How do you pre heat the battery

[fnegroni]

The power consumed by the IBH is insignificant in comparison to the HVAC kept at 28C, especially if you haven’t had the hvac update which reduces its eagerness to use the a/c intermittently at higher temperatures and conflicts with the cabin heater.
If you really want to optimise power consumption by the hvac, set it to Eco after 10 minutes on a long journey.

 

[Rolfe]

I'm not that bothered, I just wanted to see what difference, if any, the IBH made.

Today, 30 miles total. Heating run as before. First 15 miles, 3.6 miles/kWh, but by the time we were back the overall reading for the trip was 2.6 miles/kWh. Again the car was giving ice warnings on the way back. The height difference was less than 400 feet this time, but the road is quite hilly both ways. The 15-mile journey took about 25 minutes.

 

[Morleym]

I have never used it, and it's something I'm really confused about. There was an earlier thread where people tried to explain it, or work their way through their misconceptions, but I never got it clear in my mind. (It was originally split off as a derail from a thread about cabin heating.)

Indications for using battery heating (now the weather is getting colder)

Does the bug affect cabin pre-heat, battery pre-heat or both? I decided to do a battery pre-heat this morning. Started it 90 minutes before departure; app said it was on. Looked again 30 minutes before departure and app said it was off.

www.mgevs.com

When I first got the car the weather was still a bit chilly, but as things warmed up I was occasionally, like @AlunJ, getting random suggestions from the car about pre-heating the battery when the temperature outside was like 17ºC. After a bit I clicked on "don't tell me this again" and it never has, even when it's been below zero.

I know about pre-heating as you approach a DC charger, but how much of your remaining charge is it going to drain, and do you really get enough of a boost in charging speed for it to be worth it? And how long do you pre-heat for (LFP) and how cold out does it have to be before you should do it?

I also know about pre-heating before a long journey in winter, but again, how long for and how cold does it need to be before it's worth it, and how long does the journey need to be before it's worth it? In addition, since my car won't pre-heat when plugged in but not charging, I'm a bit hazy on how I'd even do that. I'd drain a fair bit out of the battery, which really doesn't seem worth it.

But then again I wonder, if I don't do this, am I likely to harm the battery? I honestly don't have a clue.

It is very confusing so I leave it on the intelligent setting and hope it is working for the best efficiency.

 

[webhiker]

Sorry to jump in here folks

Do people regularly use this feature?

Maybe I should be but I’ve never used it. I only remember seeing one YouTube video where the guy recommended using it if the battery was cold 5-10 minutes before putting it on a fast/rapid charger

The limited times I’ve charged my car it’s always after the car has been driven for a while so battery should be warm

I used it the other day, when I got an unsatifactory charge rate from an AC charger over the first hour. I turned on battery heating and within the next hour the AC charge rate doubled. Outside temp around 3 centigrades and SoC around 50% when start charging

 

[Martinonline]

Please define unsatisfactory charge rate. With my granny charger I don't see much increase in the battery percentage to begin with although 1.9kW is declared by the app. I always assumed the first lot of energy going in was to warm the battery as well as to charge the battery.

 

[STG]

I tried it the other day and did not see any real difference in charging, i turned it on and the set it charging an hour later for a 20-100% charge.

I also kept it on then for a drive I did and did and got a slightly lower miles/kW of 2.2 instead of the usual 2.6.
So I turned it off now.

 

[Ian Key]

It is very confusing so I leave it on the intelligent setting and hope it is working for the best efficiency.

Please define unsatisfactory charge rate. With my granny charger I don't see much increase in the battery percentage to begin with although 1.9kW is declared by the app. I always assumed the first lot of energy going in was to warm the battery as well as to charge the battery.

Preheating the battery isn't really necessary in the UK unless it gets really cold or you are desperate for a fast charge. On a fast charger a preheated battery could cut the charging time down by 5 to 10 minutes as long as you've remembered to turn it on 20 minutes before connecting to the charger.

In general day to day use unless you are doing over 35ish miles in one go the amount of power used to preheat the battery to give you more range won't be range/cost effective.

The only times I would consider preheating the battery are:

• If I really need to save a few minutes when charging at a fast DC charger
• It's below freezing and I'm going on a journey more than 35 miles.

The rest of the time I leave it switched off.

 

[siteguru]

Personally I leave it off. If I'm going on a long journey then I might manually (via the app) preheat the battery (as well as the cabin) whilst plugged in so everything is optimal when I disconnect then set off. Otherwise I don't use it.

 

[Garmor]

This is what appears on screen when I touch the little ''i'' next to Intelligent Battery Heating. Like others I wouldn't bother with it.