Home charging and preheat battery when its cold

JimmyTwotimes · Jan 3, 2025

I've tried to make sense of some of the preheat threads on here but i'm not sure the question I have is answered, so here goes....

When scheduling an overnight charge for my car (MG4 Trophy Long Range, Octopus Intelligent Go and Zappi charger) at home and when the weather is cold (lets say for the sake of argument below 5c) should I:

schedule a preheating of the battery (using the app)?
if so, how long should I set the preheat for, so that it has had time to heat the battery before charging starts?
will the preheating automatically turn itself off once the home Zappi charger kicks in and starts to charge the car?
if none of the above applies, is there an ambient temperature when it would apply i.e how cold does it need to be to bother preheating a battery before an overnight home charge?

Any help appreciated.
Thanks.

Diggsy · Jan 3, 2025

My understanding of heating the battery for charging is it’s only really necessary for rapid charging. For home charging there isn’t the same benefit.

JimmyTwotimes · Jan 3, 2025

Ok that's good to know. Assumed that a preheat may help protect the health/longevity of the battery when trying to charge it, even during a home charge, when it's cold.

siteguru · Jan 3, 2025

If it's really cold then scheduling battery heating whilst you're AC charging means the battery is warm when you're ready to set off in the morning. This should help improve drive efficiency (without impacting range as any charge needed for the heating should be replaced from the mains), as the battery delivers energy better when it is warm vs when it is cold.

JimmyTwotimes · Jan 3, 2025

Thanks for that Siteguru. My main concern was charging the battery, overnight, whilst on my home charger and potentially damaging it by not allowing it to warm before the charging session started. But sounds like that isnt necessary and i can safely charge overnight without the need for a preheat even when the ambient temperature is bitterly cold (as it is right now here in the UK!)

siteguru · Jan 3, 2025

AC charging is not fast enough for battery temperature to be a factor. (Except for severely low temperatures - like -25°C or so).

Home charging and preheat battery when its cold

JimmyTwotimes

Standard Member

Diggsy

Prominent Member

JimmyTwotimes

Standard Member

siteguru

Distinguished Member

JimmyTwotimes

Standard Member

siteguru

Distinguished Member

Similar threads

Are you enjoying your MG4?

Yes

I'm in the middle

No

Latest MG EVs video