I'm in CA and some days the overheat protection uses 10 percent of my battery while I'm at work. I don't mind it being hot in the car when I leave work if it saves me 10 percent battery, but will it damage the inside of the car? I'm a bit confused after reading that article.
About battery drain from COP - yes, it's real.
It was 95+F in NJ today when I left the car parked outside (in direct sunlight) with front windshield sunscreen and fan-only COF running.
It used ~7% of the battery during 4.5 hours.
How does "fan only" mode help keep the interior of the car cool when it's 120 inside?
I've used the air conditioning to do it but does "fan only" really help?
Fan-only mode will keep the interior temp in-line with the exterior/ambient temps.
Which is better than allowing the car's interior heat up as a green house with no air circulation, but not as good actively cooling it. So if it's 100F outside (or 120F), then that's what you will be maintaining inside.
Does it "help"?
Sort-of.
But I had closed the windows and turned AC on a few minutes before getting back into the car. Getting into a 95F car would not be an attractive proposition.
I am in NC and I leave it on (with AC on). Not concerned about it using up the battery since I typically have always enough juice for my back and forth trips from home.
I'm not really concerned about emptying the battery, as much as I don't want to waste it on cooling the car unnecessarily.
I don't actively cool my other cars when those are parked during the summer. I do use sunscreens and crank windows and/or sunroof open on all of them, and have never ever experienced any ill effects from summer heat exposure. Even when I lived in TX.
I had never seriously considered Tesla's interior to be THAT fragile as to require active cooling.
Frankly, if it can't withstand the heat, I might as well allow things to self-destruct and let Tesla SC handle the results under warranty.
If someone has experienced heat-induced interior component failures, please speak up.
Otherwise, I'm disinclined to waste electricity on cooling Tesla interiors while I'm not in them. I will probably stop using COF altogether, and use sunscreen and crank windows open in the future.
YMMV,
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