How much power does idling with A/C on use?

[shutterbug]

This past weekend my A/C crapped out and I had to wait for A/C people to come and install a new unit. While waiting, decided that waiting in the house would totally suck, so I got into the truck, turn it on, turn on the A/C and radio. Also was charging my phone. A/C was set to Auto 2 and 70 degrees. Total time was about 3.5 hours. During that time, the SOC went from 81% to 80% (SR, so about 1 kWh) and GOM went from 201 to 197 miles. The truck was plugged in, but juicebox claims I only drew 0.12 kWh during all that time. Not complaining, but would appreciate any insight. Also my LVB went from 14.59 V to 14.51 V.

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[lightspeed]

Hard to say since it depends on how hot it is outside, etc... but 1kWh seems in the normal range to me once the cabin is cool if it's not 100+ degrees outside. I see almost no difference in range on long drives from the AC. It's a shame they didn't put a heat pump in to make heating as efficient.

 

[shutterbug]

Hard to say since it depends on how hot it is outside, etc... but 1kWh seems in the normal range to me once the cabin is cool if it's not 100+ degrees outside. I see almost no difference in range on long drives from the AC. It's a shame they didn't put a heat pump in to make heating as efficient.

We had a "cold snap" yesterday. It was only 92 degrees.

 

[Zprime29]

I set mine to cool for my commute home. Not sure how long it runs before I leave work but I haven't noticed any change to my efficiency. I'd say that checks out.

 

[Marcoux]

While a heat pump can help in the fall and in the spring, they aren't all that great in cold winters. Considering I lost 25% of range, it's not terrible. By comparison, my gas powered Civic lost 16% of its range in the winter, so 9% worst with what is basically a large hair dryer is very good IMO.

 

[Peddyr]

I spent many of my son's July baseball games in the truck with the air set to 68 for about 90 minutes and barely noticed any change in the GOM. A few miles at most. Nice change from my previous F150

 

[RickLightning]

This past weekend my A/C crapped out and I had to wait for A/C people to come and install a new unit. While waiting, decided that waiting in the house would totally suck, so I got into the truck, turn it on, turn on the A/C and radio. Also was charging my phone. A/C was set to Auto 2 and 70 degrees. Total time was about 3.5 hours. During that time, the SOC went from 81% to 80% (SR, so about 1 kWh) and GOM went from 201 to 197 miles. The truck was plugged in, but juicebox claims I only drew 0.12 kWh during all that time. Not complaining, but would appreciate any insight. Also my LVB went from 14.59 V to 14.51 V.

What charge level are you set at? Sounds like 80% which is why the JB didn't provide much power.

Unless you were constantly reading the 12v battery, you can't see it go down, back up, down, back up.

 

[Wsl346]

While a heat pump can help in the fall and in the spring, they aren't all that great in cold winters. Considering I lost 25% of range, it's not terrible. By comparison, my gas powered Civic lost 16% of its range in the winter, so 9% worst with what is basically a large hair dryer is very good IMO.

Why is this? Is it that a heat pump needs HEAT to PUMP and so when its very cold the vehicle has to first create the heat for it to be pumped?

 

[Marcoux]

 

[Maquis]

Why is this? Is it that a heat pump needs HEAT to PUMP and so when its very cold the vehicle has to first create the heat for it to be pumped?

No - the heat pump moves heat from one location to the other, hence the name. Since cold air contains less heat to pump, it’s less efficient. At very cold temperatures, supplemental heat is required.

 

[shutterbug]

What charge level are you set at? Sounds like 80% which is why the JB didn't provide much power.

Unless you were constantly reading the 12v battery, you can't see it go down, back up, down, back up.

Charge level is set @ 50%. I expected a long trip prior to that, so the charge was higher. I wasn't constantly staring at the 12 V status, but glancing at it periodically. At no time did it go up, but since the truck was on, I wouldn't expect it to go down by much, and it didn't.

 

[RickLightning]

Charge level is set @ 50%. I expected a long trip prior to that, so the charge was higher. I wasn't constantly staring at the 12 V status, but glancing at it periodically. At no time did it go up, but since the truck was on, I wouldn't expect it to go down by much, and it didn't.

I can't imagine why you'd set charge level to 50%?

So you're saying you had the truck charged to 81%, then it dropped to 80% with the charge level set at 50%? And, the JuiceBox showed current being pulled, although minor (it shouldn't since, you had the charge level set to 50%).

 

[shutterbug]

I can't imagine why you'd set charge level to 50%?

So you're saying you had the truck charged to 81%, then it dropped to 80% with the charge level set at 50%? And, the JuiceBox showed current being pulled, although minor (it shouldn't since, you had the charge level set to 50%).

Since the truck is parked outside and it's hot as hell, the truck goes into cooling mode periodically and pulls some current from juicebox.

 

[Jim Lewis]

I'm pretty ignorant about heat pumps, but a good heat pump for a house normally gets its heat from an expansive set of pipes deep enough in the ground to take advantage of the ground temperature year round being about 55 degrees F below a certain depth (near Earth's surface-temp increases as you go down!), IIRC. Since the truck's not connected to the ground, as others have pointed out, you'd have to make something fairly hot in the truck to have a heat source relative to the outside temp (since your set of "pipes" couldn't be that expansive). So you'd be out of luck unless your truck burned a lot of juice to move. And since the truck would have to heat something directly while idling, inserting a heat pump into the process is probably less efficient than just blowing air over a heating element and sending it to the cabin.

Whether a truck is sitting in the sun or the shade probably makes a fair difference, too, in addition to the air temperature. I've noticed my AC is smart enough to detect whether I have passengers. If it's just me, the cooling mode is "driver-focused," mainly through the driver's vents. The default vent setting seems to be for both dash and floor-level air. So, if only the perception of being cool and not the overall cabin air temperature matters, perhaps one can save quite a bit of juice by just cooling yourself in the driver's seat with the dash vents. Airspeed also makes a difference in coolness perception (hence overhead fans in fixtures in most rooms in our San Antonio home). So perhaps you can save some juice overall by running a faster fan speed in the truck while easing up on the cabin temperature setting a bit.

 

[RickLightning]

Since the truck is parked outside and it's hot as hell, the truck goes into cooling mode periodically and pulls some current from juicebox.

Ok.

But why are you setting the charge level to 50%?

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