Powering a Space Heater from your Wall Charger

Rivian Blue · 2025-04-01T08:59:34+00:00

Ever since I got my R1S, I've noticed that the battery range estimation hasn't been the best. Driving a Tesla for the last 3 years, it never had this kind of issue. During my last trip, the driver display shows 255mi remaining. My total trip (including 2 destinations) is 160mi so I believed I should be able to make it easily with a nice cushion. But the center display showed that I would arrive at first destination with 4mi remaining, and run out before the second destination! I knew this was false so I made the drive anyway, and arrived at second destination with 50mi remaining. If I understand correctly, the driver display range is simply the total rated range multiplied by SOC. That makes sense here, since my vehicle is rated for 370mi, 255mi is 68.9%. Coming from Tesla, I expect the number shown in the center display should account for factors like elevation, wind, traffic speed, etc. It's sad that my own mental estimation is better than Rivian's.

Vincent

Active Wheeler

Mar 5, 2025

I found this video online about a fun science/engineering project, but not very practical, as he implies. He at least points out the pitfalls/gotchas, especially the startup/shutdown connected full load concerns. That was my first thought before I even watched the video - this is going to burn contacts in the J1772 plug and charger relays if not managed correctly.

I felt like if he really wanted to get geek about it, he could build and program a simple microprocessor board to emulate the vehicle and negotiate the load, just like the vehicle does. The standard is well documented. Overall, it's still an educational video I'd recommend for any R1T owner.