Battery drain in Phoenix during summer?

[Zeromus-X]

Getting ready to move from northern California to Phoenix. The apartment complex I'll be renting at has a number of EV chargers onsite, one of the main perks of going there. However, there will be no power when using covered parking, and I hate to camp out at an uncovered EV charger that isn't visible from my house (i.e. security camera) all the time. The garages don't have outlets either, so I didn't bother with one.

At my house here in California I've always had the ability to leave the car plugged in to a 20A plug. It does get cold here sometimes, and it isn't unusual if I forget to plug in to come out to the car with a few percent less than I left it with. I'm not worried about the cold in Phoenix, but more worried about the heat in summer. I'd like to leave cabin overheat protection turned on, but how much drain do you experience in the summer days with that enabled and without the car being plugged in? Would hate to get ready for work and walk downstairs to a nice cool dead car.

Any advice on keeping the leather seats from cracking in the Phoenix heat would be great too. I'm on the fence about renting a garage, not sure if it's worth the extra $100+/month versus covered parking until I actually get there.

 

[MileHighMotoring]

How long is your commute? Maintaining temperature in any extreme situation certainly uses some juice and reduces range, but it's not like it cuts it in half.

I'd buy a highly-rated tub of leather conditioner wipes from Amazon and give the seats some love every month or two if you're concerned about cracking. That keeps them moistened and clean.

 

[Barry]

Since cabin overheat protection is set to keep the interior below 105F, you're going to have about 4 months of A/C running constantly during daylight hours! Personally, I'd turn it off and keep the car in the shade after you're done charging.

 

[arcus]

Since cabin overheat protection is set to keep the interior below 105F, you're going to have about 4 months of A/C running constantly during daylight hours! Personally, I'd turn it off and keep the car in the shade after you're done charging.

Cabin overheat protection is just a safety measure, not an excuse for absent-minded parents. If you are going to leave the car in the parking lot while you are at work the whole day, just turn it off.

As far as battery drain in hot temps, it is negligible. Don't worry about it. Even with A/C set to comfortable values you won't experience any dramatic range losses as compared to winter driving.

 

[dweeks]

I've parked my Model S on the roof of parking garages at Sky Harbor in mid-June with daily temps round 115F.

The battery cooling system runs quite a lot, and I've seen range loss of up to 8 miles per day.

When it's cooler, say around 70-80, range loss is much, much less.

 

[Don TLR]

Get some good UV tint on the windows, I park in the garage at home and work but notice its no where near as hot as the girls car out in the sun with sub-par factory tint on her car.

 

[MyJoule]

I too have parked in the garage in PHX in the summer with Cabinet overheat both on and off- From what I experienced, the cabin overheat only works for the first day or so then the car is put into a deeper sleep- The battery protection does keep going on, but the cabin overheat stops- unless they have changed the algorithm. I left it once for 10 days and the range loss was about 40 miles in that 10 days- and in the fall it was more like 20 miles in 10 days. I'm sure that if you have your car in the sun in the summer and you use it frequently, there will be range usage of more than 3 miles per day to keep the battery and the cabin cool- With all the superchargers coming on line in the PHX area, you probably won't let the car discharge too much before recharging anyway- Of course the best answer is get charging where you live and keep the car plugged in- as I think I read somewhere once, A happy Tesla is a plugged in Tesla.

 

[RatRace]

A whole day in the summer with everything connected and pre-conditioning on and overheat protection I lose around 5%. Cold actually is alot worse on draining.

I suggest getting your windows tinted with the best UV tint. I also suggest getting your front windshield tinted with a UV film(lightest you can go which is pretty much just a film) to help keep the A/C from working so hard during the summer. I also recommended getting your car detailed or waxed to ensure your paint is protected as the summer heat and once in a while haboobs can wreak havoc on your paint. Leather just needs to be conditioned every once in a while and it survives pretty good.

Highly recommend covered or garage parking...

Telsa recommended keeping your car plugged in I believe to help with battery conditioning.

FYI, we also have alot of rocks on the freeway that like to jump up and kiss your windshield, suggest getting window shield coverage on that as well. We are a no fault state when it comes to windshields so it takes alot for an insurance to drop you from that coverage or up it. I am currently on my 3rd windshield in the past year and it looks like i have a star chart on it.

BTW, welcome to Phoenix!

 

[Zeromus-X]

A whole day in the summer with everything connected and pre-conditioning on and overheat protection I lose around 5%. Cold actually is alot worse on draining.

I suggest getting your windows tinted with the best UV tint. I also suggest getting your front windshield tinted with a UV film(lightest you can go which is pretty much just a film) to help keep the A/C from working so hard during the summer. I also recommended getting your car detailed or waxed to ensure your paint is protected as the summer heat and once in a while haboobs can wreak havoc on your paint. Leather just needs to be conditioned every once in a while and it survives pretty good.

Highly recommend covered or garage parking...

Telsa recommended keeping your car plugged in I believe to help with battery conditioning.

FYI, we also have alot of rocks on the freeway that like to jump up and kiss your windshield, suggest getting window shield coverage on that as well. We are a no fault state when it comes to windshields so it takes alot for an insurance to drop you from that coverage or up it. I am currently on my 3rd windshield in the past year and it looks like i have a star chart on it.

BTW, welcome to Phoenix!

Thanks! I lived in Phoenix for years before coming to NorCal, so I'm very familiar with the rocks all of the freeway (ugh), the hail that decides to crack your windshield during a thirty second storm (ugh), and the dust storms wreaking havoc on paint (ugh). But, I didn't have the Tesla then, so the worst I had to worry about was my gas tank literally becoming so hot that it exploded for no reason.

I'll have covered parking when I'm not plugged into a charger. To answer an earlier question, my commute is 0 -- I work from home 90% of the time, and the rest of the time might be 20-30 miles -- so it's really just a matter of making sure the battery is available when I want to go somewhere. I figure I'll just charge it to 90% one day which should get me through the week. I was just worried that the heat did the same thing the cold does, you come out an hour later and you're 10% down!

 

[Evoforce]

Mine parks in the sun and loses about 3 to 5ish miles per day in the summer. With your situation it will be a piece of cake. I leave the cabin overheat off. Welcome back!

 

[ZBB]

I’m a Phoenix native that moved from AZ to OH last summer...

My Model S had 4 summers in Phoenix heat. I never once worried about battery loss while parked, although I keep the cabin overheat switch off (and that is a relatively new feature...). The real impact I noticed was the first 5 min when driving the car after parking outside when temps were over 110 - I’d notice about 5 extra miles of range loss during the first 5 min of driving while the car and battery cooled down. After that, it went back to normal.

Contrast that with cold, which I’m experiencing this month (temps have been only above freezing for a couple days, with some below zero mornings). I’m noticing that I’m using about 50% more range than normal to go the same distance! Since moving to OH, I had been averaging 280-290 Wh/M (similar to AZ). This month is averaging about 350...

 

[wsxedc12]

Will using a cover on the car works?