Preconditioning for very short trips

[DreamBrother1]

My truck will be parked in a heated garage all winter (kept at minimum 50°F, maybe 40-49°F if it's below zero outside). Where I live it's typically very cold in the winter. I planned on preconditioning the battery before leaving for work in the mornings while plugged into level 2 charging in the heated garage. Is this necessary if my drive to work is only a couple miles?

At work the truck will always be outside, sometimes in temperatures below zero all day. At the end of the day, should I also precondition the battery before driving home? Again only about a 2 mile drive

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[shutterbug]

You can't precondition the battery, when not plugged in. For a 2 mile drive, I'm not sure there is much of a benefit preconditioning provides.

 

[TaxmanHog]

The efficiency gains are not worth the energy spent for a short trip of 2 to 20 miles (maybe longer)

Just use your remote start button to warm the cabin in the morning and afternoon before heading home from work.

 

[lightspeed]

My truck will be parked in a heated garage all winter (kept at minimum 50°F, maybe 40-49°F if it's below zero outside). Where I live it's typically very cold in the winter. I planned on preconditioning the battery before leaving for work in the mornings while plugged into level 2 charging in the heated garage. Is this necessary if my drive to work is only a couple miles?

At work the truck will always be outside, sometimes in temperatures below zero all day. At the end of the day, should I also precondition the battery before driving home? Again only about a 2 mile drive

You don't need to precondition the battery for a 4 mile round trip commute in basically any weather especially in a heated garage.

 

[Tony Burgh]

Precondition before you leave work. Your butt, back and hands will thank you.

 

[tubby]

You can't precondition the battery, when not plugged in. For a 2 mile drive, I'm not sure there is much of a benefit preconditioning provides.

Thank you for this answer. Someone read the manual.
Preconditioning Your Vehicle
You can precondition your vehicle by using the departure and comfort settings to warm or cool the cabin and the high-voltage battery when you have your vehicle plugged in. By using energy from the charging source prior to your departure, the system can manage the battery temperature for the best driving performance and use less energy for heating or cooling the cabin at the start of your drive. This helps maximize your driving range. See Trip Data (page 144).

 

[rolker]

Holy crap! I didn't realize how much power was used for pre-conditioning. I just looked at my sense energy monitor and it pulled around 9kw for almost an hour this morning!

That's almost as much as I use to recharge from my 25 mile daily commute. Thanks OP for this thread alerting me to this.

 

[mb0220]

I had this question a while back. The conclusion I reached was that preconditioning the battery was useful when you want to eke out every ounce of efficiency to maximize range for a long trip, by using shore power to warm the battery instead of using battery energy to do it while driving. It's moot for short drives.

 

[RickLightning]

Holy crap! I didn't realize how much power was used for pre-conditioning. I just looked at my sense energy monitor and it pulled around 9kw for almost an hour this morning!

That's almost as much as I use to recharge from my 25 mile daily commute. Thanks OP for this thread alerting me to this.

THIS ^^^^

This is what people need to understand. Too many don't.

On a short drive, the best use of electricity is a Remote Start, and then judicious use of the heater (or blasting it if you don't care). But NOT a departure time.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Holy crap! I didn't realize how much power was used for pre-conditioning. I just looked at my sense energy monitor and it pulled around 9kw for almost an hour this morning!

That's almost as much as I use to recharge from my 25 mile daily commute. Thanks OP for this thread alerting me to this.

Exactly, documented several times in pinned threads.....................
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...-preconditioning-pre-heat-your-battery.13693/

Node
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...rgers-battery-vehicle-to-vehicle-charging.84/

 

[DreamBrother1]

THIS ^^^^

This is what people need to understand. Too many don't.

On a short drive, the best use of electricity is a Remote Start, and then judicious use of the heater (or blasting it if you don't care). But NOT a departure time.

Thanks for the help, hadn't caught the previous posts about preconditioning for short distances before. Incredibly excited about the vehicle, but after decades of driving ICEs and my first EV there's a fair amount of information to learn and clarify that ultimately is pretty easy and straight forward once you know.

 

[luebri]

My truck will be parked in a heated garage all winter (kept at minimum 50°F, maybe 40-49°F if it's below zero outside). Where I live it's typically very cold in the winter. I planned on preconditioning the battery before leaving for work in the mornings while plugged into level 2 charging in the heated garage. Is this necessary if my drive to work is only a couple miles?

At work the truck will always be outside, sometimes in temperatures below zero all day. At the end of the day, should I also precondition the battery before driving home? Again only about a 2 mile drive

I am in a very similar climate and garage setup. I drive a bit more (30 miles round trip) daily commute though, but its still fairly short.

One little cheat code to get some warming of the battery in the morning (without actually doing a full preconditioning, which is not an efficient use of that energy for shorter trips) is Just plan / time your charging to be done prior to your typical morning departure time. Charging warms your battery quite a bit as a part of that process, especially with 48A or higher charging.

For example, I typically leave around 7:20 AM. I have my charge window set from 5 AM to 8 AM. Since I dont really need to charge every day, I save my charging for the colder nights / mornings of the week, which is when that warmth from charging will be most beneficial. Two Birds, one stone.

This morning I charged as it was one of the colder nights / mornings of the week. Tonight is going to be more mild so I wont bother.

Holy crap! I didn't realize how much power was used for pre-conditioning. I just looked at my sense energy monitor and it pulled around 9kw for almost an hour this morning!

That's almost as much as I use to recharge from my 25 mile daily commute. Thanks OP for this thread alerting me to this.

That is precisely why I do it the way I mention above.

 

[TaxmanHog]

One little cheat code to get some warming of the battery in the morning (without actually doing a full preconditioning, which is not an efficient use of that energy for shorter trips) is Just plan / time your charging to be done prior to your typical morning departure time. Charging warms your battery quite a bit as a part of that process, especially with 48A or higher charging.

Words of wisdom!!

I've also shifted my winter charging strategy, it starts at 7am, our goal is we leave for errands, coffee & breakfast run at 8am or as soon as the truck reaches back to 90%, this morning the process started at 79% and with remote start later 7:45 in the process, charging was done at 8:10 and we left at 8:17.

UPDATE:
I added screen grab's of the charging data from this morning, I had to wait for Fordpass to post to the cloud later in the afternoon, the remote start ran 7:45 and extended to 8:15, 8:17 I unplugged. I'll assume that 3 KWH was to warm the truck, 16 KWH to charge battery (10% overhead 14.4/.9=16), the balance of 2.9 KWH for pre-charge warming of the battery it was 22 degrees this morning.

21.8 KWH over 77 minutes---------------21.6 KWH ----------------------11% = 14.4 KWH net stored
Per Emporia log --------------------------FCSP Charge Log-------------- FP Charge record

 

[TaxmanHog]

Updated post 13 with more details and data from my morning charge session which did not involve departure timer.

The truck did consumed more energy to charge the ER battery 11%, I also had an extended remote start to ensure cabin was comfortable while I waited out the charging coming to a completion.

 

[Punk9721]

Holy crap! I didn't realize how much power was used for pre-conditioning. I just looked at my sense energy monitor and it pulled around 9kw for almost an hour this morning!

That's almost as much as I use to recharge from my 25 mile daily commute. Thanks OP for this thread alerting me to this.

What temperature was your truck sitting in to use this much energy?

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