Scheduled Departure for AM Commute---uses more than saves?

[gregtopf]

Re-adjusting to my M3. Back when I had my MS in 2017 this wasn't even available...

So scheduled departure. Used it this morning. Leave at 5 AM, so set that as my departure time. Car was nice and toasty and happy. But looking at the numbers, I don't know if it's worth it.

It looks like the car used approximately 8% charge, or approximately 22 miles of range to precondition. My entire drive to work is 12 miles. Seems a little backwards to use 22 miles of range to prepare for a 12 mile trip? Even if my efficiency is down 50% due to the cole, I would effectively use 24 miles of range on my 12-mile drive as opposed to 22 for preconditioning plus 12 of actual drive = 36 miles of range?

I don't know, maybe I'm not understanding something here, or maybe preconditioning is only effective for long trips, not short morning drives?

 

[Kimmi]

I am glad to live where 60F is
cold.

 

[gregtopf]

I am glad to live where 60F is
cold.

Yeah. NJ is cold (teens) but not frigid. I lived in Vermont for 6 years. That qualified as cold to me!

 

[DarrenHD]

Re-adjusting to my M3. Back when I had my MS in 2017 this wasn't even available...

So scheduled departure. Used it this morning. Leave at 5 AM, so set that as my departure time. Car was nice and toasty and happy. But looking at the numbers, I don't know if it's worth it.

It looks like the car used approximately 8% charge, or approximately 22 miles of range to precondition. My entire drive to work is 12 miles. Seems a little backwards to use 22 miles of range to prepare for a 12 mile trip? Even if my efficiency is down 50% due to the cole, I would effectively use 24 miles of range on my 12-mile drive as opposed to 22 for preconditioning plus 12 of actual drive = 36 miles of range?

I don't know, maybe I'm not understanding something here, or maybe preconditioning is only effective for long trips, not short morning drives?

Are you plugged in overnight? I would have thought the car would pull the power from the wall, or maybe it's still not enough. Not sure if you are using L1 or L2...

 

[brucet999]

Yeah. NJ is cold (teens) but not frigid. I lived in Vermont for 6 years. That qualified as cold to me!

Cold is where you have to carry an axe with you to take a leak outdoors - so you can chop off the stream at the source.

 

[cypho]

It is useful for when you don't want to climb into a cold car. It was -20F this morning here. I would gladly trade 200 miles of range to be greeted by a toasty cabin.

 

[Rocky_H]

But looking at the numbers, I don't know if it's worth it.

It definitely isn't.

I don't know, maybe I'm not understanding something here, or maybe preconditioning is only effective for long trips, not short morning drives?

Depends on what you mean by "effective". It's not efficient for either of those, but it's "effective" at what it's supposed to do.

Car was nice and toasty and happy.

And that's it. YOU were toasty and happy. It's supposed to give you a nice warm, fuzzy, cozy, comfortable, happy feeling. It is definitely not for efficiency and wastes a lot of energy.

 

[gregtopf]

Are you plugged in overnight? I would have thought the car would pull the power from the wall, or maybe it's still not enough. Not sure if you are using L1 or L2...

I didn't leave it plugged in that night, which I'm glad about. I'd rather not have used that much wall power to have the car preheating for an hour for a 20 minute drive.

I'm going to pass on using this for the moment then. I can wake the car a few minutes before I leave manually and it will be warm enough for me without letting it preheat for an hour!

 

[GtiMart]

Others have come to the same conclusion, as I have. Preconditioning, where most of the energy is used to heat the battery, for short trips isn't worth it. You do it if you want full power and good regen. I preheat the cabin just a few minutes before I leave to reduce this expense.

 

[davewill]

It depends on how much you value having a warm car, and how much electricity costs in your area. I don't get the idea that you wouldn't want to "use that much wall power". Power is power whether it comes from your battery or is used directly from the wall. It should be more efficient used directly from the wall rather than charging the battery then using it from there.

An alternate would be to use your phone to start warming the car closer to when you are actually ready to leave.

 

[gregtopf]

. I don't get the idea that you wouldn't want to "use that much wall power". Power is power whether it comes from your battery or is used directly from the wall. It should be more efficient used directly from the wall rather than charging the battery then using it from there.

OK, I probably should have phrased that a bit differently. I don't want to use that much power. Definitely doesn't matter where it comes from.

I've been OK with just flipping on the climate ten minutes before I leave. It's been A-OK for me.

 

[arghx7]

Pre conditioning is for convenience. To all the people who want to warm up their battery to max out regen on their drive: from an energy efficiency standpoint, the numbers don't add up in most cases.

 

[Gasaraki]

Re-adjusting to my M3. Back when I had my MS in 2017 this wasn't even available...

So scheduled departure. Used it this morning. Leave at 5 AM, so set that as my departure time. Car was nice and toasty and happy. But looking at the numbers, I don't know if it's worth it.

It looks like the car used approximately 8% charge, or approximately 22 miles of range to precondition. My entire drive to work is 12 miles. Seems a little backwards to use 22 miles of range to prepare for a 12 mile trip? Even if my efficiency is down 50% due to the cole, I would effectively use 24 miles of range on my 12-mile drive as opposed to 22 for preconditioning plus 12 of actual drive = 36 miles of range?

I don't know, maybe I'm not understanding something here, or maybe preconditioning is only effective for long trips, not short morning drives?

Why would you use that when you are not plugged in?
Also yes, it only is worth it if you are going a long distance.

 

[Gasaraki]

It is useful for when you don't want to climb into a cold car. It was -20F this morning here. I would gladly trade 200 miles of range to be greeted by a toasty cabin.

The cabin warms up in like 5 mins. No need to set the scheduled departure in that case. Just use the app when you are ready to leave the house.

 

[JGMiddlebrooks]

For a new owner (i.e., me) this still sounds confusing. I think the bottom line takeaway is scheduled departure (which has an element of preconditioning) is best used for longer commutes. But for a short commute, just heat up the cabin via mobile app a few minutes before leaving and don't worry about maxing out the region recovery, etc.

Am I interpreting this correctly?

 

[GtiMart]

None of this is important if it'S confusing you. Just use whatever you prefer. For those that are willing to dig into it and optimize things, and that live in cold enough areas so that it makes a difference: preheating also preheats the battery, which costs energy. Not worth it for short drives, worth it for longer. preheating the battery gives back lost power (to cold), lost regen, and will help fast charge at superchargers.

 

[Kimmi]

At what temperatures should one consider preconditioning the battery before driving? Never below 40F where I live. Asking for road trips to the mountains. Not concerned about preheating the cabin.

 

[GtiMart]

Below 20C (70F) you start losing some regen, and you have none at 0C (32F) (approx temps). When getting that low you will also start losing acceleration power. Since you're never under 40F, you'll always have a minimum of regen and should gain the rest while driving, especially in the mountains where the motors will work harder, cause good regen etc. Not necessary. If you do preheat, you won't spend too much energy since the battery is already warmish.

 

[leonar40]

I also do not use scheduled preconditioning, I manually precondition the car 10-15 minutes before I leave in the morning. Warms the car to 68 deg and turns the drivers heated seat on (set to level 1), that's perfect for me.

I do wish there was a feature in the app that allowed you to program in a time to just turn on the HVAC, not do the full preconditioning cycle. I leave at 0625-0630 every morning, I'd like the HVAC to turn on automatically at 0615 every morning. Oh well.

 

[michaelnorbert]

I use scheduled departure, it costs me about $.01/minute. I also like to use dog mode when I go in the grocery store and it's snowing out. Saves me from cleaning the car off.