Confirm My Suspicions

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revorg

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My observations on preconditioning don't match what I expected.

1. When you set preconditioning for, say, 9:00 am, it appears that preconditioning starts BEFORE 9, so that it may or may not be ready by 9. I expected it to start at 9.

2. Preconditioning appears to only work while you're actually plugged in. I expected it to work either plugged or not. In fact, that's what the Mini app says.

3. Preconditioning isn't mentioned in the Owner's Manual. I expected everything to be in there. (Have you read that manual?)

http://1revorg.org/mini.html
 
I don’t yet have my Mini but it should function in the same way as our i3.
1. when you set a time on the car it takes it as your departure time; hence the reason it starts preconditioning before your 9am set point.

2. Preconditioning of the cabin (warming or cooling depending on the outside temperature) works whether the car is plugged in or not. Preconditioning of the battery only works while plugged in.

3. There are a couple of entries in the manual about remote climate control (climate control section and in the section on charging from memory) but I’m not sure where/if it mentions preconditioning of the battery.
 
It's technically climatization, the battery is not getting preconditioned. The SE has no battery warming function.

It is the departure time being set, and it does work when not plugged in. If you are plugged in to 240 V (Level 2) you will not lose any range, but if you use it when not plugged in to 240 V you will lose battery SoC.

You can also do "climatize immediately" to activate right away. There is no way to adjust the temperature, the car just climatizes to a preset "comfort level". Which I think is way too hot in the winter, but that might be the northerner blood in me.
 
Puppethead said:
You can also do "climatize immediately" to activate right away. There is no way to adjust the temperature, the car just climatizes to a preset "comfort level". Which I think is way too hot in the winter, but that might be the northerner blood in me.
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I've been wondering what temp it heats to. I assumed it would be to whatever the thermostat was set to while driving, but it does seem warmer than that. Though I'm not sure if it's just the large difference between outside air and inside temp.
 
Puppethead said:
You can also do "climatize immediately" to activate right away. There is no way to adjust the temperature, the car just climatizes to a preset "comfort level". Which I think is way too hot in the winter, but that might be the northerner blood in me.
Click to expand...

As an Ohioan who just tried this for the first time this morning, I can confirm it is a bit warm (72?). But this has the added benefit of not needing to run climate control for ~20min of my 40min commute in the mid 20s. That’s fine by me!


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
I was hoping the temp would be what we selected. Or, at the very least, connected to the ambient temp before climatization. I set the temp to 62F. That's plenty. (Although I do love that heated steering wheel on these nippy mornings.)
 
revorg said:
I was hoping the temp would be what we selected. Or, at the very least, connected to the ambient temp before climatization. I set the temp to 62F. That's plenty. (Although I do love that heated steering wheel on these nippy mornings.)
Click to expand...
It's good that the climatization feature cranks up the heat to melt ice on the windshield and other windows ASAP. There are two or three quick ways to lower the interior temperature on a cold day.

I worry about the the side-window motors when ice prevents those windows from their automatic half-inch lowering when the doors are opened. Because I don't always think ahead to use the climatization feature, I'm probably wearing out the window rubber prematurely with my obsessive scraping at the bottom of the side windows before opening the doors.
 
In the eighteen years that I've been driving Mini's, I can probably count on one hand the number of times that my windows have frozen so badly that they wouldn't lower to open the door. And my area gets periods of -20F and snow. I'm not worried about melting the ice on the windows. I was hoping that the idea was to warm the battery before driving away.
 
revorg said:
I was hoping that the idea was to warm the battery before driving away.
Click to expand...
Charging is the only way to warm the batteries. If you set a departure time and use low-cost charging, it will try to be charged when it's time to leave so your batteries should be at a good operating temperature.

But last winter in -25 ºF weather when parked outside overnight, I didn't see a huge impact on range. Charging took longer to warm the batteries, and I lost some epower (lefthand gauge). After going through that extreme the SE proved itself a capable winter EV.
 
Very odd the SE doesn’t have real preconditioning,


Puppethead said:
Charging is the only way to warm the batteries. If you set a departure time and use low-cost charging, it will try to be charged when it's time to leave so your batteries should be at a good operating temperature.

But last winter in -25 ºF weather when parked outside overnight, I didn't see a huge impact on range. Charging took longer to warm the batteries, and I lost some epower (lefthand gauge). After going through that extreme the SE proved itself a capable winter EV.
Click to expand...

I assumed this was reducing the charge rate, but it’s instead delaying when the charge starts and ends. Very smart to set this. We will set this up asap (20*F nights 25ish at departure). Better for the local utility too, if only they gave us a discount for charging after hours !
 
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