Charging when it's hot outside

It will slow down the charge rate if the battery gets too warm. If it's in an enclosed garage and you use the A/C, you're working that A/C pretty hard.

I don't know of any published temperature limits for charging. AFAIK, it just gets slower with rising temps. Hottest I've charged my PiP in at is about 95F. I didn't notice a slowdown even with an L2 EVSE.

 

You may want to set the car charger to 8A max and see if that helps. Takes longer but not an issue if you charge with a 6am ready time.

 

Yea, it may be 115, but it's a dry heat.

 

try using the charge timer, so it starts charging as long as possible after you have driven it.

i would look up what the blinking brick lights mean in the o/m.

 

I'm doing a study of hot weather charging and have some questions:

• How are you measuring the time?
• Do you have any temperature metrics beside 'hot' and 'cooler'?
• Were all metrics taken with the car limiting charging to 8A?

I am using two sources:

• JuiceBox 40 Pro - records the power and time of each charge session. I can vary the charging current by one amp increments.
• Local to neighborhood temperature: Chaffee Area Weather | Personal Weather Station: KALHUNTS150 by Wunderground.com | Weather Underground

In the current phase, the car sits on the driveway with charging starting at 3-4AM. This allows the car to cold soak in 70-80F (21-26C). I'm looking to find a baseline charge at the maximum the car allows.

One challenge is finding some way to automatically record air conditioner operation. I'll look for a fuse.

Bob Wilson

 

Wow, 10 hours to charge. I guess the heat does take a toll on how long it takes to charge a dead battery. Mine is taking just over 6 hours in the garage at 3:00am, approx 80 degrees.

 

The included charger brick has a temperature senor in the plug that plugs into the wall, and it will slow down or stop if that part gets too hot. I can't remember if they list a cutoff temperature for that.

I've only seen mine use the AC twice while charging, but it's only been up to about 95 here. It asks about half the time I shut the car off, but the times I've seen it run is usually when I just used all the EV range in one trip, so the battery is warm internally. One trip was up a hill for 10 miles then back down. If you've been driving moderately with the AC on, the battery won't be that warm when you park. Of course it will warm up as it charges and as the car sits in the heat.

The AC probably uses around 1KW depending on how hard it's working, so if you're charging on 120V that doesn't leave much power left to charge the battery while its running. So of course it will take longer.