Wait, you're telling me preheating actually made them worse? That's wild.

Actually, gibson.oliver, I gotta push back on that "efficiency drops way off once you get below 20" thing a bit. Modern cold climate heat pumps like the Mitsubishi Hyper Heat or Gree Flexx are rated to put out 100% of their rated capacity down to like -5 or even -13 degrees in some models. So they don't just "work" at 5 degrees, they actually still put out full heat. The efficiency does go down as it gets colder, but it's not some huge drop off where you need emergency backup at 20 degrees. More like below zero is where you might need the furnace to kick in. You could set the dual fuel switchover at 15 or 20 degrees and still save a ton on gas the rest of the winter. Have you looked at the specific efficiency numbers for the models sold in your area?

It's honestly the same thing I see everywhere now, people getting so obsessed with the LOOK of something they totally forget about the actual substance behind it. Social media has everyone chasing "grill marks" in life instead of putting in the work to get the real result.

Oh man, I totally get this. I had a sticker on my old car that said "My other car is also a Subaru" in like six different fonts and it looked like a ransom note. I thought I was being funny but people would just stare at it with this confused look on their faces. There's definitely a sweet spot where it's readable but still interesting. I think anything over 5 words starts to push it unless you get one of those simple block letter designs.

Drive 20 miles and you're already at the charger so the battery is barely warm. You only saved time because you got lucky with a warm day or a short wait. Most of us drive less than 5 miles to a fast charger so preconditioning is still worth it.