How many watts does A/C use? here's your answer

[L-P-G]

I let my S charge to its selected percentage and then opened my energy monitor to verify there wasn't any more power being pulled from the grid

The Tesla breakers are pulling about 0.016Ax2 (2 breakers) = 0.032A or 32mAh which seems to be the wall connector and its LEDs


At this point in FL inside of my garage it is 94F, I turned on auto condition to Lo which sets the A/C to max

Right off the bat the car starts to use 2.4kW.

Once the temperature inside the car reaches the temp I set it to (which happens to be 60F) the power use drastically goes down to 661w.

When winter comes around to FL i'll update this power consumption for the heat, keep in mind it won't get cold enough for the battery heater to come on.

 

[AMPd]

Very informative, thank you!

 

[Muzzman1]

I've seen my Model S get all the way to 4kw at "LO" and my Model X get to 6.2kw on "LO".
If I remember correct, the heater will do even more damage at about 8kw on "HI"

 

[FlatSix911]

View attachment 185358 I've seen my Model S get all the way to 4kw at "LO" and my Model X get to 6.2kw on "LO".
If I remember correct, the heater will do even more damage at about 8kw on "HI"

Correct, I always use the seat heater rather than cabin heating ... much more efficient

 

[gerti]

Correct, I always use the seat heater rather than cabin heating ... much more efficient

Feel free to visit us in Minnesota, say around the end of January. ;-)

 

[SDRick]

So once to temp, the AC uses the equivalent of about 2 miles of driving per hour?

 

[kort677]

Correct, I always use the seat heater rather than cabin heating ... much more efficient

I agree, I spent 6 weeks in CO this winter and rarely used the heater, the seater heaters kept me comfortable.

 

[David_Cary]

Remember your a/c will use what it needs. This Florida garage while not moving it needs 600W to maintain 60 degrees. That has very little to do with driving in the sun. Obviously solar gain is a big one but even heat from the batteries/drivetrain, heat from the warm bodies in the cabin, and air leakage from the outside as the car moves along at 60 mph.

So interesting info, but don't extrapolate to the real world.

Now do the same thing with 3 people in the car and sitting in noon sun. That helps with 2 of the 4 variables.

 

[L-P-G]

Remember your a/c will use what it needs. This Florida garage while not moving it needs 600W to maintain 60 degrees. That has very little to do with driving in the sun. Obviously solar gain is a big one but even heat from the batteries/drivetrain, heat from the warm bodies in the cabin, and air leakage from the outside as the car moves along at 60 mph.

So interesting info, but don't extrapolate to the real world.

Now do the same thing with 3 people in the car and sitting in noon sun. That helps with 2 of the 4 variables.

That can be done, give me a few days. Also the whole while the car moves you need less power is only because while the car is moving air is flowing through the condenser so the condenser fan doesn't have to run. Back when I was a mechanic we used to spray water on the condenser to simulate driving speeds, a typical condenser fan motor has a 40A relay so at the worst without taking apart the frunk to figure out the amperage draw of the fan you could add 40A to these number and get a rough estimate for driving.

 

[AWDtsla]

Power draw is dependent on the inside/outside temperatures and settings. I've seen it get up to nearly 4kW at max.

 

[L-P-G]

Power draw is dependent on the inside/outside temperatures and settings. I've seen it get up to nearly 4kW at max.

That's correct which is why I did a worst case scenario in FL on July inside a garage. Did you see 4kW on the charging screen like Muzzman1 did? because that number is rounded up so it's not exact either.

 

[AWDtsla]

That's correct which is why I did a worst case scenario in FL on July inside a garage. Did you see 4kW on the charging screen like Muzzman1 did? because that number is rounded up so it's not exact either.

Remote S, battery current draw times estimate battery voltage. It's not rounded.

 

[L-P-G]

Remote S, battery current draw times estimate battery voltage. It's not rounded.

Ok so you're getting it directly off the API, then that number is correct. I don't own anything IOS so I wasn't aware of that.