How much battery does A/C use with "keep climate on"?

[D.E.]

This is what I'm talking about. Thanks. I'm thinking about times when I go to the movies, or to lunch, etc... for a couple hours and would rather come out to a cool car then an oven where every surface is hard to touch and it takes 10m for it to become comfortable. If I could just get in and have it be comfortable that would be awesome.

I just turn on the A/C when I’m headed back to the car. It cools very quickly.

 

[brkaus]

I just turn on the A/C when I’m headed back to the car. It cools very quickly.

I’ll leave on if I’m going in for a few minutes. Never for a long time. Leaving it on for hours is going to use far more electricity and more wear and tear on the compressor.

 

[SSonnentag]

Max AC power usage is 6kW I think. I'd estimate that at 90-deg F, in full sun, with the climate set at 70-deg you'll go through 2kWh/hr.
At 115-deg F, full sun, 70-deg climate setting, I'd guestimate more like 5kWh/hr.

 

[Aguiarrj01]

If you use the "keep climate on" option on a hot day 90F+ how much battery do you lose while it's parked? I've seen a few videos/tests about what it does when using the heat, but I can't seem to find any similar tests with the A/C. I don't really care about the cold much, but I like being cool in the summer. Just wondering if leaving the climate on all the time is a viable option?

I just tested this in a hot day of summer in Houston Texas, here are my results.

experiment setting:
Vehicle: Model S 2021 (pre-refresh) Long Range
temp target setting: 72 F
Used metallic sun screens in all windows (bought at Walmart) except ceiling.

Results:
12:01pm: outside 90F. Inside 112F. Range 219

12.37pm: outside 95F. Inside 72. Range: 212 miles.

4.20pm: outside 97F. Inside 72F. Range: 168 miles.

so it seems like holding the cabin temperature at a 25F difference (cooler than the outside) for 260 minutes costed 51 miles of range. Or 5min:6seconds per mile of range (in these settings), or put in a different way: about 12 miles of range per hour of cooling in these settings.

 

[SSonnentag]

If you're going to be away from the car for an extended period of time (more than 15 minutes), you're much better off only using cabin overheat protection. That will keep your car down to around 105 degrees F or so, and the car cools very quickly from that temperature once you get back to your car. I live in one of the harshest summer environments on planet earth (Yuma, Arizona) where summer temperatures routinely top 115 degrees. Under those conditions, cabin overheat protection uses roughly 1kWh per hour of daytime use in my Model S. In our X, it's about 1.5 kWh/hr. The Model 3 should be <1 kWh/hr, perhaps 0.75 or so.