Preconditioning question?

[rescueswimmer]

Hello, Have a question and my google fu could be week or I just could not find the answer. Here is my question. This is our first winter with the car. Its in an insulated garage kept Usually around 45-60* When its below freezing out side. Is there any benefit to preconditioning before she makes her hour long trip, mostly hwy.
Thanks

 

[GtiMart]

Preconditioning the cabin is for your comfort. You can do it if you prefer a 70F cabin than a 45-60F cabin. When you precondition the cabin, the car will only warm the battery if it's under a certain temperature, and that temperature has changed with software updates. Last winter from memory it was in the 45-50F range. In your situation, the car will not heat the battery any further.

Even if it did warm the battery, the only gain would be on efficiency so it's really only useful if you absolutely need the last few miles of range.

 

[rescueswimmer]

Appreciate it. Cabin takes like 2 minutes to heat up if you precondition. I was just curious if it made any real world difference going from the garage to sub freezing.

 

[GtiMart]

If you're doing it while plugged, you *might* be able to recharge as you heat and thus leave home with exactly your set SOC instead of being say 1% lower... Nothing significant.

 

[jcanoe]

If you are charging at home and regularly (daily?) commute then consider Scheduled Departure Charging. With Scheduled Departure Charging the Tesla Model Y will always complete charging just prior to the set departure time. The battery will already be partially warmed from the charging session. This saves energy as the heat pump can use the warm coolant from the battery to help warm the passenger cabin.

When you manually turn on the climate control using the Tesla app this functions the same as Scheduled Departure Preconditioning. Also, if you set the seat heaters (front seat only) to Auto then the seats will be warmed as needed during the preconditioning. You can also have the heated steering wheel turn on during preconditioning.

 

[avs007]

Do you live on a hill? If so, then absolutely it will make a difference. I have an insulated garage as well. Even when it's below freezing outside, it's usually 50-55 degrees in the garage. Even when it's 55 in the garage, setting climate absolutely makes a difference. I know it does because if I don't, I have zero regen going down our hill. If I set the climate at least 45 minutes or more ahead of time, then I will have close to full regen going down our hill. I use scheduled departure as well, but Ill also set climate manually if I have to leave at a different time, rather then changing the scheduled time.

 

[avs007]

If you are charging at home and regularly (daily?) commute then consider Scheduled Departure Charging. With Scheduled Departure Charging the Tesla Model Y will always complete charging just prior to the set departure time.

You are confusing scheduled departure with scheduled charging. Scheduled departure does not affect when charging completes. It will always charge right away, and complete as soon as possible. All scheduled departure does is set the climate so that the cabin and batteries will be at temperature by the scheduled time.

I use scheduled departure.... I've come home with very low SoC. It always completed charging many hours before the scheduled departure time. But it will turn on climate usually 30-60 minutes before departure time, depending on what the ambient temp was.

 

[jcanoe]

You are confusing scheduled departure with scheduled charging. Scheduled departure does not affect when charging completes. It will always charge right away, and complete as soon as possible. All scheduled departure does is set the climate so that the cabin and batteries will be at temperature by the scheduled time.

I use scheduled departure.... I've come home with very low SoC. It always completed charging many hours before the scheduled departure time. But it will turn on climate usually 30-60 minutes before departure time, depending on what the ambient temp was.

I believe your Tesla Model Y begins charging as soon as you plug in the charging connector because you have not set up one of these: A) Scheduled Charging (will start at a certain time each evening) or B) set up Off-peak charging (charging will always complete by the end of the off-peak period, i.e. 0700.)

Agreed, Scheduled Departure is a Climate Control function. You can use Scheduled Departure to precondition the Tesla vehicle on a schedule (Monday through Friday or else every day.) You can set a second, separate Scheduled Departure time using the Tesla app. You can use the second Scheduled Departure time so your Tesla vehicle can be preconditioned for your evening commute. The Tesla Model Y can precondition whether or not the charging cable is plugged in. You can access Scheduled Departure from the Climate Control Settings screen as well as from the Charging settings. The time you specify for Scheduled Departure does not affect the charging schedule.

Scheduled Charging, set under Charging settings, will delay the start of charging until the time you set, i.e. 11PM. Scheduled Charging does not control when charging will complete. Charging will complete when the Tesla vehicle has reached the maximum charge level that you have set, i.e. 80%. Scheduled Charging will not precondition the Tesla vehicle.

Off-peak charging is an option that can be set within the Charging settings. Off-peak charging will automatically calculate when charging must begin so that charging will complete by the set time for the end of the off-peak charging window. To use off-peak charging you enter the end of the off-peak charging window in the Charging settings. (Note: You can use the off-peak charging setting even if your utility does not provide an off-peak rate discount. If you want charging to always complete by the time you leave for your commute, i.e. 7 A.M. then set the off-peak window to end at 0700.) (If you are charging using 120V charging Off-peak charging may start charging as soon as you plug in the charging connector if the Tesla vehicle determines that charging must begin immediately. This is less likely to happen when charging at 240V as charging can begin sometime in the early A.M. and will complete by the end of the off-peak period (Usually the off-peak rate window ends by 0600 or 0700.)

 

[Villainthrpist]

So the Climate Control preconditioning also preconditions the battery? Or is there a separate option for that?

 

[GtiMart]

Yes, preconditioning the cabin will also condition the battery if necessary. The target temperature is much lower than when routing to a supercharger however. You can expect the battery to stabilize at 10-11C (from memory of last year) whereas preconditioning for supercharging will bring it to say 45C. That will be sufficient to get good (but maybe not full) regen. This type of thing can change with software updates so take temperatures as a rough guide.

 

[jcanoe]

So the Climate Control preconditioning also preconditions the battery? Or is there a separate option for that?

Yes, the Climate Control preconditioning will cause the Tesla Model Y to warm the battery if the Tesla vehicle determines that the battery needs to be warmed. When the Tesla Model Y is warming the battery the Tesla app will display a red resistance heat grid icon, (aka three strips of sizzling bacon) next to the battery icon. There is no separate option for controlling battery warming *.

When charging, if the battery is too cold then the Tesla Model Y will first warm the battery before starting to charge. Charging and Supercharging will warm the battery to some degree as generating heat within the battery is a normal byproduct of the charging process.

* After entering the Supercharger location as the destination using the Tesla Navigation System, while enroute to a Supercharger, the Tesla vehicle will start to precondition the battery for Supercharging. As noted, Preconditioning for Supercharging will bring the battery to a higher temperature for optimal (fastest, most efficient) Supercharging.

 

[BobCat]

I have noticed the last couple times that the car didn't precondition when using a scheduled preconditioning. It has worked in the past. I did set up the scheduled preconditioning about 45 minutes before desired time. Does it take longer than that? Temp around 40F.

 

[jcanoe]

I have noticed the last couple times that the car didn't precondition when using a scheduled preconditioning. It has worked in the past. I did set up the scheduled preconditioning about 45 minutes before desired time. Does it take longer than that? Temp around 40F.

You should set scheduled departure preconditioning close to the time you plan to leave. What may have happened is the preconditioning completed, then expired (ended) before you entered the Model Y.

 

[avs007]

I have noticed the last couple times that the car didn't precondition when using a scheduled preconditioning. It has worked in the past. I did set up the scheduled preconditioning about 45 minutes before desired time. Does it take longer than that? Temp around 40F.

You did it wrong... Set the time to the actual time you expect to leave... The car will turn off the climate if you don't leave within 30 minutes of the set time. So if you set it to 45 minutes before you expected to leave, the car turned off the climate 15 minutes before you left, allowing everything to cool back down. If I notice I'm running late, I'll usually go into the phone app and manually turn on camp or dog mode. This way, it will keep everything on, regardless how long I take.

 

[BobCat]

I wasn't clear. I didn't initiate the schedule for departure until about 45 minutes before I had to leave. E.g.: at 9:15AM I scheduled for preconditioning for a departure at 10:00AM.

Another Question: Since I'm retired, I don't need scheduling every day of the week. How do I recommend to Tesla to have the ability to schedule 1 time? So, I don't have to worry about forgetting to schedule before I'm ready to go and don't forget to stop the schedule.

 

[jcanoe]

I wasn't clear. I didn't initiate the schedule for departure until about 45 minutes before I had to leave. E.g.: at 9:15AM I scheduled for preconditioning for a departure at 10:00AM.

Another Question: Since I'm retired, I don't need scheduling every day of the week. How do I recommend to Tesla to have the ability to schedule 1 time? So, I don't have to worry about forgetting to schedule before I'm ready to go and don't forget to stop the schedule.

There are 3rd party apps you can use to setup a custom preconditioning schedule.

Teslafi
Tessie
Watch app for Tesla

I also have no fixed schedule. I will open the Tesla app and turn on the Climate control before putting on my coat. After a while you get a sense of how long you need to precondition before entering the Tesla vehicle. This could be not at all; less than 5 minutes; less than 10 minutes, more than 10 minutes. Preconditioning is all about your comfort and the comfort of your passengers. Your efficiency will improve if your Tesla vehicle is plugged into a 240V circuit while preconditioning. 120V charging happens too slowly to make much difference over the time your Tesla Model Y would be preconditioning. Since I rarely charge at home (I have other charging options that are free) all of the preconditioning when parked in my garage is while the Model Y is unplugged.

 

[BobCat]

There are 3rd party apps you can use to setup a custom preconditioning schedule.

Teslafi
Tessie
Watch app for Tesla

Thank you. This thread has shown me that I still have a lot to learn