Tesla Model 3 Camp Mode Test | How Long Will The Battery Last For in the Winter

[TimothyHW3]

Bjorn Nyland did a test the other day where he said that his camp mode was consuming too much power.

I have used camp mode in the past and I know that his setup was wrong.

I tested camp mode on camera right away at similiar conditions (same or even worse) - my battery was cold and the cabin wasn't pre-heated. I packed the results in the video.

One take from the video - you can't disable the screensaver in camp mode. Even if you turn the screen cleaning mode on.

Pretty stupid feature!

 

[TimothyHW3]

Ah and one more thing. It seems that the car will still run camp mode even if you are below 20%. Not sure for how long though, I was at about 18-19%, but I had the snowflake on.

 

[rrolsbe]

I noticed you did not select
recirculate so it might have been heating outside air?

 

[TimothyHW3]

I noticed you did not select
recirculate so it might have been heating outside air?

Good point, but I never recirculate while sleeping as I obviously want "fresh" air.

Also I was trying to simulate driving conditions too - while driving I almost never recirculate unless the air is bad, because in the winter the windows get foggy. And with that I wanted a real simulation of what the HVAC will consume while driving the car without HVAC set to AUTO or AC.

Still pretty huge difference between the two tests in similiar conditions.

It might be worth it to test again with the recirculate. But this simply isn't something I am interested in, because I will never use it anyways.

 

[rrolsbe]

Thanks for the reply! i live and drive mostly in a very arid climate so fog build up while sleeping in the car would be minimal. i guess you could get some CO2 build up using re-circulation but would not need to worry about any possibility of carbon monoxide like an iCE car.

 

[rrolsbe]

Set to Dog Mode, turned AC off, turned recir on and set manual temp to HI. The current on my DC current probe reached a max of about 19A and the SMT app indicated a battery voltage of about 370V. So 370V * 19A = 7KW. My garage temp was about 50F. The current dropped from the 19A level fairly quickly and I am not sure how accurate my DC current probe is.

 

[TimothyHW3]

Set to Dog Mode, turned AC off, turned recir on and set manual temp to HI. The current on my DC current probe reached a max of about 19A and the SMT app indicated a battery voltage of about 370V. So 370V * 19A = 7KW. My garage temp was about 50F. The current dropped from the 19A level fairly quickly and I am not sure how accurate my DC current probe is.

There is a kW usage in the scan my tesla app. It shows the exact kW usage from the battery.

Also, as far as I remember in my tests from inside the car - dog mode and keep climate on revert back to AC on and Auto as soon as you close the doors and lock them. Or at least in a few minutes. You can try that while inside the car - turn on keep climate on, change the settings, close the doors, lock the car and observe the HVAC screen. You should hear the fans starting to spin highly and keep climate on chaning the settings. I think dog mode works the same. The idea being is that if you set it to manual, it will probably not keep that EXACT desired temp, so Tesla is saying - screw your settings, I am putting the car on auto mode.

I think someone complained to Elon on Twitter about his temp in the car going high even though it was set to manual and they changed it afterwards.

The only way to keep your manual settings is with camp mode.

 

[Kurtbe]

I have tried it once so far. The screen stays on throughout (and thus shines an unwanted light in the car). When I woke up I could not do anything. The camp screen was happily showing the campfire, but there was no way I could do anything else. It took a full hard reset for the car to react again...
I have not dare use it since and have gone back to the "old system": In Model S (2017) go to heating, select "keep heat on" and select the desired temperature and fan speed (setting 1 should do). Then go to security on the main screen and select "Shut down the car". This works fine for me. You wake up the car again by applying some pressure on the drivers' seat.
This consumes about 50km a night in my S 75D in cold night (0 to -3° C) warmer nights only consume about 35km. BUT: I have window screens that I apply all over the car and they will also have an isolating effect which might give a different outcome n cars that do not have the window screens.
I have yet to try air conditioned nights.