Air Conditioning While Idle

roscoe · Sunday at 1:27 PM

Is there any downside to running the AC while parked? (other than some battery drain). Would doing that put any additional wear and tear on the system that would be any different than using it while driving?

I occasionally need to kill an hour in between kids activities and I’d like to sit in the truck with the air on, but it just feels odd to me (probably based on old advice related to idling prior to owning an ev). Irrational concern or proceed with caution?

Grumpy2 · Sunday at 1:30 PM

You have no reason for concern, it is just like your home window AC unit.
I use it all the time for "dog mode".

P-38 · Sunday at 1:50 PM

I use it as well for kids activities or when my wife is shopping. It's weird because I was raised to never idle even for AC because it wasted gas...but since it's electric that does not apply...yes it uses energy but not as much as running engine for AC.

Yeah it's like home system, just a couple motors running off electricity.

Howard_Scott_Warshaw · Sunday at 3:47 PM

I appreciate seeing questions like this on occasion. While the answer may seem intuitive and perhaps obvious after-the-fact, the question still often remains.

Run it. It won't hurt anything. I've had my truck in ghetto Dog Mode for 6+ hours and it only used ~2-3% of the battery range. Also to those concerned, YES, the dog was let out to piddle and walk and drink every ~two hours.

SpaceEVDriver · Sunday at 3:49 PM

I use it for when I’m out in the field and have to call in to meetings. It’s a literal life-saver and so much better than in an ICE.

FloridaMan655321 · Sunday at 4:16 PM

During the summer I will leave the truck running all the time when I go in somewhere. The other day I had stopped at 3-4 places and I left the truck running the whole time, and it was hella nice getting into a cool cabin. Then the following day we had an event and I had to put some food back in the truck after a picnic, just started it up and left it running. Took a couple hours to finish cleaning up and didn't care at all.

CD4TNF · Sunday at 4:38 PM

It's a truck. Use it as you need to. Ford tough.

I recently did my own test to see the consumption. Been thinking about bringing my pets with me on a longer trip. Wanted to make sure it would stay on. Here's my driveway test notes.

5 hr 15 min test on Lightning.
41% -> 37% SOC
About 1% /hr loss with climate on. Truck locked. Can plug in and charge and keep truck climate on.

Firn · Sunday at 6:33 PM

roscoe said:
Is there any downside to running the AC while parked? (other than some battery drain). Would doing that put any additional wear and tear on the system that would be any different than using it while driving?

I occasionally need to kill an hour in between kids activities and I’d like to sit in the truck with the air on, but it just feels odd to me (probably based on old advice related to idling prior to owning an ev). Irrational concern or proceed with caution?

As others have correctly said, its fine.

The only thing that is different compared to when you are driving is there is no natural airflow through the cooling radiator, but thats why the fan is there. Other than that its just an AC compressor run by an electric motor and it works the same if the truck is driving or still. No concerns driving with the AC on for hours on end, same here.

Texas Dan · Monday at 12:24 AM

I have a back seat air mattress and I often sleep in my truck on my frequent trips to Colorado. The HVAC system in the Lightning will run in either accessory or full on mode. I found it’s better to run Lightning in full on mode with the lights off for extended idle times because in accessory mode the system will turn off after a time.

Full on mode also has a timer but you can tell the timer to turn off when the timer dialogue box pops up. It is also possible to run the HVAC system in either accessory or full on mode while charging. The HVAC system uses so little power when sleeping in the Lightning overnight that there is no reason to worry about significant depletion of battery as long as you have plenty of range to get to your next planned charging location to start with.

Adventureboy · Monday at 6:32 AM

Run it.... It also has the benefit of keeping your little 12v battery charged, which can be a challenge in some scenarios. Running it for an hour tops up the 12v and has very little impact on the traction battery SOC.
I leave mine on regularly when I run into stores to get things. I usually turn off the lights so folks around don't freak out that I left my lights on. Remember to turn them back on when you return. Normal timeout is 30 minutes, so it will shut off if you don't acknowledge the popup or turn the timer off before you leave it.

bryce · Monday at 7:20 AM

Two questions here:
1) how do you leave the vehicle running and leave/lock the vehicle? What about the key?
2) why run the AC when shopping instead of just logging in to the app and starting climate control when heading back out to the vehicle?

Adventureboy · Monday at 7:33 AM

bryce said:
Two questions here:
1) how do you leave the vehicle running and leave/lock the vehicle? What about the key?
2) why run the AC when shopping instead of just logging in to the app and starting climate control when heading back out to the vehicle?

Take the key with you and lock it when you leave. It will remain running with doors locked and won't shift out of park without the key in the cabin.
For 2 that works fine for longer shopping times, but many times, I'm in/out in 10-15 minutes, so leaving it running works out better for the shorter trips for both for cabin temp and for 12v battery health. If it is a quick trip a short distance from the house, leaving it running is much better for the 12v. There's plenty of info on this forum about this issue.

chl · Monday at 9:19 AM

My experience.

1) When I leave the truck running and walk away it honks at me once - maybe because I didn't lock it? Annoying esp at night.

2) Back when I wasn't getting OTA updates (last summer) the Ford folks said to leave the truck running or drive around for an hour or two to charge the 12v battery then the OTA will install - didn't work for me - the only thing that worked was plugging the truck into my FCSP and charging the HV battery overnight as was suggested by a post on this forum. But maybe the updates to the LV battery charging software set points since then fixed that issue and leaving it on would charge it fully - haven't tried that.

3) Last summer, when it was over 100F, I drove 10 min and I parked in an asphalt outdoor parking lot in direct sunlight while I went in to shop for about 20 minutes.

I had used the MAX AC on the way there.

I DIDN'T leave the truck running with AC while shopping.

When I returned to the truck, started it up and turned on the MAX AC, there was an overwhelming smell of coolant in the air from the system, so bad I had to open the windows and shut off the Max AC - wasn't blowing cold air either.

I believe it was probably an intermittent seal leak in a compressor due to the extreme temperature (over 100F ambient and hot asphalt parking lot in direct sun) which can cause a pressure build up in AC system and cause a seal to leak (gleaned from an AC expert in the family and the Internet - also, other Lightning owners have reported the same sort of thing on the forum). No active leaks in the cooling system apparent under normal conditions.

Intermittent because I got home, a 10 min drive, parked in the shade, and a few hours later tried the MAX AC again - no smell and the AC worked fine. I reported it to Ford, but since it never reoccurred last summer, and there were no other issues, no warnings/alerts, etc., no reason to take in for a check-up they said, unless it happens again. It didn't/hasn't. Fingers crossed.

Bottom line, if I had left the truck running with the AC on maybe the event in (3) would not have happened?

BTW, I have the MAX TOW package with the extra cooling system, 2023 SR Pro.