Am I crazy - L1 at home is adequate?

[wilmerfjohnson]

Hi - 2ish weeks into my beloved 2023 XLT, and I'm finding that L1 charging at home is perfectly adequate. When I am roaming my usual places that have I L2 or L3 I charge by opportunity, then plug in at L1 at home. Am I hurting my Lightning by charging it up to 100% at L1?

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[BennyTheBeaver]

Hi - 2ish weeks into my beloved 2023 XLT, and I'm finding that L1 charging at home is perfectly adequate. When I am roaming my usual places that have I L2 or L3 I charge by opportunity, then plug in at L1 at home. Am I hurting my Lightning by charging it up to 100% at L1?

Yes, not because it's L1 though. 90% charge is recommended by Ford.

 

[seanocono]

You are crazy.

 

[MTBAZ]

Have had my ER since Aug and only have L1 at home and have had no issues. I drive 5 to 15 miles per weekday and 1-3 longer trips (up to 50 mile) on weekends. I charge to 90% and Truck is charging almost constantly. Takes 3 to 5 days to recover from weekend driving but I have plenty of range for any emergency so I'm not worried. If needed I hit an L3 charger to reduce anxiety.

The lightning is my second EV. It replaced a 60mile range EV with L1 charging. Going from 60 miles to 270 miles (what I typically see when charging stops) helped eliminate any range anxiety for a typical week with the Lighting.

 

[RickLightning]

L1 cannot precondition the battery in cold weather. L1 will charge during peak rates even if you don't want it to.

 

[Maquis]

I think you’re fine. The biggest factor about charging to 100% is to not let it sit at full charge for days. If you know you’re not going to be driving for a couple days, stop at 90%.

 

[adoublee]

It's less energy efficient - more waste heat created when charging at 120V.

 

[jimfigler]

Hi - 2ish weeks into my beloved 2023 XLT, and I'm finding that L1 charging at home is perfectly adequate. When I am roaming my usual places that have I L2 or L3 I charge by opportunity, then plug in at L1 at home. Am I hurting my Lightning by charging it up to 100% at L1?

100% is not really 100%. I was at 94% and with OBD2 adapter with carscanner app it listed 85% as true state of charge and 94% as “displayed” state of charge.

 

[sotek2345]

The only issue you may hit is it not being able to charge at all on very cold days since all of the power will be going to maintaining the battery temp.

Besides that - if it works for you go for it.

 

[cvalue13]

I’m 6 months in, and L1 charging only so far.

Admit I wasn’t aware of these claims that L1 can’t accomplish pre-conditioning - is that correct? I thought only that it couldn’t simultaneously pre-condition AND provide charge. Which is it? Incapable of preconditioning, or incapable of doing both at once?

Otherwise, I simply haven’t had time to find a competent electrician to do the work I want wrt installing the charger and generator port.

 

[cvalue13]

L1 cannot precondition the battery in cold weather.

Are you certain that it can’t precondition, or instead that it can’t both precondition and provide any charge over and above the preconditioning?

L1 will charge during peak rates even if you don't want it to.

Some utilities, like mine, have no “peak”/time-variable rates.

 

[Maquis]

Preconditioning requires 5-6 KW. L1 can only provide 1.4 KW. Rough numbers.

 

[RickLightning]

And that's before loss - a 15% loss from wall to truck means that 1.4 is really 1.2, at best.

 

[JonS]

Preconditioning requires 5-6 KW. L1 can only provide 1.4 KW. Rough numbers.

Would you mind me asking where you came up with this? I've tried to find some more detail on this fact online and can't find anything.

Thanks!

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