Ouch A/C costs 22 miles of range?

[az erik]

1 minute out of my garage on a full charge flipped the A/C on and got this

Funny enough MFM shows

When I drove 1.75 miles to work. (which oddly the car says was 1 mile.)

I know it's bad math on the cars part but dang!

I've got to do a master reset on the car as it's all kinds of freaking out. Not reporting to MFM, can't communicate with my phone or website, doesn't track my trips, range estimates all over the board. It sat on a lot for 3 months or more and threw a few Nav card errors when I attempted to re-update to 3.6.2. tried pulling the F1 fuse for the Comm reset with no luck. Wish me luck on the reset.

 

[unplugged]

I know it's bad math on the cars part but dang!

Actually, the electric A/C on the FFE is amazingly efficient. (Much more so than the heater.) Eventually, all cars will have electric air conditioners because they save MPG in those outdated infernal combustion engines.

 

[WattsUp]

Very odd... usually when I turn on the A/C, it get hit within something like -4, maybe sometimes -2 or -6.

What temperature did you have the A/C set to? I notice that some temperature settings, if close to the outdoor temperature, even with A/C is on, can also engage the heater, which requires much more power than the A/C. (I guess the climate system is too stupid to simply mix in the outdoor air until the desired temperature is reached.) When this happens, I flip the temperature down a degree or two until the the heater goes back off.

Tip: There is mode for My Display (on the left-hand side) which shows individual graphs of the "climate" and "other" energy usage. (This is the mode I use all the time since, along with the car's main energy meter, it provides the most visual feedback about where energy is going.) Anyway, when the climate energy usage spikes, I know the heater has been engaged. But, when only the A/C is engaged, usually the climate energy usage is much lower. It also gets very low (almost not registering) once the cabin temperature has reached the desired level.

 

[Fluke]

If you are in Arizona, preconditioning while plugged in would probably help out.

 

[az erik]

I don't think pre-conditioning on the L1 charger will do much to save the charge.

Yes usually the A/C hits me for -4miles this morning I said "yikes!" as this was a first. Ac was set to 73 auto like always. I started thinking that the battery condition was bad. I had reset the communications equipment in hopes of getting the in car cellular working again and thought I had wiped something out. The car still says I use 400+kw/m yet MFM says 275. I'm been driving carefully attempting to fix the test drives that it suffered previously.

 

[brijen21]

I set the AC between 65 and 68 and see -3 to -7 drop. If I set it above 70, even I see a big drop, almost -15.

 

[WattsUp]

I set the AC between 65 and 68 and see -3 to -7 drop. If I set it above 70, even I see a big drop, almost -15.

The big drop is most likely the heater being engaged.

 

[az erik]

Funny thing being it stayed at -22, started at -23 and I managed to regen +1 but I thought it would go "oh hey we meant -2" When I went to leave work it adjusted to 72 miles like started in the web.

Last night I did a full reset on everything I could find. Now I get 270kWh/(something) when I used to get 410 or higher when keying off.

 

[phxdiesel]

The "cost" of the A/C from my experience is largely dependent on the inside and outside temp of the car. It uses much less electricity if the temperature differential is low between your set temp and internal temp.

I've noticed a drastic reduction in electricity usage since the temps have been under 100 this last week(due to some much welcomed storms). When the temps outside have been over 100, the a/c never seems to "spin down". The mileage lost seems to correlate as well. -20 or so seems to be the worst. The wattage graph shows a very small power consumption by the "climate" system after a couple minutes. Generally at or below the "other" category.

One difference I've noticed recently is it seems if the temps are below 90, I never hear the condenser fan running(the outside fan)... just the compressor. When it's really hot out, the fan noise plus the compressor are very very loud. I'm assuming the fan is still running, just running at a much lower speed.

One other behavior I've seen is if you "remote-start" the car while charging, unplug the charger(L1 in this case), then hop in and push the start button to drive away, the A/C will shut off and won't turn back on for several miles/minutes. Meanwhile you're sweating through your clothes cursing whatever the car is trying to do.

 

[az erik]

The "cost" of the A/C from my experience is largely dependent on the inside and outside temp of the car. It uses much less electricity if the temperature differential is low between your set temp and internal temp.

I've noticed a drastic reduction in electricity usage since the temps have been under 100 this last week(due to some much welcomed storms). When the temps outside have been over 100, the a/c never seems to "spin down". The mileage lost seems to correlate as well. -20 or so seems to be the worst. The wattage graph shows a very small power consumption by the "climate" system after a couple minutes. Generally at or below the "other" category.

One difference I've noticed recently is it seems if the temps are below 90, I never hear the condenser fan running(the outside fan)... just the compressor. When it's really hot out, the fan noise plus the compressor are very very loud. I'm assuming the fan is still running, just running at a much lower speed.

One other behavior I've seen is if you "remote-start" the car while charging, unplug the charger(L1 in this case), then hop in and push the start button to drive away, the A/C will shut off and won't turn back on for several miles/minutes. Meanwhile you're sweating through your clothes cursing whatever the car is trying to do.

It just did it again. Right after a full charge unplug it and hop in. I started the car with the a/c off then turned it on. 1st trip was 50 mil range according to the meter. Second trip went to 75 mile range (both with the a/c on) 1st trip -22 again. Second trip -4. Looks like a learning curve for the car.

As for the remote start thing I havn't seen it. Might be fixed in 3.6? Also my MFT doesn't seem as laggy as some people claim. And as a software guy hell bent on perfomance it's never done anything to bother me. The screen once took 5 seconds or so to show up after starting it once after the master reset.

 

[PowerstrokeNC]

I notice that some temperature settings, if close to the outdoor temperature, even with A/C is on, can also engage the heater, which requires much more power than the A/C. (I guess the climate system is too stupid to simply mix in the outdoor air until the desired temperature is reached.) When this happens, I flip the temperature down a degree or two until the the heater goes back off.[/quote]

This is a pet peeve of mine. Clearly the climate control system was taken off the shelf from ICE vehicles. When every little bit of electrical usage counts, Ford puts in this system..... :x

Just like commented on before the system will engage the heater for just a few degrees of variance, so I never use the auto setting as you have to watch it all the time. Hopefully Ford will address this in the future.

 

[kmaluo]

It just did it again. Right after a full charge unplug it and hop in. I started the car with the a/c off then turned it on. 1st trip was 50 mil range according to the meter. Second trip went to 75 mile range (both with the a/c on) 1st trip -22 again. Second trip -4. Looks like a learning curve for the car.

As for the remote start thing I havn't seen it. Might be fixed in 3.6? Also my MFT doesn't seem as laggy as some people claim. And as a software guy hell bent on perfomance it's never done anything to bother me. The screen once took 5 seconds or so to show up after starting it once after the master reset.

Are you driving uphill on the way home? That could explain you varying range between trips. One uphill, one down, then car remembers and adjusts for characteristics of the last trip.

 

[unplugged]

It just did it again. Right after a full charge unplug it and hop in. I started the car with the a/c off then turned it on. 1st trip was 50 mil range according to the meter. Second trip went to 75 mile range (both with the a/c on) 1st trip -22 again. Second trip -4. Looks like a learning curve for the car.

As for the remote start thing I havn't seen it. Might be fixed in 3.6? Also my MFT doesn't seem as laggy as some people claim. And as a software guy hell bent on perfomance it's never done anything to bother me. The screen once took 5 seconds or so to show up after starting it once after the master reset.

I spent the last three days in Palm Springs with temperatures ranging from 85 at night to 106 and even 111 during the day. The temperature didn't have much effect upon the mileage range. Maybe three miles over the entire range.

I did notice when I got back to the coast once again that the stupid heater comes on if the temp setting in the car goes one degree below the outside temp. You can either turn the climate off and suffocate, or turn off the A/C and manually adjust the fan. It is beyond dumb for Ford to have designed this system to so easily turn the heater on. Every car I have owned doesn't dump the heater on you if the outside air temp drops below the A/C setting.