Remote climate start snafu

[Venk]

Hi Gang,
So on Sunday while shopping at a mall, and my leaf was charging, I turned on the climate control via car wings. I came back to my car with the climate control ON, but my car was also charged to 100% while the timer is set to stop at 80%.

So my question to anyone else who has tried this. If you timer is set at 80 % and the you turn on the climate control via car wings, Does the car start charging beyond the 80% as well as the climate control is turned on?


Thanks
Venk

 

[91040]

Yes.

Hi Gang,
So my question to anyone else who has tried this. If you timer is set at 80 % and the you turn on the climate control via car wings, Does the car start charging beyond the 80% as well as the climate control is turned on?


Thanks
Venk

 

[davewill]

Yes, the climate control can't actually run directly off the 120/240v AC. Instead the car starts charging, and the climate control runs off the battery pack.

 

[DaveL]

I often use this "feature" to get a 90% charge. Just before breakfast, I use my iPhone to turn on the climate control. By the time I finish breakfast and getting ready to go, the car is both warm and about 90% charged!

 

[Stanton]

Didn't know that; thanks for the tip. I think I'll try that one of these mornings.

 

[johnr]

The counterpoint to this is, the climate control will not run when plugged in unless the car is actively charging at the moment.

 

[daggad]

What if the car is charged to 100% by morning and you remotely set on the climate control after that ?

 

[ebill3]

The counterpoint to this is, the climate control will not run when plugged in unless the car is actively charging at the moment.

I guess my car is different. I started climate control remotely when charging had stopped at 80% - no blue lights. The leftmost blue light started flashing, the others remained dark, it did not charge.

Bill

 

[DaveL]

What if the car is charged to 100% by morning and you remotely set on the climate control after that ?

Then the car will turn on the climate control but won't start charging.

According to the manual, if you turn on climate control remotely it will run for 2 hours if plugged in and 15 minutes if not and then will automatically turn off.

Also, unlike the remote Charging feature, once you have remotely turned on the climate control you can then also turn it off. (I just discovered that this afternoon!)

Finally, if you are plugged into a 120V outlet, then it will take longer to heat/cool, and it may not be able to heat/cool the car very well if the outside temp is really cold or hot. 240V EVSE is much more effective in powering climate control.

Edit: I just double checked the manual and according to it:
"Air conditioning is limited to the capacity of the electric power when the charge connector is connected to the vehicle. Therefore, the temperature may not reach a comfortable level due to performance of the air conditioning being limited, if the outside temperature is excessively high or
low, or if the charge connector is connected to a 120V outlet."

However, since the heater uses a LOT more energy I still think that the heater won't work as well on 120V as it will on 240V.

 

[DaveL]

The counterpoint to this is, the climate control will not run when plugged in unless the car is actively charging at the moment.

I guess my car is different. I started climate control remotely when charging had stopped at 80% - no blue lights. The leftmost blue light started flashing, the others remained dark, it did not charge.

Bill

How long did you run Climate control before unplugging it? When you remotely start climate contol only the leftmost blue light flashes even though it can be charging. You have to let it run for 20-30 minutes to get the 11th bar to show on the "fuel gauge" (Li-ion battery available charge gauge). Once the battery is fully charged, the charger stops charging but (according to the manual, page 4-6) continues to provide power to the climate control system.

Dave

 

[lpickup]

What if the car is charged to 100% by morning and you remotely set on the climate control after that ?

Then the car will turn on the climate control but won't start charging.

So it should be technically possible to maintain a given SOC (or possibly even lose some if the heater is running full blast) when using the remote climate control, yet it seems like this is not really supported.

Maybe it doesn't make a big difference, but I had a 50-60%-ish charge and didn't really want to charge up yet, but I did want to pre-heat the cabin. Even more to the point I wanted to have the car plugged in and ready to accept a remote climate control command a few hours later when I was getting ready to use the car. But I don't think it's possible to do that without letting it charge. Fortunately I don't have time of use electricity rates so charging during the day isn't too big a deal (although I didn't really want to unnecessarily "burn" a charging cycle when I didn't really need to), but if my daytime electricity cost more than off-peak, I certainly consider this a shortcoming. My workaround was to set up a timer that didn't start until nighttime so I could plug in and have the car not start charging at that time yet remain ready to pre-heat the cabin. I suppose this is along the lines of what timers are meant for, but (a) it seems a roundabout way to accomplish something fairly simple: plug but provide a way to easily stop the charge and (b) for those that want to set up 24-hour 80% timers so they can do 80% charges from work, etc. this requires overriding the timer. Just a bit kludgy in my opinion.

 

[LEAFfan]

What if the car is charged to 100% by morning and you remotely set on the climate control after that ?

the preheating will take it from your battery pack and lower your soc percentage if you are already 100 percent charged . I only preheated 4 10 minutes and this is what happened .
sent with speech to text