How Long Could You Idle Your Kona in the Cold and Stay Warm?

[Jimct]

Hate to start a whole new thread on this but I wanted to experiment and post my results with a relevant title. It may not be an exact scientific study, but it shows my actual experience.

Below are 5 screen shots taken in my idling Kona on the hour for four hours with an indoor/outdoor thermometer superimposed. They show 7% of battery consumed while keeping the car a toasty 70+ degrees in 26-27 degree weather, but I want to specify it dropped to 63% at exactly 2:03 and 60% at exactly 4:03 - 3% during the 2 hour period or 1.5% per hour. Extrapolation suggests a 100% charge could last as much as 66 hours. A 24 hour traffic jam like the I-95 debacle would have dropped my 67% battery by 36% to 31%. I would point out that it could be significantly increased by lowering the internal temp and adding the human body heat factor.

I can't begin to explain the guess-o-meter drop of only 10 miles.

 

[Ivan Salazar]

GOM calculates based on your driving for the last 50 km. So if you are idling for hours with no electric motor running than the only consumption is from heater and any electronics running and the recharging of 12V battery which does not use that much energy compare the electric drive. Thats my take on the matter if I understood correctly the observation you shared.

 

[KiwiME]

Bjorn Nyland did an overnight in a Kona and lost 9%, at about the same ambient, using Utility mode and a heat pump of course.

I can't begin to explain the guess-o-meter drop of only 10 miles.[/ATTACH]

I'll bet the dash economy reading didn't reflect this either.

 

[electriceddy]

Bjorn Nyland did an overnight in a Kona and lost 9%, at about the same ambient, using Utility mode and a heat pump of course.

I'll bet the dash economy reading didn't reflect this either.

One of my favorite videos, also showing the snow packed charge port and frozen charging equipment.
Interesting the various insulating materials he utilized, it almost looks like he has done this before.
I carry a couple of cloth drop sheets and a blanket at all times...you never know
Suspect Bjorn will select a different mattress next time however

 

[Genevamech]

I happened to think about this subject this morning as it was a nippy 18F (-8C), so I noted some datapoints.

Turning on the front defrost, set to 70F (21C) at "two bars" of fan speed (medium low), the climate control was drawing about 5.5KW according to the display screen. This stayed fairly consistent during my short morning commute, but dropped to about 3.8KW by the time I was at work 10 minutes later, though the outdoor temp on the dash read 28F (-2C) so that alone would explain the reduced power.

Switching to normal heating with cabin recirc and the power dropped to 1.7KW and was stable there for about a minute. I wasn't going to sit there too long but I suspect that as the cabin temp becomes more uniform this will also gradually reduce to whatever is needed to maintain the set temperature.

I think estimating heater usage at 2KW is plenty conservative if you need to consider how long you could keep the heat on in below-freezing weather... a full and healthy battery should easily last you about 30 hours, and much more if you're willing to turn the thermostat down.

Neither the rear defrost or seat heaters changed the number on the dash. I don't think these are huge loads but I suspect they aren't included in the climate control power usage since they're certainly more than 10 watts.

Also underscores the value of preheating the cabin... the PTC heater used more power than the commute itself!