New owner, heating related question!

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gazter

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48 hours in to owning a long range excite mg5. A few questions:
1) Ignoring the GOM, what’s the impact of having the heater on in the present weather on the total range if driving from charged to empty?
2) If I go to the car while it is plugged on the granny charger to preheat, can I make it so the heat comes from the electricity off the charging cable and not from the hv battery ?

(guessing the cold weather lengthens how long it takes to charge the battery, it took even longer than I anticipated on the granny charger for first charge)

thanks
 
It's going to be really difficult to answer that first question, for most of us, this is the first winter with the long range though obviously previous experience in other cars might be applicable.
As always driving style generally makes by far the biggest difference to range but ambient temperature will also have marked effect on range just from simple physics.

I think some users have tried to evaluate having the heater/air con on and found little effect overall on mileage.

Personally I would say have the heater on and drive a bit slower (if you're concerned about range) as opposed to no heater and driving quicker so you don't freeze to death!

Similar rules apply to "pre-heating" the car, typically the car does about 4kw/mile (half that when it's cold possibly), if you picture what a 4kw heater could heat in an hour (a lot) then overall, using the heater/fans etc for a few minutes isn't going to make a huge difference unless you're planning a very long journey without stops etc.

We're on Octopus Go tariff so only charge for the 4 hours a night and was seeing approx 12% charge toped up in that time.

Welcome to the club and good luck.

Andy
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Knuttt said:
It's going to be really difficult to answer that first question, for most of us, this is the first winter with the long range though obviously previous experience in other cars might be applicable.
As always driving style generally makes by far the biggest difference to range but ambient temperature will also have marked effect on range just from simple physics.

I think some users have tried to evaluate having the heater/air con on and found little effect overall on mileage.

Personally I would say have the heater on and drive a bit slower (if you're concerned about range) as opposed to no heater and driving quicker so you don't freeze to death!

Similar rules apply to "pre-heating" the car, typically the car does about 4kw/mile (half that when it's cold possibly), if you picture what a 4kw heater could heat in an hour (a lot) then overall, using the heater/fans etc for a few minutes isn't going to make a huge difference unless you're planning a very long journey without stops etc.

We're on Octopus Go tarrif so only charge for the 4 hours a night and was seeing approx 12% charge toped up in that time.

Welcome to the club and good luck.

Andy
Click to expand...
thanks for that... i guess it is suck it and see :)
 
gazter said:
48 hours in to owning a long range excite mg5. A few questions:
1) Ignoring the GOM, what’s the impact of having the heater on in the present weather on the total range if driving from charged to empty?
2) If I go to the car while it is plugged on the granny charger to preheat, can I make it so the heat comes from the electricity off the charging cable and not from the hv battery ?

(guessing the cold weather lengthens how long it takes to charge the battery, it took even longer than I anticipated on the granny charger for first charge)

thanks
Click to expand...
1. Why ignore the GOM. reset the trip meters, then with heating off look at GOM, then with heating on look at GOM. There you have the difference.

2. Does it matter if you are charging ? Take power for heat from HV, whilst putting power into HV from granny.
 
This morning, first thing, at 0 deg C, my ZS was pulling 14-15 Amps with the front and rear demisters on (heat and fan one notch under full blast) which works out at about 6kW. By my reckoning, if you have it on full for one hour it will eat about 20 miles of the range max.
My 20 minute 5-6 mile journey + 10 minutes clearing the snow off ate 10 miles off the GOM total. So I lost 4 miles. I was using demist for 10 minutes then back down to setting of 4 blobs heat and 4 fan for the journey.
So basically it depends how hot you like to be. I'd factor in a 40% loss in range as a worst case scenario.
Of course it's going to be less loss if you set the heat lower.
 
I've found the heater has far more impact than driving style. With the heater on at this time of year, driving really carefully, I get about 2.5 m/kwh. Heater off ( only using heated seats ), I easily get 3 to 3.5m/kwh. The exception seems to be going over early 60's towards 70ish. That really hammers the economy with or without heater. ( with heater at 70mph last week I got about 2.2mkwh ). Driving Mg5LR.

I've done a comparison with my plan B car - Volvo xc70 2.4AWD which does 30mpg around the villages and 40mpg on a long run. I'd have to be getting 0.5m/kwh(!) in the Mg5 to get near the cost of the Volvo ( at £1.49 ) a gallon. And even if it did get down to 0.5m/kwh I'd still have a lovely quiet drive and convenience of not going near a petrol station! So, basically, chasing economy is interesting only. It's always going to be between amazing and great..

Maybe there should be a forum competition to see who can get the worst economy in their MG. Tips: Depths of winter, steady 70mph, fill the boot with concrete blocks, set heater to MAX, fan to MAX, heated seats, rear window, in-laws in the backseats ( 3 off ), large passenger, SPORT with KERS1, sofa on the roof racks ( or in the in laws )...then drive like you stole it. Bet it would still get about 2m/kwh :)
 
gazter said:
48 hours in to owning a long range excite mg5. A few questions:
1) Ignoring the GOM, what’s the impact of having the heater on in the present weather on the total range if driving from charged to empty?
2) If I go to the car while it is plugged on the granny charger to preheat, can I make it so the heat comes from the electricity off the charging cable and not from the hv battery ?

(guessing the cold weather lengthens how long it takes to charge the battery, it took even longer than I anticipated on the granny charger for first charge)

thanks
Click to expand...
1 - The heater will have a huge impact at the start of your journey heating up the car but then fades away to maintaining heat. Plenty of things have an impact such as lights, wipers, wet roads etc

I learnt to keep heating at its lowest setting, 16C on my LEAF and drive a bit slower in the winter and if desperate turn off the heater & use heated seats!

Depend on journey length versus range available!

2 - A fully charged car will not draw from the granny charger to heat the car but a part charged one will. Basically if the charge rate would have been 2.3 kw, you get the full rate, below that less. The power must charge the traction battery to charge the 12V battery to power the heater. That route isn't open to a fully charged battery.
 
sparkygoat said:
....

I've done a comparison with my plan B car - Volvo xc70 2.4AWD which does 30mpg around the villages and 40mpg on a long run. I'd have to be getting 0.5m/kwh(!) in the Mg5 to get near the cost of the Volvo ( at £1.49 ) a gallon. And even if it did get down to 0.5m/kwh I'd still have a lovely quiet drive and convenience of not going near a petrol station! So, basically, chasing economy is interesting only. It's always going to be between amazing and great..

...
Click to expand...
£1.49 / litre = c. £6.70 / gallon :)
 
sparkygoat said:
Maybe there should be a forum competition to see who can get the worst economy in their MG. Tips: Depths of winter, steady 70mph, fill the boot with concrete blocks, set heater to MAX, fan to MAX, heated seats, rear window, in-laws in the backseats ( 3 off ), large passenger, SPORT with KERS1, sofa on the roof racks ( or in the in laws )...then drive like you stole it. Bet it would still get about 2m/kwh :)
Click to expand...
You forgot to mention in the pouring rain with the windows open to keep that heater going full blast!
 
EVsince2016 said:
1 - The heater will have a huge impact at the start of your journey heating up the car but then fades away to maintaining heat. Plenty of things have an impact such as lights, wipers, wet roads etc

I learnt to keep heating at its lowest setting, 16C on my LEAF and drive a bit slower in the winter and if desperate turn off the heater & use heated seats!

Depend on journey length versus range available!

2 - A fully charged car will not draw from the granny charger to heat the car but a part charged one will. Basically if the charge rate would have been 2.3 kw, you get the full rate, below that less. The power must charge the traction battery to charge the 12V battery to power the heater. That route isn't open to a fully charged battery.
Click to expand...
Thanks that makes sense...
Shocking range today, about 45 miles took thirty percent of range... but then i wasnt trying to conserve anything, just driving how i normally would in an ICE vehicle.
 
So I recently did my longest drive, from Bristol to Greenwich via M25, working out at 160 miles.

I had the temp at 23 (demister setting) and the lowest strength. It was 4C dropping down to 1 by my arrival. All but about 30 miles was motorway which I drove at 65 (and ALL the motorway driving was done by MG Pilot)

Was getting pretty much bang on 2 miles per percentage of battery. Arrived at my destination with 20% left in the battery. So it might have made it 200 miles had I kept going
 
Did a 130 mile trip yesterday at 0c to 3c starting at 100% and used 75% battery. That's a total range of 173 miles, down from ~220 in warm weather. Using the ac/heater sparingly to take the chill off and clear the windscreen. Turning the heater on all the way would have taken maybe another 30 miles off that.
For many of us it's our first winter running an EV and it's a learning experience.
 
EVsince2016 said:
1 - The heater will have a huge impact at the start of your journey heating up the car but then fades away to maintaining heat. Plenty of things have an impact such as lights, wipers, wet roads etc

I learnt to keep heating at its lowest setting, 16C on my LEAF and drive a bit slower in the winter and if desperate turn off the heater & use heated seats!

Depend on journey length versus range available!

2 - A fully charged car will not draw from the granny charger to heat the car but a part charged one will. Basically if the charge rate would have been 2.3 kw, you get the full rate, below that less. The power must charge the traction battery to charge the 12V battery to power the heater. That route isn't open to a fully charged battery.
Click to expand...
Here is a good video, released yesterday by EVM that explains the effects on range etc in the winter time.

 
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