Cold Weather Parking: How Much Battery Loss Can You Expect?

Using a Small Generator and L1 Power + in Cabin Heat

Vincent · 2025-01-10T19:33:15+00:00

A friend needed to support his son who would be running a 'very cold' marathon on Sunday while rucking a 30 pound pack. The outside temps will be around 15F-20F the whole time. The location of the race is nowhere close to any L2 chargers, but he's not worried about driving distance to or from the race - it is 50 miles away from his house. He says he will be sitting in his ruck with his laptop and watching his live track+Garmin inReach data for the duration of the race (about 4 hours). He thought about taking his Honda EB2800i gasoline powered generator, if he can use the level 1 EVSE attached to the generator and keep the truck running with full heat + power - without really consuming much of the truck's main battery? He feels it's super dorky to have a gas generator running while attached to a Rivian in the woods, just so he can stay warm, but don't know if it would work ok this way and 'preserve' the main battery so he doesn't need to worry about driving range when we wants to head home. He talked to me about it and I told him the simple answer is NO. I tested this theory the other night when I was plugged into a 5.9kW charger. To maintain the interior amenities (interior and exterior lights, radio, heater, seat heaters), it took almost all of the charge. I charged for 15 minutes, it delivered 1.6kW, and the truck consumed 1.4kW, delivering only 0.2kW to the truck battery. Told him he would be using a laptop at another 200ish watts. The little trickle charger charges at 1.4kW on a good day, 1.2kW is normal for me. You can slow the bleed, but you cant stop it. My advise to him was for him to charge it up to 100% at home, and roll the dice is what I would do.

Vincent

Member

Friday at 5:29 PM

I was kind of debating driving to Steamboat Colorado for our annual guys ski week in January. Probably won't do it this season because I already have a super cheap flight booked into Hayden and at present charging would cost me several hundred dollars more to drive it from FL. But it got me thinking about cold weather performance.

If I drove it I would not have access to a charger at the condo so it would be parked outdoors without a plug for 6 days in possibly extremely frigid temperatures. Do any of you have experience with frigid outdoor parking battery loss? Last January I parked in Southern California and lost about 6% over 5 days in very mild temps 50-60s.

I am assuming battery losses would be a little more extreme in the teens and twenties. Would appreciate it if anyone has had this kind of experience before and can brief me about it. Thanks

Cold Weather Parking: How Much Battery Loss Can You Expect?

Vincent

Member

Recent

Using a Small Generator and L1 Power + in Cabin Heat

For Sale: 2024 RIVIAN R1T Performance DUAL MOTOR-AWD MAX PACK, $75,900 With 10,355 miles

Knocking Noise From Right/Rear of my Rivian Cabin

Getting a RinseKit for Rivian R1T

Important Tip for Rivian Owners Using Tesla Chargers

Android App Update: New Features Added

Cold Weather Parking: How Much Battery Loss Can You Expect?

The Importance of Proper Jacking: A Rivian Owners Cautionary Tale

Rivian R1S Wheel Spin Issue: One of the Tires Spin Slower Than the Others

Cold Battery Charging Experience: Helpful Tip From a Rivian Owner

Helpful Solution to Rivian Cabin Noise From Outside Windows

Water Leak in the Utility Panel Area: A Concern for Rivian R1T Owners

Similar threads