Does preconditioning (setting heater or AC and / or defrosters) use power from the battery or...

Unfortunately it takes the energy from the battery.
However, once completed the 15’ pre-conditioning cycle, and provided that the car is still connected to the grid, it replenish the battery taking the energy from the outlet - usually it takes 10-15 minutes to complete the battery replenishment, depending on the external temperature.

 

That is what happens with level-1 (120 Volt) connections. When you are using level-2 (240 Volr) it draws almost entirely from it. There is a small amount taken from the battery, but that is part of the warming of the battery itself. It gets restored within just a few minutes.

 

Maybe you can help me sort out something. Obviously, I don't need to precondition with heat where I live, but it would be nice to cool the car before getting in. I don't think I've checked when I enabled preconditioning, but I think the cooling works as you describe for heating when preconditioning is enabled.

However, if I'm doing a "charge now" and use the AC button on the fob, it powers the air conditioner from the battery even though I'm using L2. My meter says I'm only pulling 0.58A even though the car wasn't finished charging. Apparently it pauses the charge when I remotely turn on the AC, uses battery to run the AC which must take more than 0.6A, and then continues charging and paying back what it took from the battery. By the time the battery is charged up, the cabin is hot again and I've wasted time and electricity.

Is that what you observe, too?

 

I don't recall ever trying that while it was still charging. A/C was always remote from the phone, while I was walking from work to the ramp after it had completed.

 

Yep. And even if the cabin is preconditioned until immediately before you enter the car, the moment you open the door it stops. It is very rare for me to just enter the car and drive away. I always have a few things to load or unload or wait for someone to enter from the passenger door. Do this outside, especially on a windy day... all preconditioned air inside of the cabin would have escaped before you have a chance to start the car again. That's why I don't use pre-conditioning. It is a total waste of energy. In a heat of summer, winding a window down for the first few miles of the drive would cool down the entire cabin. In the cold of winter, preconditioned or not the cabin will stay cold.

 

but you live in the SW

 

"Cold" and "Hot" are relative terms. We are having a Feb heat wave right now. The high temp today was 40F although it is short lived and the forecast for tomorrow is low 0F and high 14F, then goes down to -10F low following day. At our home, we had the heat turned off and every window open today enjoying the fresh air. We don't turn on our home heat unless the outside ambient temp goes below freezing (32F). In my PP, I hardly ever use heat unless the car automatically starts the engine when I turn it on. This happens when the battery is cold soaked at 14F or below for a few days, or certainly when the ambient temp is at or below 0F. If the car has to start the engine to protect the traction battery, then no point in wasting good engine heat. I will use it to warm the cabin.

 

Well, where I live we the grid provides 220V Voltage so I reckon my charger is a level 2. However, to be able to have a morning coffee with my Nespresso machine while the car finishes charging without tripping the meter, I limited the charge current to 8A. Liklely at 10A it would take a couple of minutes less to replenish the battery.

I wonder if Rav 4 Prime 6,6 kWh harger can sustain directly the HVAC power drain... but this is not the right forum for the question, I suppose.

 

This is exactly what I've noticed sitting in the car while charging. I always thought it would pull from the L2 connection while I was keeping the car cool, but I noticed that the time to charge either stayed the same or got a bit longer every time I ran a 10 minute pre-conditioning cycle using my remote.

This indicates that power for the heater or A/C is being pulled directly from the battery and that charging appears to pause while pre-conditioning. Bummer.

 

However, we know that once charging is complete, the heater will indeed draw from the plug.

 

I just tried it. The mix as previously observed did indeed take place, starting with a full & warmed battery. The status (attached image) was captured during the 10-minute heating session. 0.12 kWh was drawn from the plug then. Following that, an additional 0.22 kWh was drawn, which took another 10 minutes.

Note that I had the heater preset to 80°F and the car itself was 15°F.

 

I'm going to try to remember to try replicating this with cooling tomorrow. (Another 80º + day forecast here.) I have a meeting after supper tomorrow, so I'll set my AC to about 70 or so, shut it back off, charge the battery, note the kWh on my wall meter, hit the AC button on the fob, note the current while cooling, note the kWh after cooling, then note the same again if & when it does more charging as a result of the 10 minute AC run.

 

Results were inconclusive.

I reset my wall meter so I would get watt/hours rather than kWh.
Charging from a partial charge to full took 5,301 Wh.
When it finished charging, I hit the AC button on the FOB. Meter showed 0.58A and 3.0W from the wall while running the AC with car plugged in. AC was set to 70ºF in auto. (When it's plugged in and waiting to charge, the meter says 0.000A and 1.3-1.4 watts.)
I came back nine minutes later and the air conditioner was off. The wall meter incremented to 5,302 Wh and was back to 0.000A and 1.3 or so watts.

I tried again. Same results, but with no increase in kWh. (Still said 5,302.)

I tried a third time and after a few minutes, the AC started making a chattering sound. It was still pulling 0.58A like before but I think the AC must have hit the set point. It was very chilly in the cabin when I opened the door. The kWh still said 5,302.

I think I need to try it on a hotter day and with a lower temperature setting. When I left for my meeting not long after this test, the SOC said 100%, but within about a quarter mile, it dropped to 98%. Normally, it takes over a half mile to go below 100%. I'm pretty sure it was powering the AC from the battery but it didn't use enough energy to make the system replace the charge when it stopped cooling. I need to work it harder to confirm that theory.

 

I'd love to have a day to use the A/C in Feb... LOL. We are having another arctic blast... hopefully the last one for this season. The current temp is 0F. Tomorrow morning's low is expected to hit -10F. I would try doing an experiment on mine with heat preconditioning using the fob, but somehow, when I opted out of the Safety Connect, the fob remote A/C quit working. Even if the fob remote A/C is working, my L2 charger is still in a box. To use it, I would have to drag the heavy-duty extension cord to the 240v receptacle for the dryer 20 feet inside of our house and keep the door propped open during the charge. Not a good idea in subzero weather.

 

We topped out today at about 82 here in New Port Richey. There's a big difference between inland and coastal.