Need help on GO times...

Until recently, I had relied on remote starting to precondition the car in our Colorado weather. Of late, however, I've tried to realize the benefits of setting GO times but with no real success.

I'm able to set the GO times in MFM, but right after I select temp (85), I click "add" and the temp field reverts to "Off." I set the temp again to 85, but the same thing happens I must be missing something.

The car is on the 110 charger; I checked on the status of the warm up after 15 and 30 minutes; the blowers are active, but no warm air. What am I doing wrong?

jkbrand said:

The car is on the 110 charger; I checked on the status of the warm up after 15 and 30 minutes; the blowers are active, but no warm air. What am I doing wrong?

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Typically when you save the "go" times the app and website will show some red text indicating "syncing go times" for about 30-40 seconds.

The go times (and value charging) doesn't seem to work very well with a Level 1 EVSE. When you program the go times the car then does whatever it can to ensure that it is fully charged by the go time. This may mean that it will start charging as soon as you plug it in instead of waiting for the value charge start time.

Well, thanks for sharing that it doesn't work well on Level 1 charging. I was doubting my old-age sanity....

I have seen the "synching" message, but don't recall anything that suggests the synch was successful. Also, to offer a little more info, each time I've tried to invoke GO times (maybe a half dozen over the past wee), it's always been after an overnight--and full--charge.

It appears that all I'm doing is moving air around the cabin for an hour. Guessing I'm better off sticking with the preconditioning using the remote, but I'd hoped I wouldn't have to rely on being sure the temp setting from the last-time used was set warm enough to make a difference. (Typically, we set the temp low so as NOT to consume big-battery power while out and about.)

In light of jmueller's explanation, I'd be interested to hear if ANYone with Level 1 charging has been successful with GO times?

jkbrand said:

Well, thanks for sharing that it doesn't work well on Level 1 charging. I was doubting my old-age sanity....

I have seen the "synching" message, but don't recall anything that suggests the synch was successful. Also, to offer a little more info, each time I've tried to invoke GO times (maybe a half dozen over the past wee), it's always been after an overnight--and full--charge.

It appears that all I'm doing is moving air around the cabin for an hour. Guessing I'm better off sticking with the preconditioning using the remote, but I'd hoped I wouldn't have to rely on being sure the temp setting from the last-time used was set warm enough to make a difference. (Typically, we set the temp low so as NOT to consume big-battery power while out and about.)

In light of jmueller's explanation, I'd be interested to hear if ANYone with Level 1 charging has been successful with GO times?

Click to expand...

L1 works ok for Go Times if you aren't heating or cooling much. For example, when we first got our car & didn't have L2 at home we could use Go Times set to 65 F to cool the car down a little before starting to drive. It was typically about 75-80 F in the garage. The other day I charged our Fusion Energi while out on L1. Ambient temp was about 35 F and setting a Go Time for 85 F didn't really do any good. The interior temp was about 55 F and the coolant was only warmed to about 75 F. Go Times are basically worthless for heat in the winter on L1. During a remote start event the heater in the Fusion Energi uses 4422 Watts and the DCDC converter uses about 700 Watts to run the fan, computers, etc. The HVB discharges at a rate of about 5.1 kWh during a remote start event in winter. I imagine that the Focus Electric is similar. When plugged in to a L2 EVSE you can pull a lot more power from the wall to pre-heat the car than you can on L1. L1 peaks at about 1400 Watts. That would leave you with only about 700 W to heat the coolant if you're using 700 W for the DCDC converter. 700 W can't accomplish much heating.

My Ohm's Law calculator tells me that at 120 Volts a 5000 Watt heater will draw almost 42 amps. The level one charger is current limited to, correct me if I'm wrong, 17 amps. If your car prioritized heating over charging. Which in reality it does the opposite. At a maximum the heater could only operate at 2040 Watts. 2/5'ths of its normal output. No wonder it seems like you are just pushing cool air around. Oh yeah, the fan is sharing some of that available wattage. Which leaves even less for the heating coil.

Steve0512 said:

My Ohm's Law calculator tells me that at 120 Volts a 5000 Watt heater will draw almost 42 amps. The level one charger is current limited to, correct me if I'm wrong, 17 amps. If your car prioritized heating over charging. Which in reality it does the opposite. At a maximum the heater could only operate at 2040 Watts. 2/5'ths of its normal output. No wonder it seems like you are just pushing cool air around. Oh yeah, the fan is sharing some of that available wattage. Which leaves even less for the heating coil.

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The L1 charger draws less than 15 amps as far as I know. It has been measured at a peak of 1400 Watts.

If the L1 is connected, how does the FFE's preconditioning differ from the GO-time option??

jkbrand said:

If the L1 is connected, how does the FFE's preconditioning differ from the GO-time option??

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Preconditioning is part of the Go Times process. Preconditioning refers to the climate control settings of the Go Time which heat or cool the car using only electricity from the wall. Remote starting while plugged in will use electricity from the wall and from the HVB.

hybridbear said:

The L1 charger draws less than 15 amps as far as I know. It has been measured at a peak of 1400 Watts.

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Yep, I measured the L1 EVSE current and power draw while charging my FFE with a Kill-A-Watt device.
I got at 110V current draw just under 12amps max and about 1400Watts.

I actually have had Go Times work pretty well on L1 in cold weather, with a warm cabin waiting for me in the morning. However to get enough power to warm the cabin, some stored battery power is used up too.
Not sure why your Go Time cabin temp doesn't keep its setting. Have you tried setting it from within the car instead of by My Ford Mobile? I think if syncing isn't being completed, in the car might solve your problem.
I prefer Go Times over remote starting the car because the cabin temp is more reliably warm, and the seats don't seem to preheat on remote starting whereas they do on Go Times. Or maybe on Go Times the cabin is just so warm the seats feel warm too.

Go Times work well (enough) for me on L1 also; but it takes time to see any effect.

If checking with your hand, anything below skin temperature will feel cold. I did a check with a temperature sensor and seem to get about a 10 degree temperature rise out of the vent; over an hour of preconditioning the cabin temperature went from 30 degrees to 50. If I had taken that 1.4kWh of heat from the battery rather than the wall it would have cost me 4-5 miles.

An hour of L1 heating isn't likely to let you hit target temperature if it is significantly cold outside, but it can take a little bit of the chill off. Actually, that's fine with me- it's better than firing up my 'ICE' truck and not getting any heat at all for the first 5 minutes of my trip.

NightHawk said:

hybridbear said:

The L1 charger draws less than 15 amps as far as I know. It has been measured at a peak of 1400 Watts.

Click to expand...

Yep, I measured the L1 EVSE current and power draw while charging my FFE with a Kill-A-Watt device.
I got at 110V current draw just under 12amps max and about 1400Watts.

Click to expand...

That's really, really sad. This is why I told my family I want Amazon gift cards for Christmas. There will be a L2 charger in place when my car arrives.

hybridbear said:

jkbrand said:

If the L1 is connected, how does the FFE's preconditioning differ from the GO-time option??

Click to expand...

Preconditioning is part of the Go Times process. Preconditioning refers to the climate control settings of the Go Time which heat or cool the car using only electricity from the wall. Remote starting while plugged in will use electricity from the wall and from the HVB.

Click to expand...

Ah, I was not aware of the distinction between preconditioning and remote starting. I'd assumed they were the same. The problem (for me, at least) with our cold mornings is that using remote starting, the attempt to warm the interior lasts for only 10 minutes. On our cold mornings, I'd be lucky if the inside temperature went up even a few degrees in that short interval. I don't want to have to ReSTART every 10 minutes until I get something close to a reasonably warmer temperature.

jkbrand said:

hybridbear said:

jkbrand said:

If the L1 is connected, how does the FFE's preconditioning differ from the GO-time option??

Click to expand...

Preconditioning is part of the Go Times process. Preconditioning refers to the climate control settings of the Go Time which heat or cool the car using only electricity from the wall. Remote starting while plugged in will use electricity from the wall and from the HVB.

Click to expand...

Ah, I was not aware of the distinction between preconditioning and remote starting. I'd assumed they were the same. The problem (for me, at least) with our cold mornings is that using remote starting, the attempt to warm the interior lasts for only 10 minutes. On our cold mornings, I'd be lucky if the inside temperature went up even a few degrees in that short interval. I don't want to have to ReSTART every 10 minutes until I get something close to a reasonably warmer temperature.

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Remote starting can be as long as 15 minutes. You can configure it on the dash of the car. Go Times will start up to 1 hour in advance to precondition the cabin.