What about hot climates?

[Highpi]

A lot has been discussed about cold climates and battery life/range. How does the Lightning handle hot summers? I'm in California, in the Sacramento valley and apparently we are trying to become Phoenix North for summer temps. Winter temps are in the 30's, so I'm not too concerned about that. But, the summers have prolonged 100 to 110+ degree days, so I have a couple of questions...

Any of you AZ folks having heat issues in terms of charging/loss of range, anything like that?

The truck will live outside 100% of the time. If I mount the charger outside, it will face west and get blasted all afternoon. I could probably build a box to keep direct sun off it.

Any problems with the charger in full sun?

I could mount it inside and charge, but the garage door will have to be up a bit and we do have occasional rats roaming about.

I think that's all, for now. I'm sure I'll have other questions as we go along.

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[Zprime29]

This thread may be of interest.
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/ah-summer-is-here-in-the-valley-of-the-sun.19700/

In general, uses less energy for A/C than it does heat. Seems to de just fine otherwise. I see maybe 10% range loss vs ideal weather.

 

[astrand1]

A lot has been discussed about cold climates and battery life/range. How does the Lightning handle hot summers? I'm in California, in the Sacramento valley and apparently we are trying to become Phoenix North for summer temps. Winter temps are in the 30's, so I'm not too concerned about that. But, the summers have prolonged 100 to 110+ degree days, so I have a couple of questions...

Any of you AZ folks having heat issues in terms of charging/loss of range, anything like that?

The truck will live outside 100% of the time. If I mount the charger outside, it will face west and get blasted all afternoon. I could probably build a box to keep direct sun off it.

Any problems with the charger in full sun?

I could mount it inside and charge, but the garage door will have to be up a bit and we do have occasional rats roaming about.

I think that's all, for now. I'm sure I'll have other questions as we go along.

I would build at least some kind of shade for the charger. Can’t hurt.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Shade the evse.
Drive the truck.
Enjoy it.

 

[Highpi]

This thread may be of interest.
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/ah-summer-is-here-in-the-valley-of-the-sun.19700/

In general, uses less energy for A/C than it does heat. Seems to de just fine otherwise. I see maybe 10% range loss vs ideal weather.

Thanks, that was helpful!

 

[Highpi]

Shade the evse.
Drive the truck.
Enjoy it.

Keep it simple...
One idea is to set up the charger on the other side of my garage, which would shade it a bit more and just stretch the cord across. It should still reach, depending on which charger I get. Aren't most 20-24'?

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Keep it simple...
One idea is to set up the charger on the other side of my garage, which would shade it a bit more and just stretch the cord across. It should still reach, depending on which charger I get. Aren't most 20-24'?

Exactly.

 

[Buio]

My personal experience is that charging time & charger performance is tremendously impacted by the heat.

My Ford charger is outside , but constantly shaded & the charging time is tripled in summer , compared to what it is now. In summer it's constantly fluctuating rate of charge & more frustrating , completely stopping / starting.

In this weather , it pretty consistently stays at a 16 kwh charge rate. Summer , it very rarely stays there beyond the 1st couple minutes of charging.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

My Ford Charge Station Pro has an environmental conditions specification of:
Operating Temperature: -40 °C to +45 °C (-40 ºF to +113 ºF) ambient

My ChargePoint Home Flex has an environmental conditions specification of:
Operating Temperature: -30°C to 50°C (-22°F to 122°F) ambient

If you live in a place where the ambient air temperature climbs to more than 110 ºF, and you have the EVSE attached to a surface that sees direct sun or is subject to re-radiation of energy from an absorbing ground material for any length of time in the summer, the EVSE will likely experience temperatures in excess of 50 ºC/122 ºF, which will cause it to overheat and derate or even shut down. If that's the case, you may need to mount it such that it has an air gap from the wall and is shielded from not only direct sun but also indirect sun--a concrete surface could easily re-radiate enough energy to a nearby electronics device to cause it to overheat even when ambient temperatures are lower than 120 ºF.

In Las Vegas, NV, a team of medical researchers trying to quantify weird burns they were seeing in the ERs measured material temperatures in the sun vs in shade. Maximum recorded temperatures for sunlight-exposed materials, when ambient temperature was 120°F and solar irradiation 940 W/m2:

• porous rock: 170°F
• asphalt: 166°F
• brick: 152°F
• concrete: 144°F
• metal: 144°F
• sand: 143°F

 

[Highpi]

My Ford Charge Station Pro has an environmental conditions specification of:
Operating Temperature: -40 °C to +45 °C (-40 ºF to +113 ºF) ambient

My ChargePoint Home Flex has an environmental conditions specification of:
Operating Temperature: -30°C to 50°C (-22°F to 122°F) ambient

If you live in a place where the ambient air temperature climbs to more than 110 ºF, and you have the EVSE attached to a surface that sees direct sun or is subject to re-radiation of energy from an absorbing ground material for any length of time in the summer, the EVSE will likely experience temperatures in excess of 50 ºC/122 ºF, which will cause it to overheat and derate or even shut down. If that's the case, you may need to mount it such that it has an air gap from the wall and is shielded from not only direct sun but also indirect sun--a concrete surface could easily re-radiate enough energy to a nearby electronics device to cause it to overheat even when ambient temperatures are lower than 120 ºF.

In Las Vegas, NV, a team of medical researchers trying to quantify weird burns they were seeing in the ERs measured material temperatures in the sun vs in shade. Maximum recorded temperatures for sunlight-exposed materials, when ambient temperature was 120°F and solar irradiation 940 W/m2:

• porous rock: 170°F
• asphalt: 166°F
• brick: 152°F
• concrete: 144°F
• metal: 144°F
• sand: 143°F

Good to know, thanks!

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