I am a new clarity owner and learned a lot here - thanks. I have read all the preconditioning thread but still don't understand why it is working only on L1 full charge but works on L2 either full or not. Or how much power preconditioning use. So I did a little unscientific experiment and here is what I found out. While plugged at L2 with battery full, I preconditioned the car. Temp outside is 46 and 60 inside according to app. At 212v, the car draws current between 4.8A-5.8A on the first few minutes then sometimes goes down to as low as 3.2A. So it is drawing around a max of 1.2Kw to precondition (heat) the car. On L2, power is split between climate control (1.2Kw) and charging the battery (5.4kw max). However, on L1, it just redirects the power to the climate control since battery is already fully charged. I would think there is some minimum power (1 kw?) required to charge the battery. So why not allow L1 preconditioning on battery that is not full? I think the logic here is to not enable preconditioning since power on L1 is just enough to charge the battery. Battery/Power management control module probably prioritize charging than sending power to climate control. Now the only way to test this theory is to limit L2 power to 1kw and see if preconditioning still works. Now if only I have a transformer to test this out. What do you guys think?
Interesting test. I think your incorrectly assuming that L1 can only charge when 100%. You can precondition on L1 with less than 100% charge. However, you do have to stop the charging first. I believe you are correct in assuming that it is the control module that prioritizes charging in this instance, and so if it is charging it won't turn on the precondition. If the car is not charging, but still plugged in, it will turn on the preconditioning, and then you will see that the car also starts to try and charge. I assume that the car isn't really charging, but rather it is showing that it is drawing power from the 120v circuit to power the precondition. (I've tried this, and while the 120v shows charging the battery will actually drop as the preconditioning is on in this circumstance.) These are just observations from my experience, since I'm charging via 120v, and so am trying all the modes out.
Do you have a killawatt to check the current drawn for L1? Interesred to know that. When i precondition using battery, my battery % drops at 3% on first 10 min. If this is somewhat accurate, then it is draining over 2kwh which is more power than L1 can supply. So in essence it is charging the battery at 1.3kw but preconditioning on battery is using probably double that amount hence the battery charge drop. In doing my test, i noticed that precondition when plugged in takes longer to work (heat up/lower blower fan) than not plugged in. My observation, while on battery mode preconditioning with outisde temp at 38 degree, heating up the cabin is quick at less than 10 minutes while it took more than 15 mins to get inside temp to 68 while plugged in (L2).
