Prepping Rivian/EV for Major Winter Storm

[riccardo bronzini]

Why is it bad to keep the battery charged at 100%, plugged in?

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[beatle]

Lithium batteries like the ones in the truck will degrade more rapidly if kept at their max charge (voltage) for extended periods of time (>1 day).

It's not a problem for you to charge to 100% and drive the truck shortly thereafter, you just don't want to charge it and let it sit.

 

[hammick]

As long as you're not running the heater, the answer is ... a pretty long time.

Assuming you keep the home-vampires at bay (300W max for the house when everything is "off"), lights + modern TV + stereo + occasional appliances, and 80kWh will last you many days. Likely a week - more if you're diligent about turning things off. No AC or electric heating.

This of course assumes you have V2G that can properly push current. Otherwise, the on-board inverter is 1500W, and probably only moderately efficient, so you can do the math from there.

BTW charging to high SOC and letting it sit is very different in cold vs. hot. Would never do it when temps are >80degrees F. Not nearly as big a deal at 25 degrees.

residential gas heaters run on a 15 amp circuit so you can probably get enough heat to keep the pipes from freezing. You will need to rig up a plug for the heater as they are always hardwired.

 

[tfarber]

it’s not about square feet. It’s about the loads. Three of these EG4 batteries will power our 5k square foot house from 6am to midnight even in the summer with judicious use of our 5 ton AC. We cold soak the house at 63 degrees from midnight to 6am for .03 per kw. With a Rivian, you’re really only gonna be running your refrigerators, some lights laptops, etc.

Our heat is natural gas BTW


https://signaturesolar.com/eg4-wall...indoor-heated-ul1973-ul9540a-10-year-warranty

We had a power outage for three days and we don't have a whole house generator. Using extension cords, we were able to plug in our refrigs, freezer, and some lights into the Rivian. We saved the food, and while it was a minor inconvenience, not too bad. And only used 25 miles of charge from the Rivian.

 

[Mathme]

For windshield wiper fluid, you can always add some isopropyl alcohol to it to bring down the freeze temps. There's formulas online for how much to add to water to get to a certain temp. Also, make sure to run the wiper cleaners to get some of that extra protection throughout the system.

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