Heating/Cooling

[OriginalBigAl]

There has been much discussion on the heating side of the air con , has anyone any input as to the efficiency of the cooling side . If there is anyone in Thailand reading this your experience would be useful. Here we are in early spring with summer temps expected in the late 30,s early 40,s. Cheers.

 

[siteguru]

It was warm the other day - especially in the car when I got in (as it had been sitting out in the sun) - and when I set off I noticed that the AC was cooling the car, and seemed to do so quite effectively.

But anecdote is not data.

 

[tsedge]

Not been hot enough yet here to find out!

 

[Rolfe]

Today has been extremely sunny, although not at all warm in the open air due to an east wind. After driving for about half an hour then sitting in full sun for over two hours, my car was pretty warm inside. I decided to try out the cooling and simply tabbed down the temperature on the display. It seemed to work pretty well with a pleasant coolness spreading from floor level. If I'd stopped to figure out how to direct the air on to the upper part of the car it would probably have been even better.

Not much of a challenge and nothing to compare to Thailand, but I thought it was promising.

 

[OriginalBigAl]

Well you would hope that a car made for its home market in China would be effective in this matter, but you cannot beat 1st hand experience , never really needed it in Lancashire. Three windscreen wipers would have been better.

 

[SteveJ]

Can't complain about the AC here in Thailand on my car, its un-seasonally warm this year

The Mrs uses the car locally purely on elec mode around town and AC has its own power so copes very well, even if just power on and in neutral waiting outside a shop

The MG control app allows us to set the AC on for 10mins before we go out which is a nice touch as car inside temp can easily reach 40c

On a drive of 200km with AC set at 24C and fan at 5 it was no trouble but we are more use to the heat and setting it at say 20C would have us shivering LOL, even at 24c it turns the inside on my left arm quite cold from the central vent if I aim not careful

The wife the other day accidently touched the air flow part of the touch screen took me ages to realize this as we only had demist effectively

 

[drivethru]

I found in the UK, heating does take a toll on the battery/range when the weather is cold.

 

[Rolfe]

I'm finding that too. It's useful to know how much difference it makes, if only to know that you should turn it off and freeze if necessary if you're getting worried about range.

 

[drivethru]

Accoe

I'm finding that too. It's useful to know how much difference it makes, if only to know that you should turn it off and freeze if necessary if you're getting worried about range.

according to some on the mg5 / zs forum - the heater pulls around 6kw.

That is a lot but it's also something I adore about the mg4 - the speed at which the cabin is heated - it's very quick compare to an ICE where the engine has to warm up first.

 

[Rolfe]

I was really surprised by how warm the cabin was the only time I tried the pre-heating function. I mean, ten minutes?

I wonder if the effect of heating on range is what started that suggestion that people stuck in the snow in EVs would freeze because "the cars have very little heating"? You'd probably be better off than an ICE car because you wouldn't have to run the engine.

When you say 6KW, that's presumably with constant operation? But the heater isn't going to operate constantly to keep a reasonable temperature unless it's absolutely arctic out, so you're not going to drop 6KWh in an hour in reasonable conditions I would presume. And even an SR with a half-full battery has over 20KWh in there.

I'm thinking about the guy in the Tesla who camped out at -26C and didn't do anything alarming to his (presumably large) battery overnight while heating the cabin and watching videos on the infotainment screen. But he did line all the windows with heavy insulation and that would have made a huge difference.

 

[drbilo]

There has been much discussion on the heating side of the air con , has anyone any input as to the efficiency of the cooling side . If there is anyone in Thailand reading this your experience would be useful. Here we are in early spring with summer temps expected in the late 30,s early 40,s. Cheers.

Got an MG4 in Bangkok. Found the air conditioning to be excellent. Cools down quickly and keeps the car cool without a problem. Energy wise it uses less than what I typically regen in a longish drive so effectively getting air con for free.

 

[SteveJ]

Got an MG4 in Bangkok. Found the air conditioning to be excellent. Cools down quickly and keeps the car cool without a problem. Energy wise it uses less than what I typically regen in a longish drive so effectively getting air con for free.

Do you notice when battery is full or high the regen is capped to say -5 and not till your battery is down a bit will it go to -15 for an example, so it catches you out on breaking a bit ?

 

[drbilo]

Do you notice when battery is full or high the regen is capped to say -5 and not till your battery is down a bit will it go to -15 for an example, so it catches you out on breaking a bit ?

Haven't noticed that tbh. Although I very rarely go above 80% charge as I don't use it for long distances often. Will keep an eye out for it though

 

[OriginalBigAl]

Got an MG4 in Bangkok. Found the air conditioning to be excellent. Cools down quickly and keeps the car cool without a problem. Energy wise it uses less than what I typically regen in a longish drive so effectively getting air con for free.

Thank you, this is the answer I,ve been looking for , looking forwards to summer now!

 

[siteguru]

Got an MG4 in Bangkok. Found the air conditioning to be excellent. Cools down quickly and keeps the car cool without a problem. Energy wise it uses less than what I typically regen in a longish drive so effectively getting air con for free.

Likewise here ... if I have a longish drive (30+ miles) I find that regen benefits tend to equate to AC usage. (Unless I start from 100% SoC in which case regen is restricted until the battery SoC falls).