I was under the impression that the cars heating system should be on for a little bit before driving in cold weather in order to avoid loss of Regen and to rid the car of the "snowflake"
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Charging beyond 90% daily
- Thread starter Turlejay
- Start date
I was under the impression that the cars heating system should be on for a little bit before driving in cold weather in order to avoid loss of Regen and to rid the car of the "snowflake"
Yes it certainly is. I warm mine up for 5-10 minutes(at the most). However, I see owner after owner in this forum who says to heat the car up for 30+ minutes so they can capture more regen and have the battery properly pre-heated. I find that absurd.
Would you say the same for the morning too? I ask because I don't think the charger actually keeps up with the heat on full blast. I'd much rather only need 10 minutes in the morning than 30-45 minutes
Yes I totally agree with that. The discharge when I'm blasting heat while plugged in is faster than the shore power can keep up with. Maybe we're strange with these experiences, but I've found 5-10 minutes gets the car plenty warm and I firmly believe it's the most energy-efficient way to run the car. Using power costs money. You're either pulling it directly from the shore, or depleting the battery that you have to pay to charge later.
ElectricIAC
Good-Natured Rascal
The inside does warm up super fast even in the coldest of temps. It's really the battery I'm more concerned with.
if heating the cabin costs 3kw or so, 30 minutes of that is is 1.5kwh, or, less than 15 cents in cash money. not really much in any sense.
i dont know about the efficiency curve, but actually driving the car at temperature means less energy used and more potential energy captured, so that also offsets the negligible cost of pre-heating.
To be candid, a SR+ does not have enough range for her needs. Cutting it close like that is just too stressful, and it will only get worse as the battery degrades. She better not make any stops on the way home or she's cutting it even closer. It's just not a sustainable solution. What if she gets stuck in a big snow storm related traffic? She's going to dread every winter. She needs a long range car, or she needs charging at work (rolling the dice on whether supercharging is needed isn't sustainable either) or you need to drive the Tesla and she needs to drive an ICE, at least in the winter.
Due to battery degradation and all the little situations that might require a side trip after work she is only going to get increasingly dissatisfied with the situation. You might as well address it soon.
If you only need to do it a few weeks a year I think you'll be fine doing 95%
But if you are down to 10% when it's 0F out, routinely, sooner or later you're gonna run into trouble (snow or traffic).
I'm kind of surprised you can't do the round trip in cold weather with enough Margin.
What model SR? Surely a LR would do this in a breeze even in extreme cold.
Make sure Sentry if Off and Summon Standby is off while it's parked all day.
Don't waste range on preconditioning when not plugged in.
Model 3 heats cabin extremely fast, it's just not needed and will only reduce your range.
While plugged in, precondition all you want, but it is wasteful on energy.
If you need range, charge based on departure time to 90% (or even higher) you should be fine.
This is more costly on energy too. Ideally charge the when arriving home on a warm battery.
But if you need the range use the departure time charging.
I think you get warnings below 20%. And I think 20% is a good warning mark for cold weather driving.
In case you get stuck in snow or traffic. 10% is not enough of a SAFETY Margin in cold weather.
I'm talking about safety for your wife, not the battery.
But if you are down to 10% when it's 0F out, routinely, sooner or later you're gonna run into trouble (snow or traffic).
I'm kind of surprised you can't do the round trip in cold weather with enough Margin.
What model SR? Surely a LR would do this in a breeze even in extreme cold.
Make sure Sentry if Off and Summon Standby is off while it's parked all day.
Don't waste range on preconditioning when not plugged in.
Model 3 heats cabin extremely fast, it's just not needed and will only reduce your range.
While plugged in, precondition all you want, but it is wasteful on energy.
If you need range, charge based on departure time to 90% (or even higher) you should be fine.
This is more costly on energy too. Ideally charge the when arriving home on a warm battery.
But if you need the range use the departure time charging.
I think you get warnings below 20%. And I think 20% is a good warning mark for cold weather driving.
In case you get stuck in snow or traffic. 10% is not enough of a SAFETY Margin in cold weather.
I'm talking about safety for your wife, not the battery.
Not everyone gets electricity for 0.08 / kWh either. Not only is it wasteful your reducing your range. Model 3 is comfy in 5 minutes.
I agree -- if you are not plugged in and charging then 5- 15 minutes is more than plenty to heat the cabin of the car even on the coldest days.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
Could be as much as a brisk headwind both ways due to bad luck. Makes a huge difference.
Drafting behind other traffic (at a safe distance), especially when there is a headwind, makes a large positive difference (the reason why Mythbusters found it didn't was probably because they started with a much less efficient car). It's good to tuck in behind someone with an SUV (with mudflaps) at a safe distance going the speed you want to go.
Other than that, it does overall seem a bit marginal in winter conditions. The issue is going to be next winter when you may have 10% less energy available to use. But definitely for as long as possible, just charge to ~100% as needed, just before leaving, on those super cold days; it'll very likely be fine.
I’ve only ever seen the warning when projected arrival charge went below about 10%. But I think if you are pretty close to your destination it will require cutting it even tighter before it will tell you to slow down (makes sense....). It’s possible that if you suddenly start going 90mph it might warn you at 20% before the trip planner can adjust to the new arrival charge completely.
AlanSubie4Life
Efficiency Obsessed Member
There's no reason to do this. It's for convenience & comfort only. The car will work just fine when frozen. Obviously you'll have to use the brakes to slow down but that's an optional thing - you typically don't have to use the brakes if you adjust your driving style accordingly. Arguably driving that way will actually be more efficient than normal driving using regen since there is no energy slosh.
This was on my Model X, as soon as I crossed 20% mark the battery turned yellow and it put up a mild warning, like you might want to limit speed or get to a charger soon. I forget. This was not at high speed or anything. It was pretty cold out like 4F and heat blasting (to stay comfortable).
People talking about heating blankets etc. are nuts.
I assume no one wants to go back and read pages and pages of this post and for some reason I can't edit the original one. As of right now there's more than enough range after tinkering a bit.
As far as addressing a longer range vehicle, we ordered the sr+ at the recommendation of Tesla. We were basically made to believe as I said before that the long range was only available of we also bought awd. Obviously I shouldn't have relied soley on the employees of the manufacturer and should have leaned on the community at the time. Would have happily ordered a LR RWD. Lastly, our return period was voided according to Tesla when I asked because we got an instant rebate from NYS. All that being said, I think we are OK now. It was pretty cold yesterday and she drove to work, took a detour of about 10 minutes off her route to pick me up, then we stopped another ten minutes off the route. When we got home we still had 20% battery available. I'm fine with that.
As far as addressing a longer range vehicle, we ordered the sr+ at the recommendation of Tesla. We were basically made to believe as I said before that the long range was only available of we also bought awd. Obviously I shouldn't have relied soley on the employees of the manufacturer and should have leaned on the community at the time. Would have happily ordered a LR RWD. Lastly, our return period was voided according to Tesla when I asked because we got an instant rebate from NYS. All that being said, I think we are OK now. It was pretty cold yesterday and she drove to work, took a detour of about 10 minutes off her route to pick me up, then we stopped another ten minutes off the route. When we got home we still had 20% battery available. I'm fine with that.
Having lived here for almost a decade and driving in the weather, I'm confident in this cars ability as a rwd heavy vehicle.
She left work today with 125 miles range. I think we figured it out. Thank you everyone. I love this community
ElectricIAC
Good-Natured Rascal
To add fuel to this, I did a test today leaving at 90% and arrived at work with the same battery level as if I’d left with 95%. Same conditions and driving style.
Regen is a huge factor!
Regen is a huge factor!
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