More emphasis on 120V charging

[ryun]

So, how long does it take to go from 80% to 100%? 15 hours? Me, it takes about an hour. That's an awful lot of advanced planning.

That's about right for our EV6 in the garage (that's our road trip vehicle). Only thing I've got to remember is to remove the 80% charge limit. After that I sleep while the thing charges. Not something I really think about.

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[Mmiketa]

How do you figure how many multiples of this?

That’s usually owner driver, but if they are pursing any kind of green building certificate there are requirements to put them in based on the quantity of total parking spots available. This will vary state to state since each has slightly different codes.

 

[Jseis]

A home BEV charging scenario could be interesting. Two commuter BEVs or a jobber’s truck plus a real estate broker SUV could easily need a combined 100-160 amps pulling power off peak rates during a narrow 10 pm-5 am off peak schedule. Few homes around here are set up to deliver that power & most have 200 amp residential services for heat, lights, range, fridge, freezer, some HVAC (pretty rare). In-laws visiting, arguing about who gets to charge. Winter time holiday dining interspersed with a new power struggle & dustups.
How was the holiday dinner? “Shocking!”, “I’m completely drained”, “$20 for the effing passcode!”

 

[mcrichardson]

120v is inefficient and for the lightning in particular, not the best daily solution.
Mainly due to the limited charge speed and that it doesn't precondition the battery on 120v.

With the proliferation of adjustable current 240v evse, any home can handle a 240v upgrade. For example, the Ford charge station pro which is capable of up to 80a can be hard-wired down to 12a(15a circuit).

I keep my mobile power cord in the truck for the rare occasions I need to use 120v.
It's good to have all the bases covered but operating the lightning on only 120v just wouldn't work for me, or anyone that sees temps below 10deg C really.

I live in Fla and will leave lightning for 2 months with only 120v available. You state that 120v does not precondition the battery. Is this the 12v battery or the big batt. Please explain further.

Thanks
Mike

 

[Heliian]

precondition the battery

Battery preconditioning in relation to the lightning means the hvb.

If you are leaving for 2 months then you'll want to park the truck at 50% hvb soc and maybe put a maintainer on the 12v batt while you're gone.

I would not leave it plugged in to an evse the whole time unless you needed to keep the hvb warmed or cooled for the duration.

 

[Smokewagun]

The big battery does not get preconditioned when on 120V. Frankly, plugging in may not do much for the 12V battery either. Maybe maintain?

 

[Bwkemarshall]

If you’re talking 120V charging and you think Ford and others should be advertising that as a viable option what they really need to do is allow 120V charging to go higher than 10A for example if you have a 20A outlet in your garage which most garage’s do since it’s a new code now in many area’s you should be able to charge at 16A and with the same logic a 30A 120V campsite plug should allow 24A of charging.
Ford is really missing the boat on this one, but they have to dumb it down for the masses so somebody doesn’t try to charge at a higher rate than their wiring allows at 120V… urgh

 

[GDN]

Battery preconditioning in relation to the lightning means the hvb.

If you are leaving for 2 months then you'll want to park the truck at 50% hvb soc and maybe put a maintainer on the 12v batt while you're gone.

I would not leave it plugged in to an evse the whole time unless you needed to keep the hvb warmed or cooled for the duration.

While Ford seems to not have any or very little phantom drain, my thought on this is just the opposite. In no case do I want the HVB to hit 0% and stay there. I would definitely plug in and leave the charge limit set to 50%. Ford should be taking care of the 12v battery and initiating a charge cycle when needed, but it will need the HVB to have some charge to do so.

 

[Heliian]

While Ford seems to not have any or very little phantom drain, my thought on this is just the opposite. In no case do I want the HVB to hit 0% and stay there. I would definitely plug in and leave the charge limit set to 50%. Ford should be taking care of the 12v battery and initiating a charge cycle when needed, but it will need the HVB to have some charge to do so.

From the owners manual:

Battery Systems
We recommend the following actions for
your vehicle:
• When storing your vehicle for greater
than 30 days the state of charge
should be approximately 50%.
Additionally, we recommend
disconnecting the 12v battery which
will reduce system loads on the HV
battery.
Note: Make sure the vehicle has been
switched off and doors closed for at least
five minutes before disconnecting the 12 volt
battery

 

[GDN]

From the owners manual:

Battery Systems
We recommend the following actions for
your vehicle:
• When storing your vehicle for greater
than 30 days the state of charge
should be approximately 50%.
Additionally, we recommend
disconnecting the 12v battery which
will reduce system loads on the HV
battery.
Note: Make sure the vehicle has been
switched off and doors closed for at least
five minutes before disconnecting the 12 volt
battery

Thank you for sharing.

I agree, following their advice is truly the right way to go. However, should you end up with some drain, good luck getting them to do the right thing if your HVB drains to 0 for any reason and sits there a while.

 

[Zprime29]

It would take a VERY long time to get down to 0%. Likely in the years time frame. Mine sat in the sun in Phoenix, in June, for 10 days and showed no loss in SOC. Perhaps it might use up more in the cold. Let's assume 2% loss per month, that would be about 24.5 months from 50% on a SR battery. 3% loss would still be 16+ months. If I'm not driving it for over a year, I'd probably just lend it to family or a friend to use.

 

[Maquis]

Here is some hard data on the inefficiency of low-rate charging:
https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/onboard-charger-efficiency-measured.32983/

 

[RichB-HTX]

I have a SR XLT and started out with using the 120v charging which was painful but worked. I only got about 1-1.5 mph added. Fortunately I was able to self install a 50 amp circuit on my garage with exterior conduit and hook a Juicebox.40 to it. This was mainly needed for weekend trips to our ranch.
Back to the 120. For my M-F driving, the 120volt charging was perfectly fine.

 

[htobin]

For the first time I tried to charge at 120 volts using the Ford supplied charger. It works fine at 220v, but I was visiting my daughter. We could not get it to charge at all. The light would go from green to orange almost immediately. Does this indicate something wrong with the charger?

 

[Rlevans]

Not sure if anyone else has run into this but we recently stayed at an Airbnb with some friends. I plugged my level 1 into an outdoor outlet and the host came by and freaked out. She got really aggressive insinuating that I was stealing her electricity lol.
I tried to explain to her that it wasn't a huge load but she wouldn't hear it and threatened to kick us out if I plugged the truck in.

Anyway she's obviously BSC but just a quick PSA: ask and check first if you can plug in at the rental.
I know for me it will be a potential dealbreaker in the future if I can t trickle charge overnight.

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