What exactly happens when I turn on/up climate control via the app?

[pdx3181]

In an effort to warm up the cabin of my garaged X, I turned on climate control via the app today, and set the temperature to 72.

Within 5 minutes, the cabin temp reads 76 degrees on the app.

(I appreciate it may overshoot the desired temperature in order to speed things up.)

But it made me wonder what else the car is doing.

Is it warming the battery? Will regen be available sooner with a vehicle that's been activated via the app? Or does it simply impact the interior cabin?

 

[NorthofYYZ]

This is my uneducated opinion, as a fairly new owner:

When you activate climate control by the app, it switches on the heater or a/c as requested. Since these are purely electric functions (no motor to warm up before it will produce heat), the effect is quite rapid.

Although putting a draw on the battery will, by definition, warm it to some extent I don't believe that the system actively warms up the battery in response. And I don't think the (relatively) small power draw required to warm up or cool off the cabin will result in any substantial heating of the battery. That's just based on my observations - I don't have an greater insight into how the systems function.

What I've found works for me (though it was more of an exercise in curiosity - I can live with the limited regen for the time it takes the battery to warm up "naturally" under driving load) was to bump up the charge limit and restart charging a while before leaving. For example: if I'm planning to leave at 6 am, and wake up at 5, I will increase the charge limit from 80% to 90% when I wake up and start the car charging. Using my HPWC for that hour seems to warm the battery enough (in 0C / 32F weather) to give full regen when I leave. Charging on the UMC doesn't seem to have the same effect - presumably due to the much lower charge rate.

If Tesla would come up with departure time based charging, this would likely be a non-issue.

 

[GOPJEW]

In an effort to warm up the cabin of my garaged X, I turned on climate control via the app today, and set the temperature to 72.

Within 5 minutes, the cabin temp reads 76 degrees on the app.

(I appreciate it may overshoot the desired temperature in order to speed things up.)

But it made me wonder what else the car is doing.

Is it warming the battery? Will regen be available sooner with a vehicle that's been activated via the app? Or does it simply impact the interior cabin?

No - it does NOT warm the battery - just the cabin. In 3 years I have never seen mine off by more than a degree or so.

NorthofYYZ had a good idea of adding charge just before you leave, so long as you are on HPWC and charging at 80 amps I would think, to warm your battery. However, you are using a good bit of power from the HPWC to warm your battery for what purpose? Regen earlier? You are using more power than regen will produce to achieve that so what is the goal? Lower KW/WHmi as you start?

 

[Xtek]

Almost every time I turn my climate on remotely it overshoots by a lot. I had it set to 70 and it was at 78.

Regarding battery warming, I don't think it does. However, if your Tesla isn't hooked up to shore power (the wall) then it will draw from the battery and the HVAC in Tesla's actually do draw quite a bit of power. It'll warm it up a bit, not a lot but, a bit.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

What I've found works for me (though it was more of an exercise in curiosity - I can live with the limited regen for the time it takes the battery to warm up "naturally" under driving load) was to bump up the charge limit and restart charging a while before leaving. For example: if I'm planning to leave at 6 am, and wake up at 5, I will increase the charge limit from 80% to 90% when I wake up and start the car charging. Using my HPWC for that hour seems to warm the battery enough (in 0C / 32F weather) to give full regen when I leave. Charging on the UMC doesn't seem to have the same effect - presumably due to the much lower charge rate..

Instead of manually changing the charge limit, have you considered just using scheduled charging to set the car to start charging automatically at 5 am?

 

[ShaneX]

though there is an often-quoted thread somewhere that says turning on climate control via app also heats battery, thats not what I've observed.
in even slightly chilly air (5deg C air temperature, but overnight car surfaces can be a lot colder) I've seen the first 30 miles or so with perhaps 450Wh/mile (up from 350Wh/mile rated, which I usually hit). And thats with A/C off. With AC on, easily the first few miles can bet 600Wh/mile).
Turning on A/C before driving is like storing energy a bit, so you can shut it off/down for a bit while the battery warms through normal driving.
Thats my experience. my guess is that as well as a resistive coil, the A/C heaters can also use a waste heat loop from the battery/drivetrain, as soon as they've heated up.
guidance seems to be to push in a little more charge for the hour before driving, that heats battery.

 

[NorthofYYZ]

Instead of manually changing the charge limit, have you considered just using scheduled charging to set the car to start charging automatically at 5 am?

I've thought of it, but it's not uncommon that I have to leave for work early in the morning. Rather than have to consciously adjust the charging schedule to match my planned departure, I just leave it set to begin charging at midnight - that way I know it will be charged fully before my earliest commute. The procedure I described to "bump" up the charge before departure was more of an experiment than something I'd plan on doing regularly. The limited regen isn't a big concern for me - I'm getting on a highway and driving for an hour to work, so it's not generally a factor.