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AC on Battery

1602 Views 12 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  jcanoe
So I'm at the dealer today in the hope they will update the backfire issue. The SA said it takes a long time (to hook the thing to a computer and walk away???). Anyway, I drained the battery so if they had to go for a joy ride they could experience the issue quickly. I got to wondering with my drained battery about how long the AC would run on almost no battery while sitting at a traffic light. I know a lot of start/stop cars will start the engine after a minute or so sitting with the AC on. So how long will the Volt be able to run the AC at a light if there is effectively no battery left before it starts the engine?
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I don't recall my engine ever starting up at a traffic light to provide power for the A/C, or for any other reason, so whatever buffer they have for that seems to last through traffic lights, at least in my experience.
In frigid temps if I've just recently run out battery and the ICE has not yet warmed up enough to provide waste heat for the cabin, it can be drawing 8 kW for heat at a stoplight. Once or twice at this stupidly long stoplight along my commute the ICE had to kick in. But that's been very rare.
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