Be Prepared - It’s gonna get cold

[Tony Burgh]

My local electricity provider sent out a PSA to be prepared for extreme cold and potential power outages over the next couple days.

Tonight I will raise my charge target to 90% and have the 30 amp cord connecting the Lightning to the house attached.

All I’ll have to do is go outside to start the truck and set up pro power then set interlock and throw two circuit breakers.

Here’s hoping that Duquesne Light has their act together and I can stay inside.

Stay warm fellas

Sponsored

 

[TaxmanHog]

I'm planning to do my weekly charging tonight to get the SOC back up to 90%.

Hopefully won't need it for emergency power, but I'll be prepared, also have replacement EcoFlow Pro power station back from warranty replacement, glad I have that on standby as well.

 

[bananaslug79]

This is always one of those things that I wonder about when EV owners bandy about with battery health...if I use my truck for emergency power, why wouldn't I always want to charge 100% just in case? Genuinely curious

 

[TaxmanHog]

This is always one of those things that I wonder about when EV owners bandy about with battery health...if I use my truck for emergency power, why wouldn't I always want to charge 100% just in case? Genuinely curious

If a Nor'easter was coming I would bump it to 100%, tonights snow won't have severe winds, less likely to have a power outages, but an occasional 100% held for 24 to 48 hours isn't a problem either, if I did that and assuming not needing emergency power, I'll drive it down to my regular 90% top rate in a couple of days.

 

[Grumpy2]

If a Nor'easter was coming I would bump it to 100%, tonights snow won't have severe winds, less likely to have a power outages, but an occasional 100% held for 24 to 48 hours isn't a problem either, if I did that and assuming not needing emergency power, I'll drive it down to my regular 90% top rate in a couple of days.

This surely was considered when the 8 year warranty was determined? The battery is degrading over time regardless, will this increase it? probably. But the truck is a tool, and powering your essential items during a storm is a positive use of this tool.

 

[Firn]

This is always one of those things that I wonder about when EV owners bandy about with battery health...if I use my truck for emergency power, why wouldn't I always want to charge 100% just in case? Genuinely curious

Because most of us always have SOME charge, so in general we are already covered for the purely random power outage.

In general though we already have a sense of what may cause an outage, and what may not. As a result you have a sense of an outage being exceedingly unlikely, or just a "probably not".

We also can balance between the need for 90% of the battery capacity, and 100%. Realizing that an outage itself is unlikely, but then needing that extra 13kwh on top of the 118 we already have is exceedingly unlikely (or recognize that regardless a charge will be needed in there somewhere anyways).

Assuming a home uses 20kwh a day, just for arguments sake. That means an ER lightnings will run it for six and a half days. It's highly unlikely you would need it for 7 days, but not seven and a half (how far that extra 10% will go).

In the end most of us can balance multiple things and don't just get focused on one single thing only.

 

[Firn]

This surely was considered when the 8 year warranty was determined? The battery is degrading over time regardless, will this increase it? probably. But the truck is a tool, and powering your essential items during a storm is a positive use of this tool.

And it will, and it will do that just as well at 90% as it will at 100%. As I said above, the differenc between 90% and 100% is miniscule, it doesn't affect how it works, it only provides it for a very small period longer.

 

[EVpower]

I had a 10.5-hour outage this week for a utility maintenance window. The Lightning PPOB worked beautifully for home power back-up. I had charged to my usual 80% prior to the outage. Our home used about 7 kWH from the truck during the outage. This was on a home with propane heat and 400-amp electric service.

I hope everyone can stay warm this coming week.

Steve

 

[Tony Burgh]

I’ll charge high because I don’t want to lose the warm water in the hot tub.
Battery life? Hot tub? Priorities.

Sponsored