How much power does "camping mode" consume?

[richl025]

I put the quotes in the title because of course, Ford has failed to deliver such a (seemingly) simple option.

I just got back from an overnight camping trip, and was shocked at how much juice I lost running only a small powered cooler.

Truck left "on", lights off, climate control off and center display set to "quiet mode." Temps were in the 40s-50s at night.

SOC went from 60% to 54% over about 18 hours - that's almost 8 kWh!!!

The entire time I was using the PPOB, there was a subtle whine / fan noise coming from the frunk area.

The cooler is, admittedly, old. It's a Coleman, probably about 10 years old, and it's designed to run off 12V - but it comes with a 120V adapter. There is no power info on the cooler itself, but the adaptor states its max input is 120V 1.4 amp

So if my math is right, even if the cooler were running at _max_ for the 18 hours, that would still only be ~ 3kWh - and given the outside temps, there is no way the cooler was running that much.

Does this power "waste" match what everyone else is experiencing? Could this just be horrible inefficiency from converting the 120V PPOB to the 12V the cooler needed? I wouldn't THINK so, given the max power input of the 12V converter, but I'm trying to think of all possibilities.

I did a little test last night of leaving the truck "on" overnight without a load on the PPOB, but of course the PPOB shut down (no load) and I forgot to turn off the truck's shutdown timer

Sponsored

 

[bthanos]

Not normal. In my experience the camping mode is very efficient assuming you turn off lights and climate. Something else is draining the battery.

 

[sd25]

With temps in the 40s-50s I'm guessing since the truck was on, it spent some of that energy warming up the battery pack.

We really need a proper camping mode, or at least the ability to keep the truck "off" and power the outlets.

 

[hturnerfamily]

I understand your initial reservation about not having such as thing of 'Camping Mode', which may be a condition or option on some other vehicles, yes, but, the reality is that the truck doesn't care whether it is 'OFF' or it is 'ON' ... there is nothing else happening when it is ON and providing ProPower output, as when it is OFF and providing the same ProPower output, with, the exception possibly of the Driver Screen illumination....

The sound you hear from the front, or frunk area, is the inverter, which has to convert DC power into AC power, for your fridge, or camper, or tools, or whatever you are powering... it likely will 'run' only when a load is needing to be powered, but it will also need a small amount of power to keep it 'ON', or active.

You can lock the doors, while so...
We've done this many times with our camper, off-grid, when the truck gave us all the 120v or 240v power we needed, for roof air conditioning, microwaving, TV....everything... all night long.

I don't view usage of 6% over 18 hours all that great. Most of the advertising surrounding 'whole house' ProPower usage states "up to 3 to 10 days, depending on usage..." but, that's all dependent upon amperage, devices, how often they are powered, etc.

Whether the truck is ON or OFF, in the end, doesn't really matter, but personal preference may dictate whether you get annoyed by it...

My wife's brand new KIA EV9 has a 'Utility Mode', for either it's 120v outlet in the rear, or using a special 120v adapter to glean power from the J1772 inlet... either way, while the power will continue, you cannot lock the car doors, during that time...
....now THAT'S annoying!

 

[vvgogh]

SOC went from 60% to 54% over about 18 hours!!!

Others have reported the truck consumes about 400W ON with AC outlets on. Your test mirrors those reports with larger error bars. You measured 365-509W depending on the fractional percent of the start and end. An accessory battery and inverter is much more efficient for small loads. And you can recharge the accessory battery off solar for perpetual cooler power.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I’ve camped a lot with the Lightning. Every camping trip I'm always running a 60 liter dual-zone fridge / freezer (averages 23 W power draw), cooking on an induction cooktop (1500 W), boiling water in an electric kettle (1500 W), etc.

With a few hundred watts of solar and a 5 kWh auxiliary battery running an L1 charger as well as the fridge, etc, I leave the campsite having gained charge, not lost it.

I've never seen anywhere near as much as 400 W being used by PPOB on its own. Usually it consumes less than 90 W.

I have enabled the "silent" mode, toggle which disables nearly all lights and beeping from the truck. I also keep the key fob far enough away from the truck that there's no accidental communication.

My guess is there's something missing from your record/memory. Did you leave the HVAC, steering wheel, seat heaters, or cabin fan on? Did you have some other power-using device plugged in? Did you keep the key fob near enough so that the truck was regularly responding to it?

 

[Ricks Lightning]

If you ran the 12 volt cooler off the LVB 12v frunk battery, and started the truck once or twice, wouldn't that have been more efficient than what you experienced?
Is our LVB 45ah?
Is the truck capable of automatically recharging the lvb as need be or does the truck need to be running or be plugged in? Seems like an simple software upgrade to have the hvb charge the lvb in this kind of situation..

I have a Bluetooth 12v battery app on my off grid solar system and it shows a minute by minute bar graph of the battery showing voltage with weeks of history you can scroll back too. Pretty simple to see your SOC when using just you lvb to run the cooler..

Rick

 

[bthanos]

It has to be running to recharge it unfortunately

 

[Ricks Lightning]

It has to be running to recharge it unfortunately

How about the 5 minute remote start climate control? That should be a simple task with your phone or key fob. Even a small 100 watt solar panel should keep the voltage high enough to engage the proper relays to allow the hvb to engage.

My off grid solar that runs my 25cubic foot fridge freezer only draws. Approx 150 watts at approx 15 minutes on and 15 minute off cycles..so in theory I'm using 75wh plus the start up compressor load and constant 20 watt load to run the 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter 24/7.

Either that camping fridge is very inefficient or the truck is using lots of power to keep an outlet live. Eliminate the 120 v inverter and keep the 12lvb charged, even if you need to just carry an accessory 12 v battery.

Rick

 

[Bestword57]

I put the quotes in the title because of course, Ford has failed to deliver such a (seemingly) simple option.

I just got back from an overnight camping trip, and was shocked at how much juice I lost running only a small powered cooler.

Truck left "on", lights off, climate control off and center display set to "quiet mode." Temps were in the 40s-50s at night.

SOC went from 60% to 54% over about 18 hours - that's almost 8 kWh!!!

The entire time I was using the PPOB, there was a subtle whine / fan noise coming from the frunk area.

The cooler is, admittedly, old. It's a Coleman, probably about 10 years old, and it's designed to run off 12V - but it comes with a 120V adapter. There is no power info on the cooler itself, but the adaptor states its max input is 120V 1.4 amp

So if my math is right, even if the cooler were running at _max_ for the 18 hours, that would still only be ~ 3kWh - and given the outside temps, there is no way the cooler was running that much.

Does this power "waste" match what everyone else is experiencing? Could this just be horrible inefficiency from converting the 120V PPOB to the 12V the cooler needed? I wouldn't THINK so, given the max power input of the 12V converter, but I'm trying to think of all possibilities.

I did a little test last night of leaving the truck "on" overnight without a load on the PPOB, but of course the PPOB shut down (no load) and I forgot to turn off the truck's shutdown timer

A Kill-O-Watt or similar power meter could out rule any unwarranted load from the older cooler. But I suspect like others it could be a re-calculation of SOC based on temperature changes experienced by the BMS, plus energy to keep the battery in its happy zone.

 

[TaxmanHog]

The entire time I was using the PPOB, there was a subtle whine / fan noise coming from the frunk area.

The glycol circulator is humming while in RUN/READY mode to chill any heat generated by the PPOB inverter(s).

Did you only have the FRUNK inverter on for the small powered cooler?

 

[richl025]

I’ve camped a lot with the Lightning. Every camping trip I'm always running a 60 liter dual-zone fridge / freezer (averages 23 W power draw), cooking on an induction cooktop (1500 W), boiling water in an electric kettle (1500 W), etc.

With a few hundred watts of solar and a 5 kWh auxiliary battery running an L1 charger as well as the fridge, etc, I leave the campsite having gained charge, not lost it.

I've never seen anywhere near as much as 400 W being used by PPOB on its own. Usually it consumes less than 90 W.

I have enabled the "silent" mode, toggle which disables nearly all lights and beeping from the truck. I also keep the key fob far enough away from the truck that there's no accidental communication.

My guess is there's something missing from your record/memory. Did you leave the HVAC, steering wheel, seat heaters, or cabin fan on? Did you have some other power-using device plugged in? Did you keep the key fob near enough so that the truck was regularly responding to it?

No to everything except the key fob - that was kept inside the cabin. But could whatever commo back and forth have sucked up THAT much power?

 

[richl025]

The glycol circulator is humming while in RUN/READY mode to chill any heat generated by the PPOB inverter(s).

Did you only have the FRUNK inverter on for the small powered cooler?

No, I was using the bed outlets

Other people's comments about the battery tempterature are interesting - and a possible source of lost power? It got into the mid 40s overnight, so if the truck was using juice to keep the battery in temp range??? I have no idea how much power that would take, but could account for it.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

No to everything except the key fob - that was kept inside the cabin. But could whatever commo back and forth have sucked up THAT much power?

Probably not.

It might be the truck keeping the high voltage battery warm.

Too many unknowns to be sure.

 

[TaxmanHog]

No, I was using the bed outlets

Other people's comments about the battery tempterature are interesting - and a possible source of lost power? It got into the mid 40s overnight, so if the truck was using juice to keep the battery in temp range??? I have no idea how much power that would take, but could account for it.

I don't think the PTC was activated for a discharging HVB condition, but the residual heat generated by PPOB might have 'helped' the condition of the HVB to moderate degree.

Active heating of the HVB is only going to happen while enroute to a DCFC charging stations AND the battery is really cold to optimize recharging

Sponsored