more minutes than an hour. Maybe 70 minutes in advance?

If you use Car Scanner, you can see the power that the heater pulls AND the battery temperature, and get all your questions answered.

Assume 90 minutes.

 

[Deleted member 19354]

If you use Car Scanner, you can see the power that the heater pulls AND the battery temperature, and get all your questions answered.

Assume 90 minutes.

@RickMachE Lordy I can barely work my iPhone ?

 

[kkgg]

on a separate note, car tire pressure gets low in winter. That might be a contributing factor too.

Check and maintain the right tire pressure

 

[George Knighton]

Not a dumb question. Ford makes preconditioning the battery much more clunky than it needs to be. Departure times are fine if you want them, but there should also be a one-time "Precondition Now" button. Many of us have been complaining about this for years.

I will add my voice to yours via the onboard suggestions function.

Great idea.

 

[moog]

Ford: Make it simple for the user.

A simple one press button in the app, AND in the car: Precondition Battery.

It's a simple ask. It makes things sooooo much easier for the user to operate AND understand.

No need to mess with cumbersome "departure time" and/or climate settings.

If one just needs to condition the battery at ANY time (even while driving) it should be a simple one press available option in the car and in the app.

 

[lwilliams0514]

Dozens of threads on this.

Cabin only. Need to set a departure time, while plugged into 240v, to precondition the battery.

I had this very question..... Thanks for asking

 

[MannyG20]

There are a lot of easy software things that they just can't or won't do. Precondition now and a pet mode have been requested so many times since this car came out and there's no indication either will ever happen. But hey, we got a few new games and the karaoke feature is coming, so there's that

Being the owner of three Ford vehicles I would say with out a doubt that the software side of things is where Ford fails the most. I don’t know if it’s a top-down issue or if the software engineers they have just aren’t up to the job, but they need to fix it.

 

[ChasingCoral]

I tried pre-conditioning the other day for the first time. It's rarely ever cold enough here for me to even turn on climate 15 minutes before leaving, but I was curious about what really happens if it was cold.

So, when a few mornings ago we had temps in the 40's, about an hour before I was going to leave, I set up a departure time in FordPass. I chose the middle setting for cabin environment. (cool, medium, warm)

I then started monitoring the EVSE app to see if and when it would get taxed for shore power.

At about 35 minutes before departure time, the EV triggered, and was supplying 28 AMPs of 240V to the car. ?

Surely that's far more than the seat warmer, steering wheel, and cabin heater would consume?

At about 6 minutes before the official departure time, the shore power dropped to 6 amps. So was that evidence that the HV battery had reached some unknown (to me) battery temperature? (Car scanner reported ~68F for the battery when I got in the car)

I do have to admit that the car felt PERFECT for a 48F ambient morning. Wasn't cold. Wasn't hot. The seat and wheel were both nice and warm, but the cabin air temperature was mild.

I don't know what the minimum advanced time allowed for setting up departure time is, but for this experiment it was just a few more minutes than an hour. Maybe 70 minutes in advance?

It's important to keep in mind what is happening here. You are using a significant amount of shore power to warm the battery pack. That makes driving more efficient for about the first half hour.

If you were just testing, have at it.

If you plan a long day of driving and won't be stopping for more than a brief stop before you need to charge, great. Preconditioning enhanced your initial efficiency so your battery charge lasted longer. Not preconditioning would have meant the battery energy would have been used to warm the battery as you drove. However, much of the warming will come from operating the vehicle so that conditioning should use less electricity than preconditioning does.

However, if you are driving a short distance before stopping for a long time (think, a day at the office) or are just running errands and coming home with more than 25% SOC, there is no benefit to preconditioning your battery. That 35 minutes of 28A boost to heat the battery really only matters if you need to make sure you have maximum range before your next charge.

The same thing occurs with preconditioning en route to a DC Fast Charger. All it does is save you a few minutes that you might not even notice unless you are really pressed for time. That preconditioning requires using electricity you will have to put back in the battery at the charging stop.

 

[Snakebitten]

It's important to keep in mind what is happening here. You are using a significant amount of shore power to warm the battery pack. That makes driving more efficient for about the first half hour.

If you were just testing, have at it.

If you plan a long day of driving and won't be stopping for more than a brief stop before you need to charge, great. Preconditioning enhanced your initial efficiency so your battery charge lasted longer. Not preconditioning would have meant the battery energy would have been used to warm the battery as you drove. However, much of the warming will come from operating the vehicle so that conditioning should use less electricity than preconditioning does.

However, if you are driving a short distance before stopping for a long time (think, a day at the office) or are just running errands and coming home with more than 25% SOC, there is no benefit to preconditioning your battery. That 35 minutes of 28A boost to heat the battery really only matters if you need to make sure you have maximum range before your next charge.

The same thing occurs with preconditioning en route to a DC Fast Charger. All it does is save you a few minutes that you might not even notice unless you are really pressed for time. That preconditioning requires using electricity you will have to put back in the battery at the charging stop.

That all makes perfect sense.

As stated, I was just satisfying my curiosity about one more aspect of this fascinating machine.

 

[ChasingCoral]

That all makes perfect sense.

As stated, I was just satisfying my curiosity about one more aspect of this fascinating machine.

Good test to run!

 

[Rusky]

And based on a question from a few days ago it appears you may not be able to just set a departure for like an hour from now and have it take effect. Times must be set-up in advance. Probably a server thing. I have no experience myself - just passing this on.

I would like to see a departure on demand command. 30 to 60 minutes before I know I'm leaving I want to be able to tell the car, let's get ready to go.

 

[Snakebitten]

I would like to see a departure on demand command. 30 to 60 minutes before I know I'm leaving I want to be able to tell the car, let's get ready to go.

You can do just that at 61+ minutes and plugged into shore power.

 

[kltye]

The same thing occurs with preconditioning en route to a DC Fast Charger. All it does is save you a few minutes that you might not even notice unless you are really pressed for time. That preconditioning requires using electricity you will have to put back in the battery at the charging stop.

I beg to differ about not noticing and "all it does is save you a few minutes... using electricity that you will have to put back in the battery". Firstly, a few minutes across several charging stops (assuming a trip of ~600 miles) is very noticeable. Secondly, the car will still heat the battery to over 90F while charging, assuming a decently fast charger (200 amps and above). In other words, you can front-load the heating and energy expenditure, or do the heating when charging, but regardless - you're spending energy on heating the pack either way. I'd rather do it beforehand than having the piddly heater trying to heat the pack while charging slowly.

Sponsored