Battery heating question - Cold Weather

[tinsley207]

Hello All,
It's been a while since I've posted but I have a question about best cold weather practices. I have a 2016 Kia Soul EV has that lived most of it's life in my garage but now needs to spend more time outside in my driveway. I live in Maine and the temps can get pretty cold here. This morning it was 2 degrees F when I got up. Here's my question. On a cold night like this, does it make sense to charge the vehicle with a level 1 charger over a longer period or with a level 2 charger closer to the morning hours? I was thinking the level 1 would sort of "trickle" charge the car and activate the battery heater. Is that right? Or does it make more sense to just use the level 2 charger which theoretically add's more voltage and therefore more "heat" to the battery just through charging. I guess what I'm driving at is, is it ok for the battery to get very cold overnight before it charges with level2? I can also confirm that my SOH is 90.5% according to EV SPY and I just hit 80k miles in the car. Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[JejuSoul]

I do not have a battery heater in my car so I cannot give you a good answer on charging techniques in cold weather. But a couple of things to consider.
Trickle charging is much less efficient than level 2. see Onboard charger : less efficience at low power ?
Trickle charging may not provide enough power to run the battery heater.
Trickle charging does not provide enough power to run the climate heater to warm the car before you get in it.
Over the long-term trickle charging may increase longevity ( But depending on driving style, climate, etc as well.)

My reality is to level2 charge so that the car is warm in the morning. Caveat no battery heater and not a cold climate.
-----------Daily High and Low Temperature for Jeju,South Korea. (pre-Global-Warming)

 

[KaZe Zoli]

Az esetek 95%-ában az otthoni (1. számú) push-ot használom. Hideg időben lekapcsolom a reggeli futást, mert addig nem vesz igénybe sok energiát, amíg fut. Ez az akkumulátort is felmelegíti! Kevesebb energiára van szükség a továbbhaladáshoz az úton, és az akkumulátor hatékonysága is jobb. én használom.

 

[JejuSoul]

There are details on how much power HVAC draws while charging here. :- Pre heating the Cabin

Scheduled heating of the cabin at 0°C.

Conclusion = Need a 3,1 kW EVSE setting if you don't want loose the battery charged over night at 100% when you pre-heat the cabin.

3,1 kW = 1,1kW EVSE + 2kW Average consumption on RED line.

 

[Locuturus]

Hello All,
It's been a while since I've posted but I have a question about best cold weather practices. I have a 2016 Kia Soul EV has that lived most of it's life in my garage but now needs to spend more time outside in my driveway. I live in Maine and the temps can get pretty cold here. This morning it was 2 degrees F when I got up. Here's my question. On a cold night like this, does it make sense to charge the vehicle with a level 1 charger over a longer period or with a level 2 charger closer to the morning hours? I was thinking the level 1 would sort of "trickle" charge the car and activate the battery heater. Is that right? Or does it make more sense to just use the level 2 charger which theoretically add's more voltage and therefore more "heat" to the battery just through charging. I guess what I'm driving at is, is it ok for the battery to get very cold overnight before it charges with level2? I can also confirm that my SOH is 90.5% according to EV SPY and I just hit 80k miles in the car. Thanks in advance for your input.

I just moved to Saskatoon with mine, and it being -20C out here, you pretty much need level 2 outside to maintain anything - you'll also slow charge, but you will charge. I can try to get you some data on charging from the logs in Car Scanner....car is full at the moment, but i'll log one and post here so we can take a look and see what to do. I've seen Bolts and even Soul EVs here from time to time (even with the $150 EV Road tax they have here T_T), not to mention the usual Teslas/etc.

The car does some heating on its own (when i've left it at a dog park, etc). I haven't tried plugging into a block heater outlet at malls and the like, but will find out - my Grizzl-e mini is still too big to be lugging around, but i'll be getting my OEM EVSE back so I'll be able to get some data soon....

 

[IanL]

Post deleted

 

[Locuturus]

@JejuSoul we know that the battery heater (at least the ones that have them, e.g. in Canada and the northern latitude countries) is good to keep the batteries as close to above 0C as much as possible. However, when it's significantly below 0C (e.g. -20 or lower), I actually want the battery warmer than that, closer to 20C, so I get the most range out of it, and any extra heat from driving/DC charging would result in less need to heat the cabin and therefore eat range.

Is it possible to add a silicone/graphite heating pad to the underside of the battery pack (the outside)? My theory is to route the AC plug so that it's coming through the engine bay (i.e. coming out the bottom of the bay), similar to how ICE cars in North America have block heater plugs coming out of the front. That way, we can use standard block heater outlets (they have them in many places out at malls, shopping centres, apartment buildings, etc).

One thing though is if one were to be looking to charge as well, then you'd end up with 2 plugs going to your car, one to keep it relatively warm in sub -20C temps. For safety, would probably use a thermal cut off switch (thermal fuse?), or use a thermostat, and set it to 20C.

no idea for cooling in the heat, but at least in the case where it's extreme winter, the car should be OK?