Is 500-1300wh/mi normal in Vegas heat?

[Slow3lectric]

Anyone know if 500-1300 wh/mi is normal have ac turned down to 72 degrees just myself with no load in car. It is a model 3 performance I gun it 3 of 10 times been driving mostly side street. I usto get 250-400 now it’s upto this. It is 109 degrees out and 20% humidity.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

Well the A/C can pull about 7000W so for a 1/2 hour drive that could amount to 3500Wh, and if you only made it thru 3.5 miles of Vegas traffic during that time it'd be 1000 wh/mi just for the air conditioning alone.

And the car is also actively cooling the battery at those temperatures so there's all the power of the water pump and radiator fan as well, which could also be thousands of watts.

 

[.Slug]

Wow... thats a lot of electrons.

 

[Lindenwood]

A few weeks ago I was playing with settings on the highway while trying to cool off the car (and myself) after an Autocross day in the sun. I was seeing an order-of-magnitude of 100wh/mi difference between AC-off and AC at 69 degrees with 100-Degree ambient temps. At the 75mph I was doing this would equate to about 7500Wh of energy or hour, or indeed 7+ kw of power.

That roof glass aggressively radiates heat with the sun overhead!

If you were averaging 15mph, which wouldn’t be surprising in heavy Vegas traffic, the AC itself would be adding 600wh/mi, plus the 200 from driving around.

ALSO, if you precondition the cabin, your car will average that energy used into the first mile or so. Several times I’ve preconditioned my cabin and randomly checked the energy page as I pull out and seen WELL over 1000wh/mi even though the first mile of my commute is a casual 30mph that should be <200wh/mi on its own.

 

[Sam1]

Anyone know if 500-1300 wh/mi is normal have ac turned down to 72 degrees just myself with no load in car. It is a model 3 performance I gun it 3 of 10 times been driving mostly side street. I usto get 250-400 now it’s upto this. It is 109 degrees out and 20% humidity.

I'm here in vegas as well, yes it's common to see 400-500 in the summer especially if you have your fresh air vent on. Usually if you put it on recirculate, it reduces power consumption a bit.

Also, get all of your windows including the windshield ceramic tinted. You can get a 80% tint which is perfectly clear, but still blocks most of the infrared heat. Otherwise you're sitting in a glass bowl with a blowtorch shining down on you the entire time you're in the car.

But look at the bright side, every time you get in your car in the summer, the battery pack is already 115 degrees +, so you're at peak output!

 

[gearchruncher]

You can get a 80% tint which is perfectly clear, but still blocks most of the infrared heat. Otherwise you're sitting in a glass bowl with a blowtorch shining down on you the entire time you're in the car.

Which is funny because the industry is working hard to make IR transparent glass so that you can put a LiDAR behind it, since current glass blocks IR.

Behind the first infrared transparent windshield for LiDARs

Live demonstrations of AGC windshield technology from its Wideye™ task force at CES 2019 have...

www.ai-online.com

 

[Sam1]

I don't know any of the science behind it, I do know that the tint is on all of my current cars and previous cars over the past few years because it works phenomenally well.

 

[Kimmi]

Speaking of air-conditioning; I have never seen condensation dripping from my 2021 long range. It’s been in the high 90s here with humidity I’ve never seen water in the garage after pulling in. Is there a drain line plugged in or does Tesla do something magical with the condensation water?

 

[jrmt23]

I'm here in vegas as well, yes it's common to see 400-500 in the summer especially if you have your fresh air vent on. Usually if you put it on recirculate, it reduces power consumption a bit.

Also, get all of your windows including the windshield ceramic tinted. You can get a 80% tint which is perfectly clear, but still blocks most of the infrared heat. Otherwise you're sitting in a glass bowl with a blowtorch shining down on you the entire time you're in the car.

But look at the bright side, every time you get in your car in the summer, the battery pack is already 115 degrees +, so you're at peak output!

Its the same for me in Houston. 100F+ days with high humidity and the re-circulation off I see 450wh/mi+ in the city easily with the a/c at 70-72. Once i get moving on the freeway it does start to settle down in the low 300s.

If I close the recirculation, it hovers around 300wh/mi.

 

[Lindenwood]

A few weeks ago I was playing with settings on the highway while trying to cool off the car (and myself) after an Autocross day in the sun. I was seeing an order-of-magnitude of 100wh/mi difference between AC-off and AC at 69 degrees with 100-Degree ambient temps. At the 75mph I was doing this would equate to about 7500Wh of energy or hour, or indeed 7+ kw of power.

That roof glass aggressively radiates heat with the sun overhead!

If you were averaging 15mph, which wouldn’t be surprising in heavy Vegas traffic, the AC itself would be adding 600wh/mi, plus the 200 from driving around.

ALSO, if you precondition the cabin, your car will average that energy used into the first mile or so. Several times I’ve preconditioned my cabin and randomly checked the energy page as I pull out and seen WELL over 1000wh/mi even though the first mile of my commute is a casual 30mph that should be <200wh/mi on its own.

Oh, and this is with ceramic tint on everything but the center roof panel. Before the ceramic the heat through the windshield was aweful.

 

[tm1v2]

Speaking of air-conditioning; I have never seen condensation dripping from my 2021 long range. It’s been in the high 90s here with humidity I’ve never seen water in the garage after pulling in. Is there a drain line plugged in or does Tesla do something magical with the condensation water?

@Kimmi That sounds unusual to me. My 2021 M3P with heat pump drips condensation from A/C use like every car I've ever had. So does my 2013 Model S (separate A/C + resistive heater).

Might be worth either taking off the front underbody tray to look for water pooling, or if you're not comfortable with that, asking Tesla service what's up because you're concerned a drain path is blocked.

 

[mpgxsvcd]

But look at the bright side, every time you get in your car in the summer, the battery pack is already 115 degrees +, so you're at peak output!

Peak output occurs closer to 132 degrees F. You aren’t anywhere close to peak output if your battery is only at 115 degrees.

 

[jackmott]

Anyone know if 500-1300 wh/mi is normal have ac turned down to 72 degrees just myself with no load in car. It is a model 3 performance I gun it 3 of 10 times been driving mostly side street. I usto get 250-400 now it’s upto this. It is 109 degrees out and 20% humidity.

Highway range doesn't change for me much. AC at 72 uses a little extra but the air is less dense. Tends to be a wash. Short trips around town though will appear to be horrible because there is so much overhead cooling the car back down and cooling the batteries back down every trip.