Yes & no you are not doing anything wrong.Is my assumption wrong or am I doing something wrong?
I was under the impression starting the car while it's plugged in would not use up my charge but I noticed it has.
Is my assumption wrong or am I doing something wrong?
The electric heat can draw about 7kW (including blower fans, pumps, etc.) The electric A/C can draw almost 5 (including the radiator fan.) At 12 amps, a 110V wire is delivering ~1.3kW, some of which is lost in conversion to DC. Even the 220V line at 15 amps is only 3.3kW.I was under the impression starting the car while it's plugged in would not use up my charge but I noticed it has.
Is my assumption wrong or am I doing something wrong?
Correct.Preconditioning can still use battery even with the 240v charger. It's just a question of how fast it gets put back in.
Genghis,I was under the impression starting the car while it's plugged in would not use up my charge but I noticed it has.
Is my assumption wrong or am I doing something wrong?
I disagree that when you precondition remotely that you will not gain the full benefit of the whatever heat the car can produce if the climate control is set to fan onlyjust to be clear, "preconditioning" means the remote start thing either from the key fob or the myvolt.com/app thing.
it sounds like the original poster here meant actually getting into the car and pressing the power on button? but yes that will use power too, same as a remote precondition start will. (maybe less because with an explicit power on you have control over the climate settings and could have it on Fan Only perhaps)
Thanks for clarifying, Ian. This lines up with what I've observed with some battery energy being used up after a remote start even when on a 240V EVSE. (I can also attest to the fact that you get heat during a remote start even if you left the climate controls on Fan Only.)The cabin heater on the Volt will use up to 5 kW of power. If the vehicle is started or preconditioned while plugged in, the 120v cord will provide 1 kW from the electrical grid, and a 240v cord will provide 3 kW from the grid. The Volt will not limit itself to the available grid energy for pre-conditioning.
I hope this answers your question. Let me know if I can be of any further assistance.
-Ian Chevrolet Volt Customer Service
You got it right. I did that all the time this winter. There are various threads about related subjects here if you search. Just yesterday someone reposted a link to a diagram of how the Volt's various heating/cooling systems/radiators work together, showing a bypass switch that lets heat from the engine, when the engine's hot, warm up the liquid in the passenger cabin heating system. When the engine is off/cold, the switch toggles off so the passenger cabin heater (electric) doesn't accidentally just try to heat up the engine!does the ICE provide cabin heat if used? meaning if I drive my first few minutes im HOLD mode am I still operating the 5Kw strip heat or am I going to use heat from the ICE? then switch to Normal drive mode where stored heat can help hold cabin temperature? since a lot of an ICE operation produces heat, i just wonder if running it in the beginning of a trip helps with heat and then you can switch to Normal mode and utilize the stored heat instead of the 5Kw strip heat.
-Christopher