Winter & Battery, for Canadian buyers.. read this!

[Daragh]

We don’t get truly extreme temps where I live in NC but I keep my truck plugged in to my level 2 charger all the time during the winter. My truck lives outside year round. We’re in a cold snap here right now (for here) temps are in upper teens to low twenties at night but so far truck hasn’t pulled energy other than when on timed preconditioning or charging. So just because the truck is plugged in doesn’t mean it’s continuously pulling a lot of battery maintenance energy or at least not in the upper teens and above levels.

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[Ragman]

We manage just fine and continue to increase our fleet of Lightnings. It doesn’t get much worse cold wise than central Canada.

All the trucks sit outside, one has a dedicated 9kw, two split a Duo at 4.5KW each, ones on a 120. Coming from a world of Diesels my rule is we plug everything in under 32F/0C so the Lightnings are no big deal.

Departure is set for start time for each shift, or leaving for work. At work use your 120 with same idea as conventional block heater. The truck on 120 last night charged 11kw in 8 hours at -25 so yes they charge on 120 in cold.

At -30 with a -44 windchill your range will suck, last night I did 120 miles on 70% (90-20) charge with the ER Lariat. 20 minutes at Tesla DC it warmed battery and good for another 120.

In Canada in particular - home of the $6/gallon fuel and $.10/kw hydro - any extra hydro you use keeping battery warm is still peanuts compared to gas trucks.

 

[TaxmanHog]

My truck was still showing 100% available power to the motors as of last evening, the heat created during the prior nights Sunday evening charging session was still useful to pack health.

Then Monday evening into Tuesday the temp's plummeted, and likely just enough heat was lost to trigger the BMS to call for a quick round of warming.

Since unplugging and starting our daily rounds, the warning to plug in when placed in park has not shown yet and might not until the pack temperature drops low enough, at this moment it is 22 outside.

Adding more information about the remote start energy used this morning:
4.5 kWh of additional energy sent to the PTC and slight charging to the HVB for 16 minutes

 

[Grumpy2]

The truck on 120 last night charged 11kw in 8 hours at -25 so yes they charge on 120 in cold.

Thanks for that informative post.

With the 120v connection at -25 C, the 11 kW you observed, was that measured on consumption of power used from the grid, or power received by the truck?

 

[Ragman]

Thanks for that informative post.

With the 120v connection at -25 C, the 11 kW you observed, was that measured on consumption of power used from the grid, or power received by the truck?

FordPass details so looks like net into battery? Not sure if that’s pre or post losses.

 

[Grumpy2]

Thanks for the feedback. Assuming this was a ER truck, the SOC increased 9% (11 kWh) in 9 hours on 120volts at -25C (-13F).

Do you have any idea how much power that truck consumed? I am surprised with this result.

If it was a 20 amp circuit at 120 volts, it would be about 2.4 kw/hour, so 8 hours about 19 kWh in theory.
Some of that losses, some into heating the battery? Either way, IF my math is right, for those posters who only have 120v to charge in cold weather (-13F), this should be very encouraging.

Was this with the Ford mobile charger?

What am I doing wrong??

 

[TaxmanHog]

FordPass details so looks like net into battery? Not sure if that’s pre or post losses.

With AC charging you are seeing the net energy deposited to the HVB, these numbers are in line with an ER pack {131 x 0.08 = 10.48 or as rounded up by Fordpass to 11 kWh}

I've seen AC/DC conversion losses at a minimum of 9% to as high as 25% in the winter depending on the temperature state of the battery, so gross input from the EVSE could range from 12kWK to 15 kWh.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I just plugged in my truck after the days travels being done, it sat out in the cold morning through afternoon, we made a couple of afternoon stops, no additional charging or plug in during the middle of the day. The motor energy was starting to be limited to 95% at 80% SOC, after the the travels were done it was 95% at 77% SOC.

Upon plugging in, the BMS immediately demanded current from the FCSP, I heard the circulator pump start, and it continued for 11 minutes, pulling 1.63 kWh to touch up the battery temperature.

NOTE: this is only conditioning energy, the charger limit is set for 50% to suppress charging until the end of the week, I want to get a firm idea of what the daily / weekly energy demand is to keep the battery at optimum performance.