Long Term Battery Costs, Fears, and Serviceability

[gottagofast]

I need to unplug the car every time there’s a thunder storm?

I don’t want to get up at 3 in the morning and go out in the rain if I hear thunder to unplug the car lol

 

[Bouba]

I need to unplug the car every time there’s a thunder storm?

I don’t want to get up at 3 in the morning and go out in the rain if I hear thunder to unplug the car lol

Do you not have a fuse board inside your house that you can cut the power to the external plug sockets ?

 

[AAKEE]

I need to unplug the car every time there’s a thunder storm?

I don’t want to get up at 3 in the morning and go out in the rain if I hear thunder to unplug the car lol

You do not need to, but a direct hit to the house or close nearby might cause damage…

 

[KenBlub]

I know absolutely why I’m writing about it.

I had learned the basics about lithium batteries long time before I got my first Tesla. (Due to use of these batteries in a hobby).
While I started to read forums (like TMC and local forums) I found a big discrepancy between what I had learned earlier by reading research and what the forums said.
After starting reading research once more (a lot) I could safely say that the things said in forums was not true.

So I decided to try to share this knowledge, so people at least would not think they reduced degradation when they actually made the opposite.

So my goal is that people make their choices bases on facts instead of myths (regardless of the charging level they choose).

In this forum I think the knowledge is good. Enough people knows, to counter the myths.

Facebook groups is very hard. Everyone is 100% convinced they know, but it is mostly the myths they spread.
Trying to correct people’s statements is apparently like mentally stabbing a knife in their heart as “everybody knows”….

You think Facebook is bad. You should take a peek at some Reddit EV forums. . The things people "know" are amazing

 

[cwerdna]

I need to unplug the car every time there’s a thunder storm?

I don’t want to get up at 3 in the morning and go out in the rain if I hear thunder to unplug the car lol

No, but you can look at these incidents:
Lightning strike while charging a Tesla? (per So, my car was hit by lightning at the Grove City, OH supercharger..., out of service for 1.5 months)

should I unplug during lightning storm?

Our house got hit by multiple lightnings a few weeks ago. One strike hit the transformer at the bottom of our driveway, a second seems to have come in through the door bell wires. A lot of stuff was destroyed, amongst it furnace, AC and garage door opener. Our Model S was plugged in using a...

teslamotorsclub.com

HELP! Direct Hit with a Lighning Strike Today While Charging

My house received a direct lightning strike today while Leaf was actively charging. :shock: PLUGZIN was charging level II from an aeronvironment charger. The strike blew out lots of things in the house, tripped every GFI breaker I had, and blew out some surge strips. I just discovered, by...

mynissanleaf.com

Lightning Strike saga

I've been encouraged to post the details of a direct lighting strike to the 240V SP feed to my garage (and house) while my 7 month old SL Leaf was plugged in to my EVSE 16A adapter. This occurred on the morning of January 29th at 5:00 am during an extremely rare mid winter thunderstorm here in...

mynissanleaf.com

 

[gottagofast]

No, but you can look at these incidents:
Lightning strike while charging a Tesla? (per So, my car was hit by lightning at the Grove City, OH supercharger..., out of service for 1.5 months)

should I unplug during lightning storm?

Our house got hit by multiple lightnings a few weeks ago. One strike hit the transformer at the bottom of our driveway, a second seems to have come in through the door bell wires. A lot of stuff was destroyed, amongst it furnace, AC and garage door opener. Our Model S was plugged in using a...

teslamotorsclub.com

HELP! Direct Hit with a Lighning Strike Today While Charging

My house received a direct lightning strike today while Leaf was actively charging. :shock: PLUGZIN was charging level II from an aeronvironment charger. The strike blew out lots of things in the house, tripped every GFI breaker I had, and blew out some surge strips. I just discovered, by...

mynissanleaf.com

Lightning Strike saga

I've been encouraged to post the details of a direct lighting strike to the 240V SP feed to my garage (and house) while my 7 month old SL Leaf was plugged in to my EVSE 16A adapter. This occurred on the morning of January 29th at 5:00 am during an extremely rare mid winter thunderstorm here in...

mynissanleaf.com

I thought the car itself and the wall connector had built in surge protection

 

[AAKEE]

I thought the car itself and the wall connector had built in surge protection

Thunderstorms lightnings are to high voltage/energy to easy contain. Its not really possible to make it lightning safe.

 

[gottagofast]

Thunderstorms lightnings are to high voltage/energy to easy contain. It’s not really possible to make it lightning safe.

Problem is charging the car in the middle of the night, storm could come up while I’m sleeping and even if it wakes me up I’m not going to walk outside in rain and lighting to unplug the car

I’ve slept through many storms though that didn’t wake me so I wouldn’t even know in some cases

 

[Sweed269]

In that edge case don't plug in "your" car. I tend not to plug in when it's raining unless I need to.

 

[Earl]

Thunderstorms lightnings are to high voltage/energy to easy contain. Its not really possible to make it lightning safe.

Remember there was enough voltage to jump from the clouds to the ground. Nothing will block it. The only hope is to route it somewhere else and hope not too much spills into sensitive things that are plugged in.

Problem is charging the car in the middle of the night, storm could come up while I’m sleeping and even if it wakes me up I’m not going to walk outside in rain and lighting to unplug the car

I’ve slept through many storms though that didn’t wake me so I wouldn’t even know in some cases

If you haven't had appliances destroyed already at your home, your power company probably has you protected and you probably aren't too vulnerable. I know plenty of folks in lightning territory who've left their EVs plugged in for over a decade without any problems.
However, if you happen to know lightning is expected before you go to sleep, and you don't need the charge, you could unplug if it will make you sleep better.

 

[gottagofast]

Remember there was enough voltage to jump from the clouds to the ground. Nothing will block it. The only hope is to route it somewhere else and hope not too much spills into sensitive things that are plugged in.

If you haven't had appliances destroyed already at your home, your power company probably has you protected and you probably aren't too vulnerable. I know plenty of folks in lightning territory who've left their EVs plugged in for over a decade without any problems.
However, if you happen to know lightning is expected before you go to sleep, and you don't need the charge, you could unplug if it will make you sleep better.

This is a new house so haven’t really had chance to see if appliances are well protected

 

[Earl]

This is a new house so haven’t really had chance to see if appliances are well protected

Then I wouldn't worry about it unless you hear there really is a problem in your area. You might ask at the local hardware store if they know of a lot of damaged caused by lightning.
Most power companies are fairly good at protecting from lightning these days, unlike days of old when I used to hear about miles of phone and power lines that would just vaporize from lightning with poor protection.

 

[gottagofast]

I’m surprised this screen can handle the heat it gets, when I park in direct sunlight I’m pretty sure the surface of this screen feels like 200 degrees to me

 

[AAKEE]

Problem is charging the car in the middle of the night, storm could come up while I’m sleeping and even if it wakes me up I’m not going to walk outside in rain and lighting to unplug the car

I’ve slept through many storms though that didn’t wake me so I wouldn’t even know in some cases

I think the discussion went slightly off track

When I leave the car for (long) periods, I do not have it connected. This as I like to have the SOC low at these times.
Also, if it is the thunderstorm season, this also is a reason for me to not leave it connected.

I connect it every time I arrive at home in the normal case. If I would hear nearby thunderstorms at night, I would probably go and disconnect the car. This, as there is no guarantee that for example the on board charger can take a hit. Energy from a lightning strike can travel quite a distance via the power lines/electrical net so you do not need to have a direct hit in your house to get problems.

Everyone will be able to make its own sound decision about this. The car charging system definitively will get damaged from a direct hit if connected, and most probably will get damaged from a nearby hit.

The residential areas around my house had some kind of lightning hit a couple of hundred meter from my house two year back. All robot lawnmowers I know of (except mine that was taken inside the garage not connected) died in several hundred meters of radius. Many TV died, and my neighbour got everything electrical except one appleTV burned dead. He hade a cable TV connection coming in to the house via the house plot. That cable was burned off and torned away from the house plot.

Imagine that the force that almost get anything to literally explode entering the car via the wall charger and the charing cable into the charging plug.

 

[gottagofast]

Does the car use extra energy to cool the battery when it’s hot outside the same way it uses more energy to warm the battery when it’s cold?

I’ve been taking a much larger range hit on 90+ degree days than I did when it was cold, my energy graph is showing like 800+ wh/mile for the first 3 miles when it was 90 degrees out today

I normally use 24% battery for my full commute, today I used 29% with temp at 90 degrees

 

[Bouba]

Does the car use extra energy to cool the battery when it’s hot outside the same way it uses more energy to warm the battery when it’s cold?

I’ve been taking a much larger range hit on 90+ degree days than I did when it was cold, my energy graph is showing like 800+ wh/mile for the first 3 miles when it was 90 degrees out today

I normally use 24% battery for my full commute, today I used 29% with temp at 90 degrees

My automatic cabin overheating protection has never ever worked

 

[gottagofast]

If someone’s AC stops working does that mean the car has no way to cool the battery in the summer time or does it do other things to cool the battery when there’s no AC

 

[Earl]

If someone’s AC stops working does that mean the car has no way to cool the battery in the summer time or does it do other things to cool the battery when there’s no AC

The car has its own AC that cools the battery in summer and warms it in winter.

 

[gottagofast]

The car has its own AC that cools the battery in summer and warms it in winter.

How do you know if the batteries ac stops working then? I thought it would use the same heat pump as the cabin ac

 

[AAKEE]

If someone’s AC stops working does that mean the car has no way to cool the battery in the summer time or does it do other things to cool the battery when there’s no AC

Cars without heatpump did cool the battery by wenting the heat out to ambient air. Cooling mostly only needed after supercharging.
Cars with heatpump probably can cool the battery otherwise, without the heat pump by leading the cooling/heating liquid to the right place.

Cooling of the battery never happens otherwise in sweden, and rarely in other places as well.

Heating of the battery can be done by the motors, and is always done so with the cars before the heatpump, and cars with heatpump does it lika that at least in cold WX.