watching a drivein movie in a leaf.

[gozer]

Here goes. I want to take the family to the drivein movies. We went there once years ago and left about half way through because of mosquitoes... Billions and billions of them. Now that we have this lovely little car ,I'd like to try it again since it has a/c and we dont have to leave the engine running. My wife is paranoid about battery life, she thinks the HV battery will not run the a/c for about 2 hours. I think this will not be a problem. The car will have approx 80% SOC when the movie starts. Whadaya think? Its a 2022 40kwh.

 

[Chad E. Mo]

I think the back seat is too small for a drive in theater.

Presuming you have the a/c on while driving to the theatre, it will be cooled down enough to use little power while parked... 200-300 watts maybe. (Also presuming it will be night time, so little solar gain through the windows.)

 

[gozer]

Yes, a/c will have the car cooled down. The drivein has a pretty steep incline for viewing, so back seat is not a prob. So, watt draw on the HV will not be too much to do this? It dosent seem so. We live about % miles from the drivein so no big distance s to cover.

 

[Jerther]

You could just try it in your own driveway, presumably next to your EVSE. Leave the AC running for 2 hours, like you were watching a movie. That should be more convincing to your wife than us bunch of happy nerds on this forum

(That aside, the 2022 AC is very quiet. I think you're going to have a great time at the drivein )

 

[Chad E. Mo]

For testing, you may need to leave the key in the vehicle. Yesterday, I had my car in the driveway, turned on with the a/c running, and I stepped out of the car to clean the windscreen. My neighbor showed up, and we chatted while walking down the driveway. When I got back to the car 10 minutes later, the car was off and heating up inside.

My sketchy math tells me that 2hrs at the movie will use less than 1kWhr, so I rekon the a/c will use less energy than the drive to the theatre.

The notion of a drive-in with only electrics in attendance is something I hadn't considered before. I definitely appreciate the fact that I can have the car "running" while it's in my shop, without fuming the place up.

 

[Easy]

Trying it at home is the best idea. You don't even need to go the full 2 hours.
I had to drive my wife to the grocery last week.
I sat in the parking lot with the AC and stereo on for a half hour/ 45 min.
It was a nice balmy 100* in the shade.
The dash told me I'd lost a measly 2 miles.
I don't think it will be an issue.

 

[BillAinCT]

For testing, you may need to leave the key in the vehicle. Yesterday, I had my car in the driveway, turned on with the a/c running, and I stepped out of the car to clean the windscreen. My neighbor showed up, and we chatted while walking down the driveway. When I got back to the car 10 minutes later, the car was off and heating up inside.

This is odd. I pick up my granddaughter from daycare leaving the car in P and the AC on and I leave sometimes as long as 20 minutes and it still has the AC on when I get back to the car. Did you have the AC turned on with the double start button and no brake pedal turn on?

 

[aqn]

One more vote for the "try it at home first" thing.

Here in Texas, on a super hot day, once the AC has reached "steady state", the energy economy display shows the climate control drawing about 300-400 Wh.

Also, whether it's doable will depend how far you will need to go after the movie. If you need to go 100 miles to home, I'd say May The Force Be With You.

 

[gozer]

Thanks for all the ideas! I'm only driving 5 miles to the theater so no big draw there. I have waited outside a doc office for about an hour before, didnt look at the miles used, but had plenty to continue the day with.

 

[knightmb]

Thanks for all the ideas! I'm only driving 5 miles to the theater so no big draw there. I have waited outside a doc office for about an hour before, didnt look at the miles used, but had plenty to continue the day with.

5 miles? Unless you are driving a 2011 model with the original battery, any model or year will work just fine. Heck, even the one I mentioned would also work.

 

[AceStark]

I don't know what model you are driving but my SV Plus uses about 1.3% per hour running the air conditioner on a warm , 24-25c day.

 

[gozer]

Its a 2022 S 40 kwh battery

 

[danelo]

I sat in my car for a quick lunch with the AC on. After 20 minutes it showed that it used 1% of the battery. I too, have the 40KWH battery.

 

[todd0305]

2017 30kwh battery here with about 20.2kwh remaining (70%ish SOH). My commute is 5 miles to work and outside temp is averaging 90s during the day now. I would drive it to work and never turn it off until I get back home to plug it back in, AC running the whole time. That includes driving to lunch and back to work. On average, I would still have about 10kwh when I get home from work so it’s safe to say that the AC will stay on for the duration of a movie.

 

[mcmancuso]

Max draw of the AC system is about 1.5KW, once the car is cool, it drops to 0.5-0.75KW. Worse case scenario, if you're blasting the AC with the windows open so it never cools down in the car, you're looking at about 4% of the battery per hour, but if the car is cool from the drive there, and you have the windows up, more like 1.5% per hour.

You could run the AC at full blast for 15 hours straight with the 40KWh pack starting at 80% and still have 20% of the battery available for the drive home, or about 50 hours at maintenance level AC. With the 60KWh battery in my Plus model, I can run the AC for over 3 days straight off a full charge. You should have zero concern about running the car for 2-3 hours for a movie.

 

[gozer]

Geez. I should go start the car 30 min before I leave and not get in a hot car!

 

[Jerther]

Geez. I should go start the car 30 min before I leave and not get in a hot car!

If you do this regularly, there's a timer on the car itself just for that

Also, I had to do a three empty+charge cycle on the battery of my previous 2018 SL and I recall it being able to stay on and heating until the battery ran out without the key. Never tried on my 2022 SL+ (yet).

Results may change depending on if the car is connected to an EVSE. And results might also change if the EVSE is charging or not. Quite confusing this part. For the drivein test, make sure the car is not connected to an EVSE, even if it's not charging.

(EDIT: IIRC on the 2018, when the EVSE is connected but not charging and you turn the heat on manually using the car's buttons, the heater won't turn on but the fan will even though everything lights up, so it'll just blow ambient air. I guess it's the same for A/C.)

 

[mcmancuso]

If you do this regularly, there's a timer on the car itself just for that

Also, I had to do a three empty+charge cycle on the battery of my previous 2018 SL and I recall it being able to stay on and heating until the battery ran out without the key. Never tried on my 2022 SL+ (yet).

Results may change depending on if the car is connected to an EVSE. And results might also change if the EVSE is charging or not. Quite confusing this part. For the drivein test, make sure the car is not connected to an EVSE, even if it's not charging.

(EDIT: IIRC on the 2018, when the EVSE is connected but not charging and you turn the heat on manually using the car's buttons, the heater won't turn on but the fan will even though everything lights up, so it'll just blow ambient air. I guess it's the same for A/C.)

I know if turned on via the app, it'll turn off after 30 minutes if not plugged in, but will stay on indefinitely if connected to a charger.

 

[Jerther]

Right!

I thought about making and sharing a flowchart for all this, including the presence of a key, EVSE, charging state, manual activation or through a timer or through Nissan EVConnect, fan, a/c, heater, time it'll run, political alignment, whether you've had coffee or not, etc. Very difficult to grasp in its entirety.

 

[Learjet]

car off, set park brake, turn car back on....if you have DRL and want them off.