[Cutaway]

So, I tried to apply the tip from this forum by pre-warming the car (remote start) while the cord is plugged in (to save on EV range). Good news is that it was nice to get into a heated car. Bad news is that EV ranged dropped by 7 miles from this pre-warming.

Here is what I think happened. True?

1. Car is set to be charged by 6 am (i.e. delayed charge).
2. Car was charged 100% by 6 am
3. Car is remote started at 6:15 am
4. Car runs the heater
5. Car is started by driver at 6:25 am

Did the car not charge it because of the delayed started setting? Thanks.

James

 

[lagagnon]

That's normal. Pre-heating consumes a bit more juice than even a Level2 charger can provide. I find the recovery period back to full charge is about 5 minutes. However, using pre-warming with Level 1 (120V) charging makes no sense because it can take 45-50 minutes to recover the full charge afterwards.

 

[marcusm]

So, I tried to apply the tip from this forum by pre-warming the car (remote start) while the cord is plugged in (to save on EV range). Good news is that it was nice to get into a heated car. Bad news is that EV ranged dropped by 7 miles from this pre-warming.

Here is what I think happened. True?

1. Car is set to be charged by 6 am (i.e. delayed charge).
2. Car was charged 100% by 6 am
3. Car is remote started at 6:15 am
4. Car runs the heater
5. Car is started by driver at 6:25 am

Did the car not charge it because of the delayed started setting? Thanks.

James

Are you using level one (120V) charging? It doesn’t input enough current to make up for the heater’s draw. Level 2 almost does. Only takes about 10 minutes to recover for level two which is one of the big advantages of using level two at home.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[obermd]

That's normal. Pre-heating consumes a bit more juice than even a Level2 charger can provide. I find the recovery period back to full charge is about 5 minutes. However, using pre-warming with Level 1 (120V) charging makes no sense because it can take 45-50 minutes to recover the full charge afterwards.

I pre-warm my Volt even on Level 1. If you don't need the full battery range there's no reason to get into a cold car.

 

[Cord]

check the green charge light to see if the car did start charging during that time.

but as stated above at 120 volt charging you need more time to replace the power.

 

[wordptom]

Yes, it is in the manual. Here’s what is said in the Remote Start section (taken from the 2016 Volt owner manual):

"Vehicle range may decrease if the vehicle is not plugged into an electrical outlet. If the vehicle is plugged in, much of the energy needed to support this feature will be provided from the electrical outlet, not from the high voltage battery."

True, that language is a bit unclear when it says "much of the energy needed... will be provided from the electrical outlet..." "Much" is not "all."

The manual could better clarify that the portion of energy provided from the electrical outlet for preconditioning depends on the level of charging you are using. When preconditioning the car using 120 volt charging, the lower rate of energy being drawn from the wall socket (compared to 240 volt charging) means more of the energy needed to precondition the car will be pulled from the battery. This can reduce the ev range if insufficient time to recharge the battery to "full" again remains after the preconditioning is complete.

By the by, the center console’s energy usage screen display is reset when the battery is fully recharged. When you start the car, if the miles/km readings are reset to zero, the battery was fully recharged before the preconditioning drew some power and reduced the range (and perhaps some "kWh Used" will be showing). If the preconditioning is ended in time for the battery to be topped off again to "fully charged," this recharging to full should also reset the kWh Used to zero.

 

[Cutaway]

Thanks for all the responses. Y'all are insightful and patient. Cheers.

 

[VoltAP1]

Knowing charging rate makes it very simple.

Full bore preconditioning when cold takes ~7-8 kW for 10 mins.

L1 @ 12 amps is ~1.4 kW, L1 @ 8 amps is ~1 kW. L2 @ 12 amps (factory charger at 240 V) is ~2.9 kW, L2 @ 16 amps is 3.6 kW.

You can see all these charging rates are below the heater draw during preconditioning.


FWIW, I notice after ~6-8 mins of preconditioning that my car has used ~300 watt/hr of power while charging at ~2.9 kW (seems closer to 3 kW actually) on the stock charger at 240 volts. So it loses a tiny amount of range, but not enough to really notice. On L1 it would typically chew up over 1 kWh more than the charger could provide.

 

[broadstone]

The car will start recharging even if on delayed charge with departure time setting. The difference is that it seems to use up something like 5-7kw for 10min, but you're only going to charge at 1 or 1.5kw on level 1 and up to 3.3kw for most on L2. I've found it takes up to 30min to recover on L1. It tends to stay quite toasty in a garage, just make sure you've turned off gas engine use while plugged in in the settings.

 

[jcanoe]

My experience with preconditioning my 2017 Volt using Level 2 charging at 16 amps is the battery SOC deficit after a 10 minute preconditioning period is 0.6 - 0.8 kWh. Even extending preconditioning for an additional 10 minutes only resulted in a SOC deficit of ~1.2 kWh. The electric cabin heating unit can draw up to 9kW but quickly settles down to draw 6 - 7 kW, then 3 - 4 kW.

 

[Saint]

If you left it at eco the pre heating is slow, it will recover faster or may not even tap battery power. If is is at max or none it will pre heat at full power.