Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Impact of air conditioning on driving range?

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I'm in inland San Diego county so air conditioning is a must for me. I'm wondering how much air conditioning draws from the battery and affects driving range. I guess the heater would also draw a lot of energy, so same question for heater as well. And which you think draws more. Thanks in advance.
 
Other threads have said that the heater draws much more than the AC. Along with heating the cabin, it needs to heat the battery if it is really cold. I haven't done a measurement, but the AC does seem to use more energy, just from casual observation. I have read that it does also. Makes sense. 7.0 is supposed to make AC more efficient. No mention about heating.
 
I'm in inland San Diego county so air conditioning is a must for me. I'm wondering how much air conditioning draws from the battery and affects driving range. I guess the heater would also draw a lot of energy, so same question for heater as well. And which you think draws more. Thanks in advance.

Have Photosync installed and it will make a big difference in both comfort while driving and the energy usage of the A/C

I have 3M on my Mercedes and while Photosync has performed better, when I drive to San Diego it has made a huge huge difference in the trip. When I had it installed I was able to change the A/C setting up by 4 degrees and be comfortable and it the fan level was never as high as it was before.

Just having a side window partially down when the sun is hitting it I feel such a massive difference in different parts of my face.
 
I have found A/C energy usage to be minimal, even without tint on humid 100 degree days. Driving with the windows open has a much larger impact. I like to drive with the windows open, but if I'm stretching my miles for the day, I'll close them and run the A/C instead.
 
I don't think Tesla splits out power consumption, but on the Nissan Leaf, they do. Power draw for air-con will start out at about 3.5 kW and then drop to something like 300-500 W once the cabin temp stabilizes. If you're taking a bunch of short trips around town, the HVAC never gets a chance to get to its low-power mode, so you could take a decent hit on range. If you're on a long trip and the cabin temp gets stabilized, you may add something like 5-10 Wh/mile to your consumption at highway speeds. In other words, as others have said, it's nothing to be real concerned about
 
On a 32-mile trip in my S60 with A/C at a moderate setting, an additional 3-4 miles are consumed from the rated range. It is not an energy hog. However, the heating system is another story. This past winter on a typical round trip from home to work (65 miles), there was nearly a 40-mile loss in range. Cabin temperature was set to 65 and fan speed to 3. The heater power consumption can be quite high. After almost 3-years of ownership, it is one of my main pet peeves (along with the short sun visor).