Heater draining battery

[Ray]

Hi
I have just taken possession of my 2019 Outlander PHEV. I have a simple question that I'm sure most of you guys will already know ...... but I'm still learning , so please help a newby out eh ? LOL Anyway , if I leave my PHEV on charge over night , using a UK 3pin plug , and I set the heater to come on via the app ........ Will my battery still be fully charged in the morning ?? .... or will the heater drain the battery. ....... or will the charge just keep topping up the battery as it depletes because of the heater ??? Many thank
Ray

 

[AndyInOz]

Hi Ray,

It's a bit of a balancing act.

The cable can't provide enough power to run the heater and charge the battery.

If you run the heater and then keep charging for a while after that, the battery can catch up again.

However, if you are in a cold area, then the car will cool down again.

For comfort, you're better off having the heater run just before you want to use the car, but it will reduce your range a bit.

(Sorry, I don't know how much)

 

[Ray]

Thank you Andy that's very helpful.

 

[ThudnBlundr]

On my 2015 car, if the car is fully charged before the timed heating comes on, it doesn't seem to start to charge again. It's almost as if the charging system has "gone to sleep". My workaround is to set the heating timer and the charging to start at the same time, as then it works fine. This assumes that you've managed to charge fully by midnight.

The electric heater takes a maximum of 4kW. The granny charge can only provide ~2.5kW max, but it will draw less if the battery is nearly full. Even plugged into a type 2 socket, the PHEV can only draw a maximum of 3.6kW. So the charger will always be playing catchup with the heating unless you set it to heat for a while.

 

[Ray]

Cheers Thud. That's very helpful.